Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

To the Woods is a tale of adventure, inspiration, and living life in concert with nature. It is the true story of Evelyn Searle Hess, who, in her late fifties, walks away from the world of modern conveniences to build a new life with her husband on twenty acres of wild land in the foothills of Oregon's Coast Range. To the Woods tracks the natural history of place through the seasons. It describes Hess's day-to-day challenges, from living in a trailer without electricity or indoor plumbing to excavating a pond to dealing with health crises. It explores the joys of living simply, building a relationship with the natural world, and awakening to the interconnectedness of all life. Hess's careful attention to detail, her extensive knowledge of local flora and fauna, and her thoughtful philosophical meditations add richness to her engaging prose. To the Woods will appeal to readers interested in the environment and sustainable living, and to anyone who has ever considered fleeing the city for a life closer to nature.

xvi, 175 pages ; 23 cm

To the Sundown Side explores the grueling era of the early fur trade by focusing specifically on the exploits of mountain men navigating the treacherous, unmapped wilderness of present-day Idaho. The narrative vividly details the physical challenges of traversing the region's formidable topography, from the deep, rushing canyons of the Salmon and Snake Rivers to the high-altitude trapping grounds of the Sawtooth Range and the Teton Basin, historically known as Pierre's Hole. By anchoring historic rendezvous sites and perilous winter encampments to specific mountain passes and sheltered valleys, Byers illustrates how the unforgiving Rocky Mountain landscape dictated both the survival and the economic success of these early trappers. Ultimately, the book serves as a geographic tribute to the rugged individuals who first charted this remote inland expanse long before formal pioneer settlement permanently altered the territory.

214 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

A comprehensive political history of Oregon, To the Promised Land examines the social and economic changes the state has pioneered over almost two hundred years. Highlighting major political figures, campaigns, and ballot measures, Tom Marsh traces the evolution of Oregon from incorporated territory to a state at the forefront of national environmental and social movements. From the first letter sent to Congress by Jason Lee, urging them to take possession of the Oregon Country for the United States, to John Kitzhaber’s precedent-setting third term as governor; from the land frauds of the early twentieth century to the state’s land-use planning goals; from the Beach Bill to the Bottle Bill, this book tells Oregon’s story. To the Promised Land provides the first general history of Oregon’s state government and political leaders. Marsh combines the clear expository style of a professional educator with the expertise of a political inside —a former U.S. history high school teacher, he also served two terms in the Oregon House of Representatives. Featuring interesting trivia, historical photographs, and biographical sketches of key politicians, this book will be a popular volume for general readers and public libraries as well as for textbook use in secondary and higher education classrooms.

xvi, 508 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Fascinating history of the construction of the competitive transportation system in the inland Columbia River basin in the 19th century that linked the Pacific Northwest to eastern markets and provided easier access to the Orient. This volume covers the origins of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Oregon Railway and Navigation Co., the rise and fall of Henry Villard's first empire, and the completion of overland railways converging on the Columbia Gateway. The author successfully conveys the excitement as well as the enormous amount of time, money and hard work required to build the Pacific Northwest rail lines. Illustrated with black and white photos. With maps. 202 pages with index.

xxv, [1], 202 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm

Wonderful history of the Puget Sound Electric Railway, part of Stone & Webster's empire of west coast interurbans. With beautiful black and white photos on almost every page plus 8 pages in color. Includes 200 photos, maps and complete equipment roster. 144 pages.

144 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 29 cm

"Too often, history and knowledge of Indigenous-settler conflict over land take the form of confidential reports prepared for court challenges. To Share, Not Surrender offers an entirely new approach, opening scholarship to the public and augmenting it with First Nations community expertise. The collection appraises the historical and present-day relevance of treaty-making in the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. The authors take us back to when James Douglas and his family relocated to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island in 1849, critically tracing the transition from treaty-making in the colony of Vancouver Island to reserve formation in the colony of British Columbia. Informed by cel'an'en - "our culture, the way of our people" - this multivocal work explicitly addresses the tensions between academic research, Indigenous knowledge, and local experience. The collection includes essays, translations/interpretations of the treaties into the SENĆOŦEN and Lekwungen languages, and contributions by participants of the Songhees, Huu-ay-aht, and WSANEC peoples. The chapters demonstrate that the continuing inability to arrive at equitable land-sharing arrangements stem from a fundamental absence of will with respect to accommodating First Nations world views. To Share, Not Surrender is an attempt to understand why, and thus to advance the urgent task of reconciliation in Canada."-- Provided by publisher

