Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Tale of Ambition and Survival... by Peter Stark (400 pgs., CD)

Astoria has been compared to Lost City of Z and Skeleton in the Zahara. This is the harrowing tale of the 1810 Astor Expedition, a three year journey, to establish a trading colony on the Northwest coast. The adventure encompasses the trials of nature, starvation, and madness on both land and sea. I especially enjoyed the navigation of treacherous waters and coastal tribes.

Amazon: Unfolding over the course of three years, from 1810 to 1813, Astoria is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship in the wilderness and at sea. Of the more than one hundred-forty members of the two advance parties that reached the West Coast - one crossing the Rockies, the other rounding Cape Horn - nearly half perished by violence. Others went mad. Within one year, the expedition successfully established Fort Astoria, a trading post on the Columbia river. Though the colony would be short-lived, it opened provincial American eyes to the potential of the Western coast and its founders held blaze the Oregon Trail.

Peter Stark author bio