Sight Unseen How Fremont's First Expedition Changed the American Landscape

About this book

John C. Fremont was the most celebrated explorer of his era. In 1842, on the first of five expeditions he would lead to the Far West, Fremont and a small party of men journeyed up the Kansas and Platte Rivers to the Wind River Range in Wyoming. At the time, virtually this entire region was known as the Great Desert and many Americans viewed it and the Rocky Mountains beyond as a natural barrier to the United States. After Congress published Fremont's official report of the expedition, however, few doubted the nation should expand to the Pacific.

The first in-depth study of this remarkable report, Sight Unseen argues that Fremont used both a radical form of the picturesque and an imaginary map to create an aesthetic craving for expansion. Not only did he redefine the Great Desert as a novel and complex environment, but on a summit of the Wind River Range he envisioned the continental divide as a feature that would unify rather than obstruct a larger nation. In addition to provoking the great migration to Oregon and providing an aesthetic justification for the national park system, Fremont's Report profoundly altered American views of geography, progress, and the need for a transcontinental railroad. By helping to shape the very notion of Manifest Destiny, the Report became one of the most important documents in the history of American landscape.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Introduction: The Golden Meane

Part 1. Picturesque America The Great Desert
- The Hudson Valley
- Eastern Kansas
- Courthouse Rock
- Yellowstone
- All the Different Parts of Our Country

Part 2. Westward the Course of Empire The Mouth of the Oregon
- Westward the Course of Empire
- The Loftiest Peak of the Rocky Mountains
- The Barometric Reading
- The National Flag
- Bromus, the Humble Bee
- The Four Cardinal Rivers
- To the Pacific and Beyond

Afterword: The Eye That Has Not Seen

Notes
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Andrew Menard is an independent writer, artist, and critic. His work has appeared in publications such as Artforum, The Fox, Art-Language, Studio International, Western American Literature, Journal of American Studies, and The New England Quarterly.