In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie travelled the 1,125 miles of the immense river in Canada that now bears his name, in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. Castner not only retells the story of Mackenzie's epic voyages in vivid prose, he personally retraces his travels in an 1,125-mile canoe voyage down the river, battling exhaustion, exposure, mosquitoes, white water rapids and the threat of bears. He transports readers to a world rarely glimpsed of tar sands, thawing permafrost, remote indigenous villages and, at the end, a wide open Arctic Ocean that has the potential of becoming a far-northern Mississippi of barges and pipelines and oil money.
Details
ISBN: 9780525595373 (tr. pbk large print)
Physical Description:623 pages
Publisher:New York : Random House Large Print, c2018
Formatted Contents Note: The Northwest Company, 1788 -- Into the north, 2016 -- Scotland, 1774 -- New York, 1775 -- Montreal, 1778 -- Detroit, 1784 -- The Pays d'en Haut, 2016 -- Grand portage and the English River, 1785 -- Awgeenah and Matonabbee, 1786 -- Murder at the old establishment, 1787 -- To the Northwest Passage, 1788 -- All it takes is time, 2016 -- Embarkation, June 1789 -- The Rapids of the Slave, June 2016 -- Shoot the messenger, June 1789 -- Thunderstorms and raids, June 2016 -- Into the mountains, July 1789 -- Plagues of the Deh Cho, July 2016 -- The Dogrib, July 1789 -- Rapid without rapids, July 2016 -- You can starve on rabbits, July 1789 -- Fort Good Hope to Tsiigehtchic, July 2016 -- Satisfy the curiosity, tho' not the intent, July 1789 -- Into the earth sponge, July 2016 -- The highest part of the island, July 1789 -- A sea of ice, frozen no more, July 2016 -- Many returns.