Discovering Nothing

Explorers' accounts of the search through Northern Canada for a waterway connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The many attempts by navigators to find a Northwest Passage via its Pacific portal all failed; however, their discoveries spurred expansionist developments that would forever alter the landscape of North America. In Discovering Nothing, David L. Nicandri maps a cast of geographic visionaries and practical explorers as they promoted or sought a workable commercial route linking the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. The discovery of the legendary northern passage proved elusive, but the equivalent land bridges that were built in the form of two transcontinental railroads changed the futures of Canada and the United States. Drawing from close readings of explorers' journals, Nicandri provides readers with a detailed, engaging, and multifaceted investigation into the many players and failed enterprises at the core of this search, beginning in the eighteenth century through to today--and to the unexpected impact of climate change on this fabled passage.