Tracing Teddy Roosevelt's Path Down the 'River of Doubt'

Teddy Roosevelt, a born winner, was on a losing streak in 1913 when an invitation came to speak in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The former president had just suffered a humiliating election defeat and needed to get away. A trip to South America, where his son Kermit lived, seemed like just the thing to take Roosevelt's mind off his political troubles. And it would give the famous outdoorsman a chance to kick around the mysterious Amazon River basin. What looked in the planning stages like a leisurely regional tour ended up a harrowing trek through the wildest, darkest heart of Brazil's uncharted Amazonian forest. The trip went from tour to survival contest when Brazil's minister of foreign affairs told Roosevelt about"an unknown river" worth exploring: Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt. Roosevelt and his team joined forces with Brazil's most famous explorer, Candido Rondon. Before it was over, the explorers would face deadly rapids, Indian attacks, disease, starvation and a murderer within their own ranks. The trip nearly killed Roosevelt, then in his 50s. But the explorers triumphantly navigated the River of Doubt. It was such a feat that many at the time did not believe Roosevelt and Candido really had mapped the nearly 1,000-mile-long Amazon tributary. Author Candice Millard tells the tale of this mostly forgotten episode in Roosevelt's eventful life with the book The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. Steve Inskeep interviews Millard about Roosevelt's biggest adventure and her own journey to the region.