Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

The Olympic Peninsula is more than just big trees and scenic coastlines. Layered on this rich landscape are unique animals and plants, extraordinary geology, histories of Native Americans that go back thousands of years, exploits of famed European explorers, and the hard work of the early pioneers. Roadside Guide to the Olympic Peninsula is your complete guidebook as it weaves all this together while escorting you around the Peninsula.“Indispensable in the car for your next Peninsula road trip. "I learned tons and couldn’t wait to get to the next stop in Chapman’s journey. Will make anyone’s travels on the Peninsula richer and more rewarding.” —Lynda V. Mapes, author of A River Reborn and Breaking The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village."This book, with its wealth of history, geology and nature, is the must have resource for the Olympic peninsula. Whether you spend a day, or a lifetime, this is the book you will refer to over and over again." —Rob Sandelin, Naturalist, teacher and author of Field Guide to the Cascades and Olympics."Christopher Chapman’s Roadside Guide to the Olympic Peninsula brings the geography, geology, and natural and human history -- as well as some of the mystery and magic -- of the Olympic Peninsula into clear and immediate focus. It is a “must-have” roadside reference for visitors to this lovely and dynamic landscape." —Tim McNulty, author of Olympic National A Natural History Book.The Book contains a complete listing of phone numbers and addresses of Ranger Stations, Government Information Centers, Visitor and Chambers of Commerce, Campground Managers, Museums and Tribes. Along with all the Audubon Society resources, the list of the most prevalent bird species and where to find them and the complete list of the National and State Registered Historic Landmarks for the Peninsula.

xiii, 318 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Strikes were a way of life for central Washington coal miners and their families, but Tuesday, April 3, 1934, was different. This time, people were afraid. Wives and mothers pelted cars with rocks, rotten eggs, and cow pies. They cursed and assaulted anyone who dared to cross their picket line. On a normal shift, the striking laborers spent ten or more hours at the workplace. Dressing, preparing lights and equipment, and traveling into the mine shaft--as much as an hour each way--were all done on their own time. The miners and their families wanted safer working conditions, fair wages, and a six-hour workday. So when leaders of their national union, the United Mine Workers of America, seemed indifferent to their concerns, some local members created a new organization, the Western Miners Union of America, and decided to strike. But this time, conflicting union alliances turned residents of Roslyn, Cle Elem, and Ronald against each other, and the heated, violent battle left deep and lasting scars. A refreshingly balanced account, Coal Wars captures the drama surrounding a dual union movement in the 1930s American West while portraying the region's melting pot of working families and the sociopolitical impacts of New Deal policies. Author David Bullock witnessed the bitter emotions first hand. His grandfather, a Roslyn miner, lived through the events depicted in Coal Wars.

vii, 211 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

The Clearwater River runs deep through northern Idaho's history. The Nez Perce tribe made its home along the river. Lewis and Clark's journey west took them through the Clearwater. In fact, the Nez Perce made the expedition's voyage from the Clearwater River to the Pacific Ocean possible by teaching them how to make dugout canoes from ponderosa pine logs. Fur traders like John Jacob Astor and William Ashley financed the first American commercial activity on the river, bringing trappers to the area and paving the way for the Oregon Trail. Later came the first gold rush, the Nez Perce war, statehood, homesteaders and the beginning of the logging industry. Join author John Bradbury as he recounts a time when native tribes, explorers, trappers, preachers, miners and lumberjacks made a life along the Clearwater, establishing the area for future generations.

157 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Steven J. Koonce’s Idaho beer: from grain to glass in the Gem State explores the collaborative agricultural development and enduring cultural integration of the brewing industry within the diverse landscapes of the inland Pacific Northwest. The narrative illustrates how the profound environmental realities of this expansive topography—spanning the fertile, volcanic soils of the Snake River Plain to the pristine, snow-fed aquifers of the mountainous interior—required immense resilience and thoughtful agrarian adaptation from early hop farmers and barley cultivators. By detailing the gradual transition from isolated frontier settlements to the cooperative establishment of thriving local breweries, the text highlights how the state's economic and social prosperity relied on community-driven responses to its natural agricultural abundance. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that patiently cultivating the region's rich botanical resources and cooperatively building shared civic spaces around local enterprise were essential steps in transforming a rugged pioneer territory into a cohesive, culturally vibrant, and deeply rooted commonwealth.

