In 1810, John Jacob Astor sent out two advance parties to settle the wild, unclaimed western coast of North America. More than half of his men died violent deaths. The others survived starvation, madness, and greed to shape the destiny of a continent.
Listen as Peter Stark describes how the killing of a Blackfoot man by the Lewis and Clark expedition came back to haunt later fur trappers.
Listen to the entire interview of Peter Stark talking about his book "Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire" or hear more of "The Write Question" at mtpr.org, via podcast , or on the air Thursday nights at 7:30.