Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

"A brief history of a small and unique Class 1 railway and its famous Canada-USA tourist trains. Initially chartered in 1883 to serve the needs of local millers in Minneapolis, the Soo would eventually come to join the Canadian Pacific line at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with service to Montreal. In 1888, Canadian Pacific assumed controlling interest in the Soo Line, providing entry into the lucrative US market and levelling the playing field for the CPR to face the onslaught of ferocious competition from James J. Hill, the infamous American railway baron. The 'little railway that could' grew to attain giant-killer status, launching famous passenger trains from Minneapolis and St. Paul, meeting head-on the western expansion of the Great Northern Railway and viable, competitive routes to the Atlantic seaboard. Over the years, the Soo Line introduced thousands of Americans to Montreal and Quebec City, the famous Canadian Rockies resorts, and the city of Vancouver, the home port for CP's Pacific steamship services. The Soo also successfully competed on the Spokane and Portland routes from Minneapolis to the Pacific Northwest. In 1923 the 'Soo Mountaineer' was launched, becoming the most famous and longest 'two-nation' train journey in North America."-- Publisher

xviii, 87 pages : illustrations (some color), color maps ; 23 cm

Originally released in 1986 as Renegade Tribe, this award-winning title sensitively retells the compelling saga of western expansion and Indian-white conflict from a Native American perspective. The Snake River-Palouse resisted immigrant encroachment and fought a losing battle to retain their way of life. The Whitman Massacre, as well as a refusal to enter into U.S. government treaties, left them with a hostile reputation among the newcomers. With settlers increasingly demanding their removal and no reservation of their own, these Inland Northwest Indians faced extermination by the end of the nineteenth century. Examining written and oral evidence left by both indigenous and white cultures, this book presents the Snake River-Palouse as important actors in events and demonstrates how their initiative and decisions influenced the course of history. This revised edition offers a new introduction by the authors and a new foreword by Chief Tilcoax's descendent Wilson Wewah.

xxiv, 271 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Published by local presses, Sally Portman’s The Smiling Country: A History of the Methow Valley chronicles the colorful evolution of north-central Washington's dramatic river valley from its indigenous roots to its modern incarnation as a recreational haven. The book details the arduous lives of early homesteaders, gold miners, stockmen, and orchardists who carved a living out of a geographically isolated landscape defined by scorching summers and brutal winters. Through extensive oral histories and rich archival imagery, the text preserves the rugged character of communities like Winthrop and Twisp as they transitioned from extractive resource economies to tourism. A keen insight drawn from the work is how the valley's iconic moniker, "the smiling country," serves as a historical mask for the harsh economic realities of frontier survival; it reflects an enduring human impulse to romanticize an unforgiving high-desert ecosystem that frequently tested the limits of those who tried to tame it.

381 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Authored by local historian Buddie Williams, The Sky Valley, Volume 2: A Photographic History continues the visual documentation of Washington's rugged Skykomish River corridor through a rich collection of historic photographs and archival ephemera. The volume captures the dramatic transformation of towns like Index, Sultan, and Startup as they evolved from raw logging camps and mining outposts into established, tight-knit communities framed by the Cascade Mountains. Through vintage images of steam locomotives, timber mills, high-water floods, and local school children, the text portrays the relentless daily labor required to carve civilization out of a steep, flood-prone river valley. A keen insight drawn from the work is how visual archives of mountain valleys expose the inherent fragility of industrial frontier settlements; the recurring imagery of swollen rivers and swept-away bridges reminds readers that human infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest was always engaged in a precarious, high-stakes negotiation with an overwhelmingly powerful natural topography.

