The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (National Geographic Adventure Classics)

Carrying orders to collect information on the geography, geology, and topography &#147; of the Country within the limits of the Territories belonging to the United States, between our frontier and the Pacific, &#148; Captain James Bonneville set out for points west in 1832. He was gone nearly five years and was thought to be dead. But Bonneville had befriended a mountain man named Joseph Rutherford Walker, and the two made extensive journeys through the West, becoming the first white men to see Yosemite. Returning by a southern route across the Sierras, they discovered the Walker Pass and Utah&#146; s Bonneville Salt Flats. <P>Captain Bonneville enjoyed half a decade of amazing escapades and discoveries. Upon his return to civilization, he met Washington Irving, by then already an internationally recognized writer. Irving was fascinated by Bonneville&#146; s tales and details of life among the mountains, trappers, and Native Americans. Drawing from Bonneville&#146; s personal journals, Irving created this celebrated volume of stories in 1837. With a new introduction by series editor Anthony Brandt and a National Geographic map of Bonneville&#146; s journey, Irving&#146; s masterful storytelling emerges as a fresh and immediate account of a long-lost era of American history. "The Adventures of Captain Bonneville is a valuable portrait of the wonders of the West and the remarkable men who first explored it.

Drawing on Bonneville's own journals, Washington Irving chronicles the exploits and adventures of Captain James Bonneville, one of the earliest explorers of the American West, detailing his various journeys with mountain man Joseph Rutherford Walker; their discovery of Yosemite, Walker Pass, and the