Ill-Fated Frontier: Peril and Possibilities in the Early American West

Ill-Fated Frontier is at once a pioneer adventure and a compelling narrative of the frictions that emerged among entrepreneurial pioneers and their sixty slaves, Indians fighting to preserve their land, and Spanish colonials with their own agenda. Here is a turbulent and visceral portrait of the wild American frontier in 1789 that begins with an optimistic plan and ends with the body of one of the expedition’s leaders returning to New Jersey pickled in a barrel of rum.

What happened in betw...