28 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Published in local editions by archivist Theresa Trebon in cooperation with the Skagit Valley Herald, The Skagit Collection: First Views: An Early History of Skagit County, 1850-1899, Vol. 2 compiles rare historical photographs and local narratives documenting the formative decades of Washington's Skagit Valley. The volume captures the arduous daily lives of early homesteaders, loggers, and commercial fishermen who wrestled a tamed agricultural and industrial landscape out of dense river deltas and dense timberlands. Drawing heavily from archival images and early newspaper columns, the text preserves the visual and social fabric of communities navigating rapid frontier expansion. A keen insight drawn from the work is how late 19th-century local journalism and photography served as deliberate acts of community-building; by visually documenting fledgling settlements before they were fully established, pioneers used the camera to legitimize their presence and carve a permanent sense of permanence out of a fluid, flood-prone wilderness.

xxiv, 143 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 20 cm

Published in 1895, Joseph A. Costello’s The Siwash: Their Life, Legends and Tales is an early ethnographic compilation documenting the oral traditions, daily customs, and folklore of the Coast Salish peoples across the Puget Sound region. A keen insight drawn from the text is how the author's reliance on the Chinook Jargon term "Siwash"—derived from the French word for "savage"—exposes the inherent paradox of late 19th-century settler literature, which eagerly commodified and preserved Indigenous heritage while viewing the people themselves through a deeply paternalistic, colonial lens. The narrative compiles regional creation myths, spiritual practices, and historical anecdotes, filtering complex indigenous histories through the perspective of the incoming white pioneers. Ultimately, the volume stands as both a foundational, albeit flawed, archive of Pacific Northwest Native American legends and a revealing historical artifact of the era's complex attitudes toward indigenous displacement.

vii, [3], 169 pages : frontispiece, plates, portraits ; 24 cm

The Siwash: Their Life, Legends, and Tales: Puget Sound and Pacific Northwest by Joseph A. Costello is an 1895 historical and folkloric compilation that provides an early settler's perspective on the Indigenous peoples of the Puget Sound region. Originally published in Seattle by the Calvert Company (and heavily referenced in later regional republications), the book gathers the myths, cultural practices, and daily realities of the area's Native American tribes, primarily the Coast Salish. While its title employs the Chinook Jargon term "Siwash"—a historically common but now widely recognized as derogatory adaptation of the French word for "savage"—the work reflects the complex, often paternalistic and romanticized attitudes prevalent among late-19th-century white pioneers. Ultimately, it serves as a valuable primary source document for regional ethnographers and historians, offering a critical window into early cross-cultural observations, the recording of Indigenous oral traditions, and the social zeitgeist of the Pacific Northwest frontier.

177 pages : color illustrations ; 29 cm

177 pages : color illustrations ; 29 cm

Published under the name B. J. Berrykeeper, The Siuslaw Storybook: The First Storybook of Siuslaw Indian Fables preserves the traditional oral literature, cultural values, and ancestral narratives of the Indigenous Siuslaw people of the central Oregon coast. The volume collects traditional fables and moral teachings passed down through generations, offering readers a rare window into a worldview deeply rooted in the coastal rivers, forests, and marine ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. Through these timeless stories, the text honors an ancient literary heritage that predates European-American settlement by millennia. A keen insight drawn from the work is how Indigenous fables function as ecological instruction manuals disguised as folklore; by embedding practical ecological wisdom and behavioral ethics into animal and landscape stories, the oral tradition ensured that generations of youth learned sustainable stewardship of their fragile coastal environment long before modern conservation laws existed.

73 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Gordon B. Dodds, Craig Wollner, and Marshall M. Lee’s The silicon forest: High Tech in the Portland Area 1945-1986 documents the dramatic economic and demographic transformation of the lower Willamette Valley as it evolved from traditional resource extraction into a prominent technology hub. Centering on the rapid suburban expansion across Washington County—particularly within the emerging tech corridors of Beaverton and Hillsboro—the narrative traces how a post-war influx of engineers and their families established new, enduring neighborhoods alongside sprawling corporate campuses. By exploring the closely knit professional networks and foundational companies that spawned generations of spin-off enterprises, the authors illustrate how this modern pioneer workforce collaboratively built a highly interconnected and lasting industrial community in the Pacific Northwest.