xiv, 354 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

159 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 29 cm

To Harvest, To Hunt reveals how diverse peoples have valued and used natural resources throughout the history of the American West. Drawing on family letters, oral traditions, historical records, and personal experience, the book's contributors offer readers new perspectives on the land they live on, the harvests they consume, and the natural resources they manage. Editor Judy Li weaves a tapestry of cultures and voices – from Pueblo tribes in the Southwest and Chinese fishermen in California to Mexican braceros in Oregon and Basque sheepherders in Idaho – as she details the region's historical dependence on the land and sea. Otter, walrus, abalone, grasslands, timber, and water are some of the vital resources discussed by writers, anthropologists, historians, and biologists in stories that tell how cultures struggle to adapt in changing environments. Spanning the last 200 years, To Harvest, To Hunt represents Native Americans, Native Alaskans, and Mexican, European, and Asian immigrants as varied in their perspectives as the landscapes the book describes. Readers will come to appreciate the region's once-abundant resources and find this book an illuminating overview of the dynamic between people and the land. Contributors: John Bieter, Dolly Garza, Erlinda Gonzales-Berry, Steven W. Hackel, David Hatch, Deanna Kingston, Jim LeMonds, Irene Martin, David Mas Masumoto, Margaret Mathewson, John Nichols, Patti Sakurai, and Charles Wilkinson.

192 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

"By focusing on the history of control over productive resources (in this case salmon, methods of harvest, processing, capital investment, and markets) Boxberger shows how the Lummi slid from independence and self-sufficiency to dependency, underdevelopment, and poverty. . . . Not only is it an excellent, in-depth study of the Lummi case, it can also serve as a metaphor for the larger question of Native American treaty rights and the resource provisions of agreements." --Pacific Historical Review

xviii, 212 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

In To Build a Ship, Don Berry explores the extent to which a man can betray himself and his morality for a dream or an obsession. It's the story of a handful of settlers who take up land in the fertile Tillamook Bay Valley in the early 1850s-defiant dreamers battling the wilderness. With impenetrable mountains at their backs and the open sea as their sole road to trade, they are suddenly isolated from the outside world when the only captain willing to enter their harbor dies. With the survival of their new settlement threatened, they decide to build their own schooner. At first the challenge brings out the best in the men, but soon the tensions inherent in this monumental task engulf them. Obstacles accumulate and complications mount: a death, a murder trial, trouble with restive Indians, and finally a travesty of justice. Excitement, shock, and gripping drama mark this story of men pushed to the point of madness as they see the Morning Star of Tillamook slowly take shape on the wild Pacific shore. Don Berry's three novels about the Oregon Territory — Trask, Moontrap, and To Build a Ship — are as rich and compelling today as when they were first published more than 40 years ago. The new OSU Press editions of these books include an introduction by Jeff Baker, book critic for The Oregonian.

203 pages ; 23 cm

"From the watersheds of the Squamish and Mamquam Rivers and Howe Sound in the north to English Bay, False Creek, and Burrard Inlet in the south, Sḵwx̱wú7meshulh Aysáy̓ch (Squamish Territory) encompasses saltwater and rushing rivers, old-growth forests at valley bottoms, and alpine meadows high above the ocean. Tiná7 Cht Ti Temíxw---We Come From This Land is a powerful introduction to the vast history of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh people. Drawing on stories from our Elders and in-depth research, we trace our history and culture from ancient times to the present day, offering a launching point for discovering more about the places, people, and stories found here."--Page 4 of cover

