Beyond Lewis and Clark: The Army Explores the West (review)

As Americans prepare for the bicentennial celebrations honoring the 1804-6 Lewis and Clark expedition, books, articles, and film documentaries pour forth with even the most minute details about the original Corps of Discovery and its adventures. Many of these treatments point out that the expedition prepared the way for a larger national presence that was to follow in the nineteenth century. Yet relatively few have chosen to tie those subsequent events to the continental dreams that were first outlined by Thomas Jefferson and then pursued to varying degrees by future American presidents.

To place these events within a larger context of American exploration, David Nicandri and Redmond J. Barnett of the Washington State Historical Society envisioned an exhibition of art, maps, and photographic works to convey the importance of army officers as "scientist-explorers." The exhibit appropriately opened at the Virginia Historical Society in the summer of 2003, and by the time it completes its tour in April 2006, it will have been featured at four other historical museums in states important to the itinerary of the original expedition.

James P. Ronda, who served as the consulting historian for this huge project, brought his incisive knowledge of the Corps of Discovery to the research endeavor. So successful was the final product that experts agreed that the traveling exhibition warranted a companion book aimed at the general reading public who wished to know more about the subject. This book, which carries the same title as the exhibition, accomplishes its goals in every way. It is accurate, balanced, well written, and it connects eighty years of important army reconnaissances into a manageable package for the non-specialist. Appropriately, Ronda credits the path-breaking research of historian William Goetzmann, who previously wrote the definitive trilogy about western exploration, and he dedicates this synthesis to Goetzmann.

Following an introductory section on Lewis and Clark, the book offers individual chapters on Zebulon Pike, Stephen Long, and John C. Frémont. The three chapters that follow are devoted to the Mexican War Era, the creation of an international boundary between Mexico and the United States, and the surveying of possible transcontinental railroad routes. The remaining two chapters summarize the flurry of military and civilian exploration to "fill up the canvas" by examining the vast interior areas of the West that had not yet been systematically studied. These include the ventures of Clarence King, George M. Wheeler, Ferdinand Hayden, John Wesley Powell, and even George Armstrong Custer's 1874 reconnoiter of the Black Hills that helped precipitate the Great Sioux War.

In his interpretations of these explorations, Ronda emphasizes the scientific and artistic accomplishments of the officers and the specially chosen civilians who accompanied them. Their extensive artworks, scientific specimens and detailed written reports often surpassed the immediate goals of exploration, and these records provided valuable information to future generations. Where they succeeded in their goals, Ronda praises their efforts; where they failed, he records those mishaps, too.

In addition to the numerous maps and illustrations that are included, a thoughtful bibliographical essay directs audiences to further sources about individual explorations, the nature of nineteenth-century American military life, and the scientific legacy of these expeditions. Barring a full reading of Goetzmann's original works as the definitive word in western exploration, the more casual reader will be well served with the splendid treatment offered by James Ronda.