xi, 226 pages ; 23 cm

The Siletz Indian Reservation, 1855-1900 examines the forced geographic consolidation and subsequent survival of diverse Indigenous populations relocated to the rugged, heavily timbered coastal mountains of central Oregon. Kent details how the region's formidable physical barriers—specifically the steep, densely forested slopes of the Coast Range and the isolated, storm-battered Pacific shoreline—were intentionally utilized by the federal government to strictly dictate the confinement and marginalization of these displaced tribes. By mapping the arduous logistical realities of confining multiple distinct coastal and inland cultures within the remote, rain-drenched Siletz River basin, the narrative highlights the immense physical and cultural endurance required to adapt traditional subsistence practices to this highly restricted environment. The absolute geographic isolation of the Siletz Valley served to physically sever Native communities from their ancestral homelands across Western Oregon and Northern California, while the difficult, mountainous terrain severely limited the viability of the agrarian lifeways forced upon them by federal agents. Ultimately, this institutional and ethnohistorical record serves as a deeply localized spatial history, demonstrating how the severe topographical constraints and dense coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest inherently shaped the traumatic dislocation and enduring resilience of the confederated Siletz peoples.

54 pages : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm.

A transplanted Scotsman, Erskine was smitten by the Shuswap where he tended a fruit orchard and with his wife Alice, raised a family. Over the decades he explored every nook and cranny, with the keen eye of a newcomer. He motored, camped and trekked, following every conceivable route in the 1930s and 1940s. The Shuswap Country is his travelogue of observations, characters, anecdotes, puns, tall tales with a smattering of corny humour. It’s also bursting with crisp, clear photographs snapped by the author, making this a priceless document of pioneers, community halls, “auto camps,” train stations, sawmills, Main streets and pristine mountain meadows. Some of those meadows are now preserved inside provincial park boundaries like the Monashee. Erskine had the heart of a poet. He was captured by the shifting quality of light as it tracked across the landscape, or the “sombre green” of fir trees contrasted against the “bright green of birch.” A storm moving down Adams Lake, “has its own moods like temperamental humans.” He revels in flora and fauna – lupines, swallowtail butterflies, or a porcupine that made the mistake of munching into a packsack. His hand-drawn map at the beginning of the book is handy to help understand where we’re travelling next over these twelve journeys. Whether it’s high in the mountains to chat up sheep herders, or down into lush valleys with sweet alfalfa and Herefords dotting the countryside. A gregarious traveller, Erskine was usually certain to make a new friend, or break bread with an old one. He travelled on a road network that was still under development. “The best thing that can be said for the roads at present is there is room for improvement,” he sputters while motoring in the Eagle Valley near Malakwa. He loved to fish the region’s lakes and streams, with dreams of landing a trout for dinner. “A Sugar Lake trout cooked alfresco over a campfire is something to be remembered.” He seems to know every fishing lodge intimately, and where to buy worms at 10 cents a dozen. One is startled to read that canned “red” salmon was so plentiful that local people grew tired of it. Today, as we watch sockeye stocks crash it’s shocking to think that a bounty that has sustained Indigenous peoples for thousands of years can no longer be counted on. A devastation that has occurred within two or three lifetimes. The Shuswap Country might hook you into exploring this underappreciated region, it’s much more than a rest stop on the way to elsewhere. There is an honouring and celebration of the rural existence that is now mostly a memory. We should all visit and take Erskine’s scrapbook along to help see what’s been lost, and what may still be found.

