The Bookshelf

Stereotyped into a great covered-wagon cliche, the early history of the American West often becomes a twisted fantasy of half-truths for a casual student of the pioneer era. American authors have universally glorified the Oregon Trial to the practical exclusion of all else. Multiplying with rabbit like precision, their books are the foundation of a narrow and inaccurate impression of western expansion. The title "pioneer" becomes exclusive property of the settler and the drive for a continent rests on the time-table of a wagon train snaking its way westward. "Across the Wide Missouri" deals in more basic factors; it points out a Rocky Mountain for empire that looted the west long before the first covered wagon became even a dream. Mr. Devote credits an army of trappers as the real trailblazers and in doing so plugs a notorious gap in American historical literature.

Inspired by the discovery of paintings showing the fur trade, "Across the Wide Missouri" follows the climax and downward spiral of a gigantic enterprise. Beaver, a million coats and hats, was the lure. From 1832 to 1838 the industry reached a peak in both volume and competition. John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company pulled all the steps to squash its competitors and they all combined against Britain's Hudson's Bay Company. Willful trapping destroyed the beaver, glutted the market and prices dropped. In a short time Astor was left holding the field and the bag.

While "Across the Wide Missouri" is an excellent survey of a period vastly underrated in popular history, Mr. Devote's greatest contribution lies in his analysis of true pioneers. The mountain men, the visionary merchants doomed to failure, and the Indians were components of a complex society that influenced the formation of a "Continental mind." Hard, cunning, and loose-living, the mountain men develop as a strange breed with a passion to destroy the country they loved. They trapped foolishly with no idea of the future. In their society a man's ability was his only passport to a raw life that revolved around beaver, whiskey, and squaws. The mountain men opened a territory and thereby insured their own extinction. Contrast the trappers with Nat Wyeth, a shrewd New England merchant with big ideas. 'On paper Wyeth was approximating John Jacob Astor." Theory wouldn't work in the Rockies and Wyeth returned without his fortune.

White men learned how to survive in a brutal country from the Indians and demonstrated their gratitude by destroying a race. The Indians could not adapt themselves to civilization and soon became the victims in one of the greatest confidence games in history. Drunk on pure alcohol, the braves "sighed and applauded like a congregation of Follies girls at a Mainbocher private showing" when they receiver a doorman's uniform for their furs. The mountain men fought better than the Indians, hysterical missionaries broke down their religion, and civilized diseases destroyed their bodies.

Illustrated with a series of superb plates by Alfred Jacob Miller, Charles Bodmer, and George Catlin, "Across the Wide Missouri" is a comprehensive study that flows with the case of a good novel. Mr. Devote's excellent style makes history a pleasure. G.G.D.