From early mountain men searching for routes through the Rockies to West Point soldier-engineers conducting topographical expeditions, the exploration of the American West mirrored the development of a fledgling nation. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning Exploration and Empire, William H. Goetzmann analyzes the special role the explorer played in shaping the vast region once called "the Great American Desert." According to Goetzmann, the exploration of the West was not a haphazard series of discoveries, but a planned - even programmed - activity in which explorers, often armed with instructions from the federal government, gathered information that would support national goals for the new lands. As national needs and the frontier's image changed, the West itself was rediscovered by successive generations of explorers, a process that in turn helped shape its culture. Nineteenth-century western exploration, Goetzmann writes, can be divided into three stages. The first, beginning with the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804, was marked by the need to collect practical information, such as the locations of the best transportation routes through the wilderness. Then came the era of settlement and investment - the drive to fulfill the Manifest Destiny of a nation beginning to realize what immense riches lay beyond the Mississippi. The final stage involved a search for knowledge of a different kind, as botanists and paleontologists, ethnographers and engineers hunted intensively for scientific information in the "frontier laboratory." This last phase also saw a rethinking of the West's place in the national scheme; it was a time of nascent conservation movements and public policy discussions aboutthe region's future. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, Goetzmann offers a masterful overview of the opening of the West, as well as a fascinating study of the nature of exploration and its consequences for civilization.

The report of the first United States expedition to the Southwest, here in the handsome first British edition. One of the most important American travel books, including accounts of Pike's explorations on the Mississippi, Red, and Arkansas rivers and his visit to the Spanish settlements in New Mexico. He also visited northern Texas, and Streeter considers his account excellent. The maps present in this edition are the "Map of the Interior Part of Louisiana" and a reduced version of the map of the Mississippi. The Pike expedition stands with the narratives of Lewis and Clark, and Long, as the most important of the early books on western exploration.

This book, first published in 1933, discusses the exploration of the western area of what became the United States.

Readers navigate this fact-filled book as it takes them through the history of North American discovery and exploration, detailing all of the successes, hardships, dangers, and accomplishments of key figures in exploration history. From the mighty Mississippi to the Rockies, up to Canada and down to Mexico, readers will learn about Columbus, Lewis and Clark, Smith, and many more. Fascinating fact boxes enhance the historical and informative content, while supporting captions and sidebars provide interesting facts about explorers and their voyages. Eye-catching and authentic illustrations give readers a feel for the period, transporting them back in time to the golden age of North American exploration.