W. Raymond Wood

The Mackay-Evans Expedition of 1795-1797 was not an expedition of many firsts. Europeans had been on the Missouri for more than 100 years. It had even been mapped for a fair portion.

The expedition’s only real first was that James Mackay and his lieutenant John Thomas Evans led the first exploration by English speakers up the river. And they did it in the service of the Spanish Empire.

The idea that there must be some feasible way to establish trade routes across the continent, that Spain show more could link St. Louis with its Pacific Coast possessions, was in the air. Spain was very annoyed that British Canadians were taking their trade on the Missouri. The Russian Empire was operating on the Pacific Coast. In fact, the Mackay-Evans expedition was the third and most successful of Spain’s attempt to take the Missouri up to its source and cross to the Pacific.

Still, it only made it to the Mandan villages on the Missouri.

Wood, an anthropologist and archaeologist with decades of experiencing working along the Missouri River valley in the Dakotas, brings a great deal of expertise to this book which combines biography, history, anthropology, and a great deal of detailed cartographic discussion supported by extensive illustrations and maps.

James Mackay had experience with the Missouri River – but arriving from the north. One of the many Scotsman who immigrated to British Canada to work in the fur trade, he had been employed by both the North West and Hudson Bay Companies before striking off for St. Louis where he became a Spanish citizen. He’d travelled British Canada between the Great Lakes and as far west as the Rocky Mountains and down to the Mandan villages.

Evans was a Welshman, and he was along to verify a common theory of the day: that the Mandan Indians were descended from the Welsh explorer Madoc after he came to America. Welsh nationalists put him in touch with Mackay who also wondered if the Mandan were Welsh. Evans’ journey to St. Louis from Baltimore began in 1793 with barely any money. After arriving in New Madrid, he got malaria which laid him up for two months. Then he struck cross country to St. Louis getting lost and wading through swamps, his malaria flaring back up.

When he arrived in St. Louis, he was thrown in jail as a British spy. After that was resolved – he had probably taken a loyalty oath to Spain at New Madrid, he hooked up with Mackay. Despite his physical frailty and lack of experience in the wilderness, Evans’ health held up for the expedition. He proved an able cartographer with an easy-going manner.

The expedition left St. Louis in late August 1795 with 30 hired men in four boats packed with trade goods. In November, they established the only Spanish trading post, Fort Charles, on the border of what’s now Nebraska and Iowa. It was probably (because the site has long since been eroded away by the Missouri) about 25 miles below Sioux City. That month, Evans and some men struck overland to reach the Mandans. However, they only got as far as the White River before turning back.

The party split up next year. Evans started north on June 8th arriving at the Mandans after almost four months. The reason for the delay was a six week “enforced stay” with the Arikara. He would stay with the Mandan until May 9, 1797 and was back in St. Louis by mid-July.

He never did get a chance to follow all those instructions on marking the trail to the Pacific that Mackay gave him. Nor did he find any long-lost Welshmen (though his report to that effect didn’t do much to curb the Welsh-Mandan theory). He was on good enough terms with the Mandan that they refused the suggestion of a French-Canadian trader to kill him.

While Evans was doing this, Mackay went on a buffalo hunt and explored parts of what is now Nebraska going as far west as the Sand Hills. Not hearing from Evans, he left for St. Louis in May 1797 and got back before Evans.

The Spanish Empire was pleased with both men. A map, the best done yet of the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Mandan villages of North Dakota was prepared. And Mackay presented that map to William Clark in January 1803 and told him some of the things that awaited him up river.

Mackay would get a land grant (which would be legally entangled when St. Louis became American) and die a respected citizen of St. Louis in 1822 at the age of 63.

Evans would not be so lucky. Increasingly despondent, he became ill and died in 1799 at the age of 29, a mere two years after he got back from the Mandan. Contemporary accounts speak of him being a deranged drunk. Wood, however, argues he died from malaria which can, in severe cases, produce similar effects. Evans’ conduct and accomplishments on the expedition argue against him being an alcoholic or insane.

Wood places this all in an extensive historical context about imperial battles for control along the Missouri and earlier explorations and cartography. The book includes not only a bibliography and footnotes but a concordance of geographical names to show the correspondence of the names on old maps with their modern equivalent. We also have an appendix with documents including entries from Mackay’s journal.

Obviously, this one is for a niche audience in terms of reading it cover to cover, but, if you’re in that niche, it’s doubtful you’re going to find anything else covering the subject so comprehensively. show less