"Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Thunder Go North embarks on a fresh investigation into a centuries-old 'vexed question' Where was Francis Drake's 1579 landing place on North America's Pacific Coast? Using anthropological as well as historical evidence, author Melissa Darby presents a compelling case that Drake most likely came ashore on the central coast of Oregon--far to the north of Drake's Bay, near San Francisco, the allegedly 'long-settled' answer to that question. She tells an exceedingly complicated but fascinating story, and tells it well. Darby's conclusions cannot be ignored by Drake scholars or others hoping to unlock this nearly 450-years-old puzzle. In addition, Thunder Go North reveals the incredibly tangled web of intrigue, duplicity, and hoax that has bedeviled past historians' efforts to answer the 'Where did Drake land?' question."
--Jeff LaLande, historian and archaeologist
"Darby's book is a masterpiece of detective work into the various claims for the landing location of Drake and the Golden Hind in the summer of 1579. With similarities to the Cardiff Giant and Piltdown Man hoaxes, Darby's work uncovers a potential scientific conspiracy by one of California's most renowned historians. She masterfully weaves a tale of political intrigue, fraud, and ego into an academic treatise that reads more like a historical mystery novel. Sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction!"
--Todd Braje, professor of anthropology, San Diego State University, and author of Shellfish for the Celestial Empire: The Rise and Fall of Commercial Abalone Fishing in California
"Where on the North American Pacific coast did Francis Drake land his ship the Golden Hind in 1579? The quest for an answer is full of political maneuvering and subterfuge (then and now). Melissa Darby's detailed investigation and new conclusion as to the long controversial location of Drake's landing should provoke much new research, both historical and archaeological."
--R. Lee Lyman, professor and chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia
"Seldom does a published book rewrite accepted history as thoroughly and as convincingly as the Darby volume. Thunder Go North deserves wide acceptance and will always be used when studying Drake's trip around the world."
--Pacific Historical Review