114 pages : illustrations ; 21 x 26 cm

James Teit’s The Shuswap, edited by Franz Boas as part of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition monographs, represents the foundational anthropological and ethnological survey of the Secwépemc people of south-central British Columbia. Based on intensive fieldwork conducted between 1900 and 1908, Teit documents material culture, seasonal migration patterns, village locations, fishing stations, basketry, and trade routes linking the Fraser River, Thompson River, and Shuswap Lake systems. The volume provides detailed cartographic and ethnographic records of village bands, including those around the Salmon Arm delta and Spallumcheen corridor, capturing baseline territorial, sociological, and linguistic data prior to extensive twentieth-century agricultural and industrial reorganization.

pages 443-789, plates xiii-xvii : illustrations, maps ; 36 cm

The Ships of British Columbia: An Illustrated History of the British Columbia Ferry Corporation by Gary and Patricia Bannerman is a comprehensive 1985 maritime history, published by Hancock House, that chronicles the dramatic political origins and rapid expansion of what became one of the largest coastal ferry systems in the world. The book details the 1960 creation of the provincial fleet by Premier W.A.C. Bennett—initially a bold response to labor strikes in the private shipping sector—and traces its evolution into a vital transportation network connecting Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, and remote coastal communities. Richly illustrated with archival photographs, individual vessel profiles, and technical specifications, the volume ultimately serves as an authoritative and engaging resource for maritime historians and transportation enthusiasts seeking to understand the infrastructural heritage that bridges the marine highways of the Canadian Pacific Northwest.

176 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 22 x 27 cm

The Selkirks: Nelson's Mountains by J. F. Garden, featuring an introduction by mountaineering historian William Lowell Putnam, is a lavishly illustrated 1984 alpine history and geographical survey published by Footprint Publishing in Revelstoke, British Columbia. The volume serves as a spectacular visual tribute to the rugged Selkirk mountain range in southeastern British Columbia. Garden, a former locomotive engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway, pairs his extensive regional knowledge with breathtaking color photography to document the area's towering peaks, dramatic glaciers, and rich mountaineering legacy. By chronicling early alpine explorations, standard climbing routes, and the formidable logistics of navigating the Columbia Mountains, the book captures the fierce, untamed beauty of the region. Ultimately, it functions as an engaging, coffee-table-style resource for climbing enthusiasts and regional historians seeking to explore the majestic, high-altitude wilderness and pioneering alpine heritage of the Canadian Pacific Northwest.

143 pages : chiefly color illustrations ; 31 cm

An "account of a topographical survey of a portion of the Selkirk Mountains adjacent to the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway ... accompanied by a brief review of travel and exploration, of previous surveys and of mountaineering in these regions."

xvii, 459 pages, 92 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm + 1 case ([14] folded leaves of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm)

In the early twentieth century, the appearance of new houses across the United States shifted dramatically. Rejecting the elaborate decoration and complexity of Victorian homes, these new houses featured open, parlorless interiors and a minimalist aesthetic, radiating an aura of warmth, coziness, and naturalness. Nowhere were such residences more evident than in West Coast cities, especially Seattle, where explosive growth generated entire neighborhoods of this new house type--the bungalow. It was the nation's first modern home, and it established the essential characteristics of popular housing for the rest of the twentieth century. In The Seattle Bungalow, Janet Ore modifies the common notion that architectural change flows only from the design elite--the architects, domestic reformers, and planners who advocate for changes in domestic architecture--and argues that ordinary people played a crucial role in creating the bungalow. Through their growing power as consumers, modest-income families influenced the physical form of early twentieth-century houses and suburban landscapes. Still operating within a nineteenth-century labor and contracting system, small home builders responded to rising consumer demand for new conveniences such as electricity and central heating by simplifying their structures. Ambitious salespeople-real estate agents, plan book purveyors, and builders--created a new market for affordable small houses through astute advertising and financing. And once families acquired their homes, they used them flexibly, adapting their lives to their domestic spaces and refashioning their homes when necessary. From such efforts sprang the Seattle bungalow, an artifact of ordinary people's part in creating modern culture.