xi, 401 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm

Published in 1949 by Stanford University Press and authored by business historians Edwin T. Coman Jr. and Helen M. Gibbs, Time, Tide, and Timber: A Century of Pope & Talbot is an authorized corporate history chronicling the first hundred years of one of the Pacific Northwest’s most influential timber and shipping conglomerates. Commissioned by the company to commemorate its centennial, the volume traces the enterprise from its modest origins in 1849, when founders Andrew J. Pope and Captain William C. Talbot arrived in Gold Rush San Francisco from East Machias, Maine, to launch a lumber and lighterage business. The text details the firm's subsequent expansion into the Puget Sound region, its establishment of massive sawmills at Port Gamble, its extensive fleet of coastal and transoceanic sailing ships, and its eventual evolution into a sprawling modern corporate empire spanning forestry, real estate, and global maritime trade.

73 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

The lighthouse keeper has gone the way of the iceman and blacksmith, but in the case of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, the story remains--a complete history of :Terrible Tilly,: seasoned with salty drama and some hilarious adventure. Gibbs, a former Coastguardsman stationed at the infamous rock off Oregon's northwest shores, knows that wild crag from the inside out, and he has supplemented his account with what happened before he arrived on the scene, and since closure of the light in 1957. Many fine photos keep pace with the action. 145 pages.

xi, 145 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

264 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm

Tillamook Indians of the Oregon coast examines the indigenous settlement and sophisticated maritime culture situated within the deeply indented bays and dense temperate rainforests of the northern Oregon shoreline. Sauter and Johnson detail how the region's distinct coastal topography—specifically the rich tidal estuaries of Tillamook and Nehalem bays, the rugged basalt headlands jutting into the Pacific, and the heavily timbered barrier of the Coast Range—strictly dictated the margins of seasonal habitation and resource gathering. By mapping the intricate network of cedar-plank villages woven directly into the sheltered riparian corridors and estuarine marshes, the narrative highlights how this specific coastal geography anchored the tribes' deep reliance on abundant marine harvests and massive cedar timber. Ultimately, this anthropological record serves as a deeply localized spatial history, demonstrating how the rich estuarine environments, imposing mountainous isolation from the interior, and dynamic tidal forces of this Pacific Northwest shoreline fundamentally shaped the deeply rooted, marine-dependent character of the Tillamook peoples.

ix, 196 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

xxv, 305, [2] pages : illustrations ; 28 cm

Ada M. Orcutt’s Tillamook: Land of Many Waters chronicles the arduous pioneer colonization and intensive agrarian subjugation of a profoundly isolated, rain-gorged coastal basin carved directly into the western flank of the Oregon Coast Range. The narrative maps how the severe environmental realities of this volatile maritime topography—defined by an impenetrable barricade of towering, old-growth spruce, plunging, flood-prone riverine valleys, and the treacherous, storm-battered breakers of the Pacific edge—initially completely severed early homesteaders from terrestrial transit to the inland valleys. By detailing the grueling transition from precarious, isolated logging outposts and hazardous coastal schooner transit to the aggressive clearing of heavily timbered bottomlands and the deployment of massive, mechanized dairy infrastructure, the text illustrates how the economic survival of the settlement was strictly dictated by the urgent necessity of mastering this heavily saturated landscape. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that violently carving robust overland transit corridors through sheer coastal mountains and systematically domesticating the region's colossal hydrological wealth into a highly integrated, industrial dairy empire were the absolute prerequisites for shattering the profound geographical detachment of the basin and anchoring it to the broader Pacific seaboard.

272 pages illustrations 22 cm

From the Alps of Europe to America's green Northwest: that is the background for this heart-warming tale of the Swiss who, in the 1800's, brought their ancient arts and industries to a fertile valley on the Pacific Coast. To the dairy farm of stubborn, practical Uncle Karl and jolly, lovable Aunt Rosa, come orphaned Lisi Naegli and her crippled brother Chris from their home in Lucerne Canton. Sixteen-year-old Lisi's efforts to keep peace between Uncle Karl and young Chris, and her struggle to learn the ways of America make an endearing story, but behind her adventures and triumphs moves the larger story of the settlers' problems in finding markets for their dairy products and their attempts to make good cheese in a locality where popular opinion agreed it could not be done.

