Peter Stark Quotes.

2. "But he lacked a sense of urgency at key periods, and lacked a firm hand when one was sometimes called for. His greatest strength may have proved his greatest flaw—one that finally sunk John Jacob Astor’s West Coast empire. Wilson Price Hunt vastly preferred cooperation to confrontation."
- Peter Stark, Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth

4. "[T]his is the land of liberty and equality, where a man sees and feels that he is a man merely, and that he can no longer exist, [except if] he can himself procure the means of support. —Robert Stuart, journal postscript for October 13, 1812, while starving in today’s Wyoming, shortly before discovering the South Pass"
- Peter Stark, Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth

5. "During portages, each voyageur hauled two 90-pound packets of pelts on his back—a staggering 180 pounds, one packet suspended from a tumpline around his forehead, the other resting atop it on his back—a half mile at a time between designated rest stops, then returned for additional loads. Some of the portages went on for ten miles, and a notorious one lasted for forty."
- Peter Stark, Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth

6. "Foreshadowing certain American business practices two centuries in the future, McDougall, in the absence of anyone present to tell him no, fashioned himself and Mackenzie a golden parachute. Then he bailed out. T"
- Peter Stark, Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth