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Hi, everybody. From Audible, welcome to another episode of Tides of History. I'm Patrick Wyman.

Thanks so much for joining me today.

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest,

it's hard to avoid hearing about Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. As a lad with more

interest in history than was perhaps healthy, I wanted to know everything I could about them.

Every time we were at the Oregon coast, I demanded to visit Fort Clatsup, where they spent the

winter of 1805 to 1806. When we drove along the Columbia Gorge, I demanded to visit Fort Clatsup, where they spent the winter of 1805 to

1806. When we drove along the Columbia Gorge, I wanted to stop at the landmarks Lewis and Clark

mentioned in their journals. It was as close to real history as I ever felt. That is one of the two

major reasons I am so excited to talk to today's guest. Craig Fairman is a journalist, historian,

and author most recently of the new book, This Vast Enterprise, a new history of Lewis and Clark.

The other reason is that the book is so, so good. It is one of my favorites of the last decade,

and I am so excited to talk with him about it today for our very last ever

interview on Tides. Craig, thank you so much for joining me today. Oh, man, I'm so excited. Thanks for

having me. So what brought you to the subject of Lewis and Clark? I mean, why write a new book on

this topic? It's a very fair question, and it kind of started because I wanted to tell an adventure

story. So I wanted to tell an adventure story.

So I wanted to write a book that was a page turner that was epic and started thinking through American examples, and honestly, the first one that came to mind was Lewis and Clark. But there has been a lot written about them. So I sort of started by going through the journals and seeing, you know, was there something new here? Was there something that had been missed? And honestly, from the very start, I was like, I only know half of the story. I know a little bit about Lewis. I know a little bit about Clark, although I think I found new things about them in my book, too. But there was so much that I didn't know. And then I started supplementing with a little archival work, found some new documents that hadn't really been seen. And so what I realized was that readers had never really experienced the full story.

And I had a chance to tell that to them in this book.

I mean, a great many people, and I'm guessing a lot of people who are listening to this episode,

...