246 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

"From time immemorial, people have walked on the land of the present-day Thurston County, Washington. Its waters provided sustenance and a way of life for Native inhabitants, and maritime explorers sought out its shores. Rich prairies attracted hearty pioneers who developed productive farms; its woods supplied a growing nation with timber products. At the center of the Thurston County story is the spirit of its Native heritage, enduring communities, and the capital of Washington State. Local authors have pooled their expertise to bring to life the history of this lovely capital county on Puget Sound"--Back cover

290 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 29 cm

"Oliver Otis Howard thought he was a man of destiny. Chosen to lead the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War, the Union Army general was entrusted with the era's most crucial task: helping millions of former slaves claim the rights of citizens. He was energized by the belief that abolition and Reconstruction, the country's great struggles for liberty and equality, were God's plan for himself and the nation. To honor his righteous commitment to a new American freedom, Howard University was named for him. But as the nation's politics curdled in the 1870s, General Howard exiled himself from Washington, D.C., rejoined the army, and was sent across the continent to command forces in the Pacific Northwest. Shattered by Reconstruction's collapse, he assumed a new mission: forcing Native Americans to become Christian farmers on government reservations. Howard's plans for redemption in the West ran headlong into the resistance of Chief Joseph, a young Nez Perce leader in northeastern Oregon who refused to leave his ancestral land. Claiming equal rights for Native Americans, Joseph was determined to find his way to the center of American power and convince the government to acknowledge his people's humanity and capacity for citizenship. Although his words echoed the very ideas about liberty and equality that Howard had championed during Reconstruction, in the summer of 1877 the general and his troops ruthlessly pursued hundreds of Nez Perce families through the stark and unforgiving Northern Rockies. An odyssey and a tragedy, their devastating war transfixed the nation and immortalized Chief Joseph as a hero to generations of Americans. Re-creating the Nez Perce War through the voices of its survivors, Daniel J. Sharfstein's visionary history of the West casts Howard's turn away from civil rights alongside the nation's rejection of racial equality and embrace of empire. The conflict becomes a pivotal struggle over who gets to claim the American dream: a battle of ideas about the meaning of freedom and equality, the mechanics of American power, and the limits of what the government can and should do for its people. The war that Howard and Joseph fought is one that Americans continue to fight today."--Jacket

xvii, 613 pages : maps ; 25 cm

Published in local editions, Leonore Gale Barette’s Thumbpapers: Sketches of Pioneer Days offers a charming and intimate collection of vignettes capturing the daily struggles, simple pleasures, and quiet resilience of early settlers in the Pacific Northwest. The book weaves together personal reminiscences and local folklore to illustrate how isolated frontier communities banded together to build homes, schools, and civic life amidst vast wilderness. Through its evocative, unpretentious prose, the text preserves the texture of a bygone era before industrialization reshaped the rural landscape. A keen insight drawn from the work is how domestic and everyday details—rather than grand political milestones—serve as the true bedrock of historical memory; by focusing on the small, routine friction of pioneer housekeeping and community socializing, the narrative reveals that civilization on the frontier was sustained just as much by ordinary human connection as it was by physical survival.

xi, 67 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Jonathan Carver, who was born in Massachusetts, served in the colonial militia during the French and Indian War rising to the rank of Captain and mastering the techniques of surveying and map making. He left the army in 1763 with the intention of exploring the new territories acquired by the British as a result of the war. In 1766 Robert Rogers appointed Carver to lead a semi-official expedition to find a route via lakes and rivers to the Pacific Ocean and the East Indies. Carver left Fort Michilimackinac at Mackinack Island in the spring of 1766, travelling along the northern coast of Lake Michigan, before cutting across to what is now the Door County peninsula in Wisconsin and continuing along the western edge of the bay until reaching what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. From here he traveled up the Fox River to the Winnebago Indian village at the north end of Lake Winnebago. He continued up the Fox River until he arrived at the "Grand Portage" (a well used portage between the Fox River and the Wisconsin River). Carver then crossed to the Wisconsin River and traveled down to the Mississippi emerging at the great trade encampment at Prairie du Chien. He then turned north into what is now Minnesota. By the late summer he had reached the Saint Anthony Falls (Minneapolis). He spent some time near the falls but turned south, down the Mississippi to find a more suitable place to spend the winter, setting camp in a tribal village in what is now eastern Iowa. The next spring he continued exploring and mapping the Mississippi River through what is now Minnesota and Wisconsin before eventually returning in 1768 to the British fort at Mackinack. In pursuit of a claim for compensation from the British Government for the work he had put into the expedition, Carver travelled to London and it was here that the present work was published. "Carver's book was an immediate success when first published in 1778, and a second London edition followed the next year; over thirty editions and versions have been published since in several languages. A very important book in the history of the exploration of the American West as Carver was the first English-speaking explorer to venture west of the upper Mississippi River. He anticipated the idea of a continental divide as he was the first to mention a large mountain range to the west (presumably the Rocky Mountains) that blocks the westward passage. Further, the name 'Oregon' appears in print here for the first time, both in the text, and on one of the maps. Carver penetrated farther into the West than any other English explorer before the Revolution and stimulated curiosity concerning routes to the Pacific, later satisfied by Mackenzie and Lewis and Clark."

xvi, vii, [2], 10-282, [2] p. ; 17 cm. (12mo)

Those Island People,began with a series of articles in the Times-Colonist about interesting and often unknown Islanders: gold seekers and gamblers, former slaves and veteran soldiers, missionaries and rabble rousers. Some of their forebears had been on the Island for thousands of years, but most of them came from somewhere else to make their lives on Vancouver Island. Those Island People involved more than the usual amount of detective work. I was determined to have a photograph for every chapter, but photographs of some subjects had eluded me for years.

x, 118 pages : illustrations, map, portraits ; 23 cm.

Authored by linguists Laurence C. Thompson and M. Terry Thompson, the Thompson River Salish Dictionary (nł̳e?̳kepmxcín) stands as a comprehensive lexical documentation of the Interior Salish language spoken by the Nlaka'pamux people of British Columbia. The volume meticulously records thousands of word stems, grammatical structures, and cultural terms, preserving the intricate phonetic nuances of a language deeply rooted in the river valleys and plateaus of the Pacific Northwest. Through decades of rigorous fieldwork and collaboration with native speakers, the text provides an invaluable linguistic archive designed to rescue an endangered indigenous tongue from colonial erasure. A keen insight drawn from the work is how comprehensive dictionary-making transcends academic compilation to become an act of political and cultural reclamation; by encoding the hyper-specific ecological, botanical, and spiritual vocabulary of the Nlaka'pamux into a permanent written record, the lexicon arms future generations with the native linguistic tools required to fully reclaim their ancestral sovereignty and relationship to the land.

xxvii, 1412 pages ; 29 cm.

Ralph W. Andrews and Harry A. Kirwin’s This Was Seafaring: A Sea Chest of Salty Memories chronicles the grueling maritime subjugation and hazardous commercial exploitation of the Pacific Northwest’s volatile coastal frontier. The narrative maps how the severe environmental realities of this treacherous oceanographic zone—characterized by the ship-killing breakers of the Columbia River Bar, fog-choked labyrinthine fjords, and violent, storm-battered straits—strictly dictated the design and deployment of the region's heavily reinforced marine fleets. By detailing the precarious transition from vulnerable wind-driven tall ships to rugged, mechanized steam-tugs, alongside the catastrophic shipwrecks that inevitably littered the jagged shoreline, the text illustrates how the economic survival of isolated coastal settlements was entirely governed by the necessity of mastering these unforgiving aquatic highways. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that aggressively engineering robust nautical infrastructure and deploying highly specialized maritime labor to conquer the explosive kinetic energy of the Pacific edge were the absolute prerequisites for breaching the region's profound continental isolation and connecting its massive timber and marine harvests to the broader global economy.

168 pages illustrations 28 cm