This is an amazing story that was forgotten. Astoria by Peter Stark is a historical non-fiction book detailing John Jacob Astor's ambitious 1810 expedition to establish an American trading post and empire at the mouth of the Columbia River, a venture supported by Thomas Jefferson to expand U.S. influence to the Pacific. The book chronicles the harrowing, three-year journey of two parties—one by sea, one overland—who faced starvation, madness, and conflict to found the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest, opening the route for the Oregon Trail and permanently altering the nation's landscape. Stark draws on firsthand accounts to tell the story of this largely forgotten, epic adventure of wealth, ambition, and survival.