The Forgotten Return, Part I: From the Columbia to the Mountains This episode opens the two‑part saga of Robert Stuart and the Astorians as they attempt one of the most overlooked feats in American exploration: the 1812–1813 return journey from Astoria back toward the Rocky Mountains. Part I follows the party as they break from the Pacific Fur Company post, push up the Columbia River, and enter the rugged interior of the Pacific Northwest.

You’ll follow Stuart’s small band as they navigate treacherous river corridors, negotiate with Indigenous nations, confront the early signs of a hard winter, and make the fateful decision to leave the water route behind and strike east toward the mountains. This first chapter sets the stage for the ordeal to come—an odyssey of hunger, cold, and near‑impossible terrain—while restoring a forgotten story to its rightful place in the history of transcontinental exploration.

In this episode we follow W.P. Hunt's expedition for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company as it travels the area from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. They will face rapids, waterfalls, cliffs, treacherous mountain passes, hunger, thirst, and bitterly cold weather. This epic journey across the uncharted wilderness of Idaho and Oregon, the first such journey to be documented, ultimately led to the settlement of Oregon. But that's another story. Hope you enjoy it.

This episode finds Wilson Price Hunt's overland party of the American Fur Company approaching the Arikara village in modern day South Dakota. After a showdown with Manuel Lisa, Hunt finally heads across the plains, crossing the Bighorn Mountains and making it to the Green River valley at the foot of the Grand Tetons.

The overland expedition of the Pacific Fur Company (American Fur Company), John Jacob Astor's ambitious project, gets underway but encounters numerous difficulties. In the process, Hunt meets two legendary men of the frontier, Daniel Boone and John Colter, as well as the Teton Sioux, who are intent on stopping his westward progress.

In this episode we will explore the background of John Jacob Astor. His vision for a global trading empire resulted in the American Fur Company, the Pacific Fur Company, and the founding of Astoria, OR. His dream might have worked if not for an explosion of his ship, the Tonquin, in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, and the War of 1812.

In this episode we look at the Louisiana Purchase, and Thomas Jefferson's determination to make the United States a country that stretched from sea to shining sea. We meet Lewis and Clark and spend a bit of time examining the life and times of John Colter.

This episode is the first of a multi-episode exploration of the fur trade in North America, and covers the period from the first French trappers and traders in the first capital of the fur trade in Montreal, to the establishment of St. Louis as the heir apparent.

When we hear the term “cowboy” our minds instantly see the mythical ideal character. For much of the world the cowboy represents at least one of the iconic images of America. Honesty, strength, courage, rugged good looks, loyalty, wisdom, each represents how we view thecowboy. But how many of these attributes are hyperbole and how many are fact? Let's take a closer look at the evolution of the cowboy.