Some of my favorite vacations were trips to or through Montana, the "Big Sky" country. The first included a 3-day train ride on the Empire Builder from Chicago, up to Minneapolis, and then across the northern plains to Seattle. On that trip I discovered just how vast and varied the plains are, desolate yet breathtaking. On another, I flew into Helena on a puddle-jumper plane, and then put nearly 2,000 miles on a rental car over a two-week period. My most recent trip to the area involved taking the Amtrak to Minot, North Dakota and then exploring the western part of that state and the eastern wheat fields of Montana. What can I say, give me a map, or not, and I'm off.
I attribute this fascination with the plains to the bi-centennial celebration in 2004 of the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1804-1806) commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the land acquired through the Louisiana Purchase -- little of which was part of present day Louisiana, and none of which was France's to sell. Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, about the Expedition, was one of my more pleasurable reads (controversial, not a "literary classic," but a pleasurable read all the same). His book literally provided the path for my vacations. But, his book ends shortly after the Expedition concludes. What happened next?
An answer was offered by another author, A. B Guthrie Jr., who penned The Big Sky, which was the first of what would be six novels, dubbed The Big Sky Series. The others books in the series are The Way West, Fair Land Fair Land, These Thousand Hills, Arfive, and The Last Valley, classics in the genre of westerns -- both books and movies. Guthrie won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for The Way West.
The Big Sky begins in 1830, 24 years after the Lewis & Clark Expedition has been completed. Word about the great natural beauty and wealth of the plains as documented by the explorers is raging across the still young United States, but settlement is technically not allowed. Still hunters, aka "Mountain Men," are making their way west.
Into this setting enters Boone Caudill, a teenager whose life will become witness to what will eventually be known as Manifest Destiny. Caudill heads west, leaving Kentucky, which has become settled and no longer personifies the frontier. His exploits cover the entire route of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. He makes his living as a hunter, observing first hand the impact of over-hunting on both beaver commodity prices, and on the livelihood of the Native peoples. He will eventually marry a Native American woman and adopt, for awhile, an Indian way of life. Near the end of the book his personal life has begun to unravel, as his natural restlessness sets in.
Recommendations? If one is a history buff, or a fan of westerns, you will enjoy this book. And yes, I've already added The Way West to my reading list. But let me issue a warning: this book was published in 1947, well before concerns about politically correct language entered the world.
I wonder what the national landscape would have looked like if we as a people adopted the moralities of today - that would be a book!
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