David Roberts, Escalante’s Dream: On the Trail of the Spanish Discovery of the Southwest

In Escalante’s Dream, David Roberts braids an account of the historic 1776 expedition of Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, who were charged by the governor of New Mexico with discovering a route across the unknown Southwest to the new Spanish colony in California, with his own road trip following the same route 241 years later. The padres explored more land unknown to Europeans than Lewis and Clark would do a quarter century later. David Roberts is the first to dig beneath its pages to question and ponder every turn of the team’s decision-making and motivation. Roberts weaves the personal and the historical narratives into a gripping journey of discovery through the magnificent American Southwest.