142 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm

For most of us, the Great Depression that gripped the nation for almost 10 years in the late 1920's and '30's is only something that we vaguely recall from reading history books. In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the reins of the nation and created the NEW DEAL. One of the most successful programs of the NEW DEAL was the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It focused on getting the unemployed young men off the streets of America's largest cities and transporting them by train to their new home in camps spread across the country. These camps would be their home for a minimum of six months. The book "Camps and Calluses" discusses what lead up to the Great Depression and where and how the CCC camps in southwestern Oregon played their part. This book follows my other ones in style and narrative. It highlights with photographs the camps and work projects in the region while being supported by a detailed narrative on each camp. Sadly, there is little evidence left to prove the CCC boys were here. The camp sites have all disappeared and only a few rock walls have stood the test of time to demonstrate their work. So, I decided to write a book about what they did. --author

224 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 29 cm + 1 map

John Mullan's celebrated road - a 625-mile link that connected the Missouri and Columbia Rivers - established the West Point graduate as an accomplished engineer. After completing the Northwest's first engineered highway at age thirty-two, he lived for nearly another half century, a period of dynamic change. When he died in 1909, automobiles were making their initial crossings along his route. The arterial eventually became a critical link in America's longest interstate freeway, I-90. Yet despite frequent mentions in books about the nineteenth century Northwest, the soldier/explorer has remained little more than a caricature: a dashing young Army officer who comes West, builds one of its most important thoroughfares, and then disappears from regional literature. Now, in lively prose, Idaho State Historian Keith Petersen takes a fresh look at Mullan, whose road significantly impacted the development of the Northwest. Mullan's story includes business partnerships and personal relationships with some of the West's most intriguing characters: Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet, General William T. Sherman, Chico founder John Bidwell, Idaho gold discoverer Elias Pierce, Yakama Indian chief Owhi, and others. The first comprehensive portrayal of John Mullan's life, this deeply researched biography probes the explorer's complex personality, his rise to fame, and his fall from grace.

336 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

In the frontier towns of Idaho, the combination of gold diggers, corrupt officials, and hot-headed vigilantes created an easily combustible mixture. Serial killer Lyda Lewis made a comfortable living for a while by poisoning her unsuspecting husbands and cashing in on their life insurance policies. When federal investigators were unable to uncover the Eddy and Splawn families’ gold coin counterfeiting scheme, a teenaged store clerk finally infiltrated the operation and gave the authorities enough evidence to send the ringleaders to prison. And “Diamondfield” Jack Davis, who nearly hung for his unfortunate combination of an itchy trigger finger and a big mouth, escaped the noose thanks to his association with the powerful cattlemen.

xv, 175 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm

"The air had no oxygen, like being trapped underwater ... I was being cremated, the pain unbearable."--Jim Scymanky. "I was on my knees, my back to the hot wind. It blew me along, lifting my rear so I was up on my hands ... It was hot but I didn't feel burned--until I felt my ears curl."--Mike Hubbard. A napping volcano blinked awake in March 1980. Two months later, the mountain roared. Author Richard Waitt was one of the first to arrive following the mountain's early rumblings. A geologist with intimate knowledge of Mount St. Helens, Waitt delivers a detailed and accurate chronicle of events. His eruption story unfolds through unforgettable, riveting narratives--the heart of a masterful chronology that also delivers engrossing science, history, and journalism

x, 413 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

To those with an interest in railroad history in the United States, mention of the words "narrow gauge" may bring to mind the extensive three-foot-gauge railroads of Colorado and Utah or perhaps the famous two-foot-gauge lines in Maine. However, few would think first of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Nonetheless, between 1877 and 1893, an extensive narrow-gauge railroad developed in Oregon" one that had aspirations of crossing the Cascade Mountains and connecting with the Central Pacific Railroad, thus giving Oregon its first access to the transcontinental railroad system. It is this railroad system, from its inception in 1877 to the present day, that Ed Austin explores herein.

127 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

The promise of opportunity drew twenty-seven-year-old Illinois schoolteacher William Winlock Miller west to the future Washington Territory in 1850. Like so many other Oregon Trail emigrants Miller arrived cash-poor and ambitious, but unlike most he fulfilled his grandest ambitions. By the time of his death in 1876, Miller had amassed one of the largest private fortunes in the territory and had used it creatively in developing the region’s assets, leaving a significant mark on the territory’s political and economic history. Appointed Surveyor of Customs at the newly created Port of Nisqually in 1851, Miller was the first federal official north of the Columbia River. Two years later he helped organize the new territory‘s Democratic Party and quickly became a political and financial confidant of governor Isaac Stevens. His involvement in the Indian conflict in 1855–56, a term in the territorial legislature, and his bankrolling of key politicians made him the territory’s most effective political networker. His role as a “hip-pocket banker” in a region without established banks made him a powerful financial broker and a major player in territorial affairs. But in his pursuit of success Miller compromised another ambition he carried west from Illinois. He postponed marriage and family until only a few years before his death and agonized about relationships with his family in Illinois. His experience reminds us that the pioneer settlement era was a period of social dislocation and that public economic and political success could mask personal disappointment. Lang’s biography takes readers into the heart of Washington territorial politics, where alliances often hinged more on mutual economic interest than political principles and nearly all agreed that government should encourage ambitious and energetic men. In this world, Lang argues, Miller succeeded because he parlayed his talents in camaraderie politics and sharp-pencil business affairs with an unabashed mining of governmental opportunities. William Lang’s account of William Winlock Miller and the first quarter century of Washington’s history offers a new view of the pioneer era, emphasizing that the West was developed in large measure by men like Miller who manipulated government and its resources to their own and the region’s advantage.

