Washington Irving’s Astoria chronicles the ambitious early nineteenth-century enterprise of John Jacob Astor to establish a global fur-trading empire at the treacherous mouth of the Columbia River in present-day Oregon. The sweeping narrative maps the grueling overland journey of the Astorians as they navigated the unforgiving topography of the inland Pacific Northwest, struggling through the deep gorges and rapids of the Snake River across what is now southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Simultaneously, the book traces the maritime arm of the expedition, detailing the perilous coastal navigation from the Columbia's notoriously violent sandbar north to the rugged, forested shores of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. By documenting the brutal environmental realities of these coastal inlets and arid interior plateaus, Irving vividly captures the severe geographic challenges that defined the earliest commercial settlement of the Pacific Northwest.

Astoria (Or.), États-Unis (Nord-Ouest) Descriptions et voyages, Fourrures Commerce Oregon (Territoire), Fur trade, Fur trade Oregon Territory, Northwestern States Description and travel, Oregon Astoria, Oregon Territory, Overland journeys to the Pacific, Pacific Fur Company, Travel, United States Northwestern States, United States Oregon Territory