Dan Flores
As the editor of the Lewis and Clark quarterly journal, We Proceeded On, I attended the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation annual meeting in Missoula at the end of June.
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Clay, Frank, Dennis
Days 10 and 11, Sunday/Monday: U.S. 89 to Utah 20; Utah 20 to I-15; I-15 to Salt Lake City. A sad farewell as Frank, our scout and chief raconteur for the last 10 days, heads home to Escalante, Utah, and Clay and Dennis continue north to visit the Great Salt Lake.…
Book cover: Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road

Lands of Lost Borders

Because I am gearing up for years of travel across America, especially the West, I am reading books of adventure travel. I have reread Travels with Charley of course, and the published journal of John Wesley Powell’s 1869 descent of the Green and Colorado Rivers.
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Cadillac Desert book cover
Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert has been around for a long time — since 1986 — but it continues to be the best introduction to the subject of Water in the West.
book cover: The Lance and The Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull
The Lance and The Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull by Robert M. Utley, first published in 1994. Bismarck, N.D. — I’m reading a biography of Sitting Bull (1831 – 1890).…
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Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark
Gary Moulton edited a definitive thirteen volume set of the Lewis and Clark expedition journals. Over the Christmas holidays, because I was alone this year, I decided to read all the journals of Lewis and Clark, John Ordway, and Patrick Gass for the return journey of the Corps of Discovery, from March 23 to September 23, 1806.…
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John and Elaine Steinbeck Somerset

Happy Birthday John Steinbeck

Bismarck, N.D. — Normally I don’t observe the birthdays of my literary and historical heroes. I know Jefferson’s birthday (April 13, 1743) and Shakespeare’s (April 23, 1564), and Bertrand Russell’s (May 18, 1872), and Samuel Johnson’s (September 18, 1709), and not many more, at least by day of month.…
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Lewis and Clark
President Thomas Jefferson entrusted Meriwether Lewis with the first great exploration of the American West. At the journey’s successful completion, both men held high expectations for a book worthy of the singular accomplishment and the Age of Enlightenment of which it was a part.
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Book cover: Why Read Moby Dick?

Why Read Moby Dick?

Why Read Moby-Dick? By Nathaniel Philbrick, 2011. Bismarck, N.D. — I’m reading Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. I’ll be teaching it at one of my literary retreats come next January, but I wanted to read it anyway.…
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Book cover: Sacagawea: They Got it Wrong
Out Story of Eagle Woman, Sacagawea: They Got it Wrong. By Gerard Baker, Calvin Grinnell, Bernard Fox, Carol Fredericks Newman, and Wanda Fox Sheppard. The Paragon Agency, 2021.…
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