xviii, 202 pages : illustrations, map ; 26 cm

The Strait of Georgia is a one of the world's great inland seas, a 6,900 sq km body of water lying between the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island. Rich in history, teeming with wildlife and marine traffic, it is essential to British Columbians for food, jobs, travel and recreation. The sheltered waters of the strait are home to Canada's largest seaport and over two-thirds of the province's population. The Sea Among Us is the first book to present a comprehensive study of the Strait of Georgia in all its aspects with chapters on geology, First Nations, history, oceanography, fish, birds, mammals,invertebrates and plants. Covering everything from tsunami modelling to First Nations history to barnacle reproduction, the book is a sweeping overview of the waterway. It describes how fjords formed, what the seafloor is made of, and why coastal BC is so prone to earthquakes; it advises on which jellyfish sting, how to tell the difference between Dall's and harbour porpoises, and where to find whales; and it addresses how climate change and human impacts could affect the strait, noting that though marine ecosystems are tough and adaptable, there are limits to this resiliency. As editor Dr. Richard Beamish says, "It is the function of this book to inform British Columbians about the Strait of Georgia. All authors hope that the readers will use the information to ask questions about how the Strait of Georgia is coping with change and how they can provide more of the information that is needed to maintain a healthy Strait of Georgia." Informative, descriptive, cautionary and entertaining, The Sea Among Us is illustrated with attractive colour photographs, figures and drawings. It fills a place on the shelf of essential BC reference books beside The Encyclopedia of British Columbia and Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest.

xiv, 384 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour), maps, portraits ; 29 cm.

Luther Cressman's 1938 discovery of a 9,000-year-old sandal in Fort Rock Cave revolutionized accepted theories of western prehistory. The recovery of the woven sagebrush-bark sandal, found buried under a layer of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Mazama, established a human presence in the Oregon Country much earlier than previously thought. Through six decades of scientific investigation, Cressman worked to uncover the history of the first Oregonians. In The Sandal and the Cave, he offers a brief, lucid introduction to the prehistory of Oregon Indians. Cressman describes their diverse cultures, highlighting similarities and differences between the peoples of various regions: the Oregon Coast, the Klamath Highland, the Northern Great Basin, and the Columbia Plateau. In a new introduction to Cressman's classic work, Dennis Jenkins provides a short biographical profile of the "father of Oregon archaeology" and discusses the importance of Cressman's excavation results and interpretations. Jenkins also offers a concise summary of recent archaeological research in the Northern Great Basin, bringing readers the most up-to-date information about the oldest known sites in Oregon. About the author: Luther S. Cressman (1897-1994) joined the University of Oregon faculty in 1929 and, in addition to his pioneering work as a field archaeologist, was instrumental in establishing the Department of Anthropology and the UO Museum of Natural History. His other books are Prehistory of the Far West: Homes of Vanished Peoples and A Golden Journey: Memoirs of an Archaeologist.

xxxiii, 142 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm.

Hugh W. McKervill’s The Salmon People provides a comprehensive historical account of the commercial fishing industry that fundamentally shaped the coastal geography of British Columbia. The narrative maps the perilous maritime routes and remote, isolated inlets, stretching from the massive, teeming salmon runs of the Fraser River delta northward through the jagged, forested archipelagos of the Pacific coast. By chronicling the establishment of pioneer canneries and the arduous daily lives of the diverse fleets navigating the tempestuous waters of the open ocean, the text illustrates the profound human reliance on the region's marine ecosystems. Ultimately, the book vividly captures how the intricate aquatic topography of Canada's western shoreline served as the vital cultural and industrial lifeblood of this Pacific Northwest province.

198 pages illustrations, maps 23 cm

Robert D. Hume, capitalist, pioneer in the development of the salmon-canning industry of the Pacific Coast, and one of America's first conservationists, was an entrepreneur whose activities illustrate much about the economy, politics, and society of the Northwest.

