Silas Goodrich is one of us—although history knows almost nothing of him—a ten-dollar-a-month private in the service of Lewis and Clark, and a man described as the expedition’s principal fisherman. What we do know is that he was possibly born in 1778, probably in Massachusetts, and that he likely died in his thirties, although the year and cause of his death are both unknown. We also know that after returning home from what was no doubt one of the greatest road trips of all time, he promptly reenlisted in
