Scenes of Visionary Enchantment: Reflections on Lewis and ClarkSuffering from a case of ?road fever? brought on by prolonged exposure to the journals of Lewis and Clark, Dayton Duncan has retraced the Corps of Discovery?s route from Saint Louis to the Pacific and back again four different times during the past twenty years?to say nothing of his countless additional trips to landmarks along their route. In sweltering summer heat and in temperatures 45 degrees below zero, he watched yellow moons rise and heard buffalo thunder; navigated against the Missouri River?s relentless current and stood on its surface, frozen solid overnight; canoed a dozen times through Montana?s magnificent White Cliffs (Lewis?s ?seens of visionary inchantment?); and read the journals by candlelight in the expedition?s fort on the Pacific coast. Along the way, Duncan wrote the essays that make up this book, essays that guide the reader on a journey of discovery along the trail of Lewis and Clark. More a revisiting than a retelling of the story of the Corps of Discovery, Duncan?s book reintroduces us to people and places along the trail, reflects on events large and small that occurred during the expedition, and offers constant?and constantly entertaining?insights into why, two centuries later, the saga of Lewis and Clark continues to exert such a powerful hold on our national imagination. |
Contents
An Unsatisfied Curiosity I | 1 |
Lewis in Philadelphia | 14 |
Days of Discovery | 26 |
Independence Creek | 35 |
The Alexander Hamilton Willard Expedition | 39 |
Of Hearths and Home | 53 |
This Long Wished for Spot | 63 |
Seens of Visionary Inchantment | 73 |
The Most Hospitable Honest and Sincere People | 106 |
Hallowed Ground | 118 |
Meditations on a Grave | 133 |
The View from the Home Front | 145 |
The Lewis and Clark Guide to Leadership | 160 |
We Proceeded On | 184 |
Trail Advice for the Modern Explorer | 193 |
Note on Sources | 199 |
Meriwether Lewiss Curious Adventure | 84 |
Toilsome Days and Wristless Nights | 93 |
Acknowledgments | 201 |
Other editions - View all
Scenes of Visionary Enchantment: Reflections on Lewis and Clark Dayton Duncan No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
adventure American August Bitterroots boat buffalo Cameahwait camp Camp Fortunate campsite captains Charbonneau Charles Floyd chief Clark expedition Clark trail Clark wrote Clatsop continent Corps of Discovery Creek crossing Discovery's dispatched Drouillard dugout canoes expedition's explorers Falls feet fires Floyd Forks Fort Mandan grizzly Hidatsas horses hundred imagine Indians Jefferson John Ordway Joseph Whitehouse journals journey keelboat killed later Lemhi Pass letter Lewis and Clark Lewis wrote Lewis's Louis Mandan villages Meriwether Lewis miles mind mission Mississippi Missouri River Montana morning mountains mouth nation nearly never Nez Percés night North Dakota Northwest Passage November ocean Pacific party Patrick Gass perhaps Philadelphia plains portage prairie president reach route Sacagawea seemed Sergeant Shoshones Sioux snow spot story told trade traveled tribes trip turned upriver West whiskey White Cliffs Willard William Clark winter words Yellowstone
References to this book
Union 1812: The Americans who Fought the Second War of Independence A. J. Langguth Limited preview - 2006 |