257 pages illustrations 23 cm

In stunning color photographs, and compelling stories, this keepsake book reveals the the Salish Sea, a unique ecosystem home to thousands of different species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and macro-invertebrates. The Salish Sea region is an ecological jewel straddling the western border between Canada and the United States, connected to the Pacific Ocean primarily through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There, lush and mossy old-growth forests meet waters with dazzlingly-colored anemones and majestic orcas. This is the first book of its kind to describe the Salish Sea, whose name was not even officially recognized until 2008. One of the world’s largest inland seas, the Salish Sea contains 6,535 square miles of sea surface area and 4,642 miles of coastline. This fascinating visual journey through the Salish Sea combines a scientist’s inquiring mind, dazzling full-color photographs, and a lively narrative of fascinating stories, all of which impart a sense of connection with this intricate marine ecosystem and the life that it sustains.

xi, 147 pages : color illustrations ; 22 x 28 cm

"During the decade of the 1850s, the Oregon Territory progressed toward statehood in an atmosphere of intense political passion and conflict. Editors of rival newspapers blamed a group of young men whom they named the 'Salem Clique' for the bitter party struggles of the time. Led by Asahel Bush, editor of the Oregon Statesman, the Salem Clique was accused of dictatorship, corruption, and the intention of imposing slavery on the Territory. The Clique, critics maintained, even conspired to establish a government separate from the United States, conceivably a 'bigamous Mormon republic.' While not in agreement with some of the more extreme contemporary accusations against the Clique, many historians have concluded that its members were vicious and unscrupulous men who were able, because of their command of the Democratic Party, to impose their hegemony on the Oregon Territory's inhabitants. Other scholars have seen them as merely another manifestation of the contentious politics of the period. Although the Salem Clique has been given considerable prominence in nearly every account of Oregon's Territorial period, there has not been a detailed study of its role until now. What sort of people were these men? What was their impact on the issues, events, and movements of the period? What role did they play in the years after Oregon became a state? Historian Barbara Mahoney sets out to answer these and many other questions in this comprehensive and deeply researched history"--Publisher description

1 online resource (xi, 212 pages) : illustrations, maps

Irvin E. Rockwell’s The saga of American Falls Dam explores the profound transformation and careful hydrological management of the Snake River basin in southeastern Idaho. The narrative illustrates how the challenging environmental realities of this high-desert region—defined by vast sagebrush steppes, limited rainfall, and the immense, untapped energy of the river's cataracts—initially constrained early agricultural efforts. By detailing the complex, politically collaborative process of constructing the impressive concrete and earth-fill dam, the text highlights how the region's economic growth relied on thoughtfully harnessing the river's water. Crucially, it also recounts the remarkable community effort and logistical coordination required to carefully relocate the original town of American Falls to make way for the new reservoir. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that managing the Snake River's flow and reshaping the local landscape were essential steps in turning a dry, isolated area into a thriving, irrigated agricultural heartland of the intermountain West.

201 pages illustrations, portraits, facsimiles 23 cm

Basil Dmytryshyn, E. A. P. Crownhart-Vaughan, and Thomas Vaughan’s edited collection, The Russian American colonies, 1798-1867: a documentary record, chronicles the expansive maritime fur trade and imperial expansion that stretched from the rugged Aleutian archipelago down the Pacific Coast to the frontiers of Alta California. Set against the harsh coastal climates and deep-water fjords of the northern Pacific rim, these translated primary documents detail how the Russian-American Company operated as a state-sponsored mercantile monopoly, establishing fortified outposts like New Archangel (Sitka) and Fort Ross in profoundly isolated environments. By tracing the complex, often fraught interdependencies between Russian administrators, Creole populations, and indigenous Aleut and Tlingit communities, the text reveals how these remote settlements relied on highly structured, multi-ethnic maritime labor networks to survive severe supply shortages and fierce international competition. Ultimately, this documentary record demonstrates how the forced and cooperative integration of European corporate infrastructure and indigenous maritime expertise temporarily transformed a sprawling coastal wilderness into a highly regulated commercial empire that profoundly shaped the early geopolitical borders of the Pacific Northwest.

xci, 590 pages : illustrations, maps ; 27 cm