Roscoe Sheller’s The Name Was Olney chronicles the arduous pioneer journey and settlement of Nathan Olney, who established the first permanent non-indigenous trading post at The Dalles in the mid-nineteenth century. The narrative maps the treacherous aquatic geography of the Columbia River Gorge, detailing Olney's perilous descent past the roaring cascades of Celilo Falls on a crude log raft. By focusing on this strategic inland chokepoint—originally the indigenous village of Winquat, meaning "a-place-encircled-by-a-rock"—the book illustrates how the area's formidable basalt topography functioned as the ultimate geographical crossroads for early Pacific Northwest commerce. Ultimately, the text captures the severe physical realities of the Columbia basin, demonstrating how the transition from grueling overland wagon trails to the turbulent, unforgiving currents of the lower Columbia River shaped the region's earliest frontier outposts and indigenous relations.

Biographies, History, Northwest, Pacific History, Olney, Nathan, 1824-1866, Oregon (Territoire) Histoire, Oregon Territory History, Pacific Northwest, Pioneers, Pioneers Northwest, Pacific Biography, United States Oregon Territory, collective biographies

Includes index

Includes index