The travels and adventures of Lewis and Clark have become immortalized as legend in the American memory. The Perilous West tells the riveting stories of seven equally fascinating and noteworthy American adventurers - Ramsey Crooks, Robert McClellan, John Hoback, Jacob Reznor, Edward Robinson, Pierre Dorion, and Marie Dorion - and the unique legacies that their lionhearted spirits and monumental journeys left on America's landscape and history. These seven counted the Tetons, Hells Canyon, and South Pass among their discoveries, and forged the Oregon Trail: the path destined to link the Atlantic coast with the Pacific, spurring national expansion as it carried trappers, soldiers, pioneers, missionaries, and gold-seekers westward.