John Kirk Townsend

Narrative of a Journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River John Kirk Townsend 1st edition

An engaging account of scientific discovery by the first trained naturalist to cross the continent. As a member of Nathaniel Wyeth's 1834 expedition, John Kirk Townsend journeyed west through a "rich and unexplored region" that offered scientists an "almost inexhaustible field for the prosecution of their inquiries." His book, a classic of western exploration, chronicles the first transcontinental trek along the route that would soon become the Oregon Trail. The Wyeth expedition was a remarkable venture that united commerce, religion, and science. Nathaniel Wyeth was a Massachusetts ice merchant, whose first expedition west to establish a fur-trading company failed. A second expedition set out from Independence, Missouri, in April 1834. Among the company's men were Jason and Daniel Lee, the first American missionaries to the Oregon Country, and English Botanist Thomas Nuttall, who invited the twenty-four-year-old Townsend, a skilled ornithologist, to join the expedition.

The narrative documents the expedition's role in the opening of the West and records the author's scientific contributions. "Delight amounting to ecstasy," wrote Townsend, describing the joys of an encounter with a new species of bird. It was access to Townsend's specimens, collected for the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, that allowed John James Audubon to include far-western species in his monumental "Birds of America." This edition restores the original full text, including Townsend's account of his two years at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River and of his return home by way of the Hawaiian Islands and Chile. Also included is the orginal "scienitific appendix" of bird and mammal life. George Jobanek's introduction provides a new appreciation of Townsend's accomplishments, which helped to scientifically define a new land.