Rachel Basinger Lane – Theodore Roosevelt’s Amazon Adventure

Originally posted to the TR Center blog on December 10, 2020.

We all know Theodore Roosevelt the rancher, Theodore Roosevelt the Rough Rider, and Theodore Roosevelt the President, but what about Theodore Roosevelt the explorer? When we interns received our recommended reading list to prepare for the internship during the summer of 2020, I was extremely intrigued by Candice Millard’s The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, particularly because I had visited the Amazon rainforest when I was in college.

I am a voracious reader (although not to the degree of TR who typically read a book a day), and The River of Doubt is well worth a read because it is a history book that will keep you enthralled with Roosevelt’s perilous journey.

While I cannot completely capture all of the events and circumstances that Millard masterfully addresses in her book, this StoryMap will illuminate the highlights of Roosevelt’s Amazon adventure in 1914. It took Roosevelt and the rest of the men almost exactly two months to traverse the nearly 1,000-mile Amazon tributary. Some of them barely survived, but they did it, and this is their story.

COMMENTS:
Cole Lane said,
I really enjoy the excerpts and that we are able to follow along on the map. It gives us a nice perspective on how remote the river was. The Amazon is treacherous for travel today, it would only be worse 100 years ago. Good work, Rachel!

Robbie Vaughn said,
Excellent job putting together the StoryMap! Very helpful and my students will enjoy checking it out. Thank you for all of the hard work it took to create that.