Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark by William E. Foley, and: William Clark and the Shaping of the West by Landon Y. Jones

Abstract

Landings isa stayagainst forgetting.Itservesas a marker inour culturalbaseline bywhich we may measure the speed and trajectoryof our furious and sweeping transformation of the landscape. Itsproper nouns? all thehaunting names of people and places ? conjure the timeswith remarkable eloquence. Listen to these names from the seven-page listofWillamette steam boat landings appended to theback of thebook: "Gillihan's Landing ... Lover's Lane ... Mock's Landing... Shaver's Dock... The Old O.S.N. Co. Bone Yard ... String Town ... Shank's Landing... Hince's Woodyard" (241-7). Corn ing caught theperiod music that stillresides in those names. In his spirited introduction, Robin Cody placesWillamette Landings in itshistorical con text, noting thatComing's masculinist outlook, his slightingaccounts ofNative Americans, and his scant attention to environmental concerns reflected thedominant views ofComing's day. Cody suggests taking Willamette Landings on a canoe tripdown the Willamette to seefirsthand how our relationship to the riverhas shifted from commerce to recreation and conservation. There couldn't be amore pleasant way to experi ence thebook. ButWillamette Landings isalso a record of how river transportation shaped the development of the invading European culture and how theadvent of therailroads led to whole sale abandonment ofmuch of that riverside infrastructureand culturalways. Another fruitful way to read thebook might be to take italong as one drives the I-5 corridor, thinkingahead to thenext enormous transfor mation in our dominant mode of transporta tion.Proprietors of those nowhere commercial nodes and bedroom communities that relyon the continuous flow of cheap oil may want to consider thefateof the steamboat landing towns of the Willamette. Some prescient poet-scholar might even now be collecting material for a companion volume, Acres ofOutlets: The Lost InterchangeCities ofInterstate5. One criticism: theoversimplifiedmap of the Willamette River in the frontof thebook may perpetuate the illusion that the relativelyfixed, single-stemmed riverof today is the samewild riverthatthe incomingEuropeans encountered. A series ofmaps depicting the engineering of the Willamette, first to accommodate steam boat transportation and later to provide flood control and irrigation, would do better service toComing's text. Wilderness Journey: TheLifeof WilliamClark William E. Foley University ofMissouri Press, Columbia, 2004. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 343 pages. $29.95 cloth. WilliamClarkand the Shapingofthe West Landon Y. Jones Hill and Wang, New York, 2004. Maps, notes, bibliography, index. 394 pages. $25.00 cloth. Reviewed by J.Frederick Fausz University of Missouri-St. Louis After two centuries without a compre hensive biography ofWilliam Clark, two appeared almost simultaneously in 2004 ? written by expertswith strongand long Mis Reviews 319 souri connections. Both of thesebiographies are thoroughly researched,well-written studies that make theirlong-neglected subject come alive for scholars and general readers alike.William E. Foley isa retiredprofessor ofhistory and author of several scholarly works,while Landon Y. Jones is a nationally known author and editor.Given thedifferentbackgrounds and writing stylesof the authors, these two books complement one another and when read together provide the fullestaccounting of a complex man. Although thebicentennial commemoration of theLewis and Clark Expedition inspired the publication of thesebiographies, both Foley and Jonesfocus theirattention on Clark's lifebefore and especially afterhis servicewith theCorps of Discovery. Foleywrites that"important as it was, the Voyage ofDiscovery representsonly a single episode inwhat was forClark a lengthy wilder ness journey" (p.x). Similarly, Jonesargues that "for all itsmythic stature, the expedition was not a self-contained episode. Itwas intimately connected to William Clark's earlier experiences on the culturallyporous borderlands and to the larger agendas of international empire-build ing" that succeeded it (p. 114). Consequently, Jonesdevotes one 33-page chapter to theLewis and Clark Expedition that highlights selected episodes rather than providing a chronological narrative of the whole. Foley covers the expedi tion in amore detailed 110-page synopsis over four chapters. Among dozens of publications about the Corps of Discovery, old and new, no previ ous books so thoroughly document the rest of "Billy" Clark's long life (1770-1838). Both authors provide pertinent new details about his famous family and earlymilitary career prior to theLouisiana Purchase. They agree that his formative years inVirginia and Kentucky had an enduring influence on the young man ? especially the inspiring example of his older brother,George Rogers Clark. Foley's account of thisearly"apprenticeship" iscomprehensive...