A Region of Astonishing Beauty: The Botanical Exploration of the Rocky Mountains

As we approach the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 2004, attention will turn to the 19th century explorers who risked life and limb to interpret the natural history of the American West. Beginning with Meriwether Lewis and his discovery of the bitterroot, the goal of most explorers was not merely to find an adequate route to the Pacific, but also to collect plant specimens, and to comment on the state of the region’s ecology and its suitability for agriculture. This work follows the trail of over a dozen explores who botanized the Rocky Mountains, and who, by the end of the 19th century, became increasingly convinced that the flora of the American West was distinctive.