xiii, 310 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm

"Few regions of the country produced such a distinctive group of artists with such a particular view on the modern world as did the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s and 1940s. Capitalizing on their particular geographical position at what was a modern art outpost--working free from the strong influences of New York and Europe, and sitting at the portal to the Far East--a close-knit group of artists sought to address the global political, social, and economic ills of their time. The seminal figures in this group--Mark Tobey and Morris Graves especially--quickly garnered critical attention in New York for their uncommon imagery and expressive technique, which drew upon spiritual tenents ranging from Zen Buddhism to the Persian Bahai faith and their mastery of Asian calligraphy. Modernism in the Pacific Northwest presents an overview drawn from SAM's unparalleled collection of the key figures of this generation: painters Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, Leo Kenney, Paul Horiuchi, and George Tsutakawa, and sculptors Phil McCracken and James Washington. Patricia Junker is the Ann M. Barwick Curator of American Art at the Seattle Art Museum and is the author of Albert Bierstadt and Edward Hopper"-- Provided by publisher

ix, 102 pages : illustrations ; 32 cm

In the 1950s, the city of Seattle began a transformation from an insular, provincial outpost to a vibrant and cosmopolitan cultural center. As veteran Seattle journalist R. M. Campbell illustrates in Stirring Up Seattle: Allied Arts in the Civic Landscape, this transformation was catalyzed in part by the efforts of a group of civic arts boosters originally known as “The Beer and Culture Society.” This “merry band” of lawyers, architects, writers, designers, and university professors, eventually known as Allied Arts of Seattle, lobbied for public funding for the arts, helped avert the demolition of Pike Place Market, and were involved in a wide range of crusades and campaigns in support of historic preservation, cultural institutions, and urban livability.

xxxv, 251 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Photographer Edward Curtis’s 1914 orchestrally scored melodrama In the Land of the Head Hunters was one of the first US films to feature an Indigenous cast. This landmark of early silent cinema was an intercultural product of Curtis’s collaboration with the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw of British Columbia—meant, like Curtis’s photographs, to document a supposedly vanishing race. But as this collection shows, the epic film is not simply an artifact of colonialist nostalgia. In recognition of the film’s centennial, and the release of a restored version, Return to the Land of the Head Hunters brings together leading anthropologists, Native American authorities, artists, musicians, literary scholars, and film historians to reassess the film and its legacy. The volume offers unique Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw perspectives on the film, accounts of its production and subsequent circulation, and evaluations of its depictions of cultural practice. Resituated within film history and informed by a legacy of Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw participation and response, the movie offers dynamic evidence of ongoing cultural survival and transformation under shared conditions of modernity.

xxvii, 420 pages ; 26 cm.

"The Yakama Nation of present day Washington State has responded to more than a century of historical trauma with a resurgence of grass roots activism and cultural revitalization. This path-breaking ethnography shifts the conversation from one of victimhood to one of ongoing resistance and resilience as a means of healing the soul wounds of settler colonialism"--Page 4 of cover

xii, 139 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Immigrants from South Asia first began settling in Washington and Oregon in the nineteenth century, but because of restrictions placed on Asian immigration to the United States in the early twentieth century, the vast majority have come to the region since World War II. Roots and Reflections uses oral history to show how South Asian immigrant experiences were shaped by the region and how they differed over time and across generations. It includes the stories of immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka who arrived from the end of World War II through the 1980s.

xxvi, 273 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Found on the history shelves of the Greater Victoria Public Library, these twenty true stories are brought to life by Stephen Ruttan. They draw a picture of the life of a city with a recent past that's both unconventional and colourful. From Miss Wilson and her famous parrot, Louis, to Jimmy Chicken Island, named after a man who acquired his surname from his habit of stealing chickens, to the Pig War, when Britain and the United States nearly came to blows over the San Juan Islands, to the rise and fall of Francis Rattenbury, one of Victorias best-known architects, these stories reveal a lively history of a West Coast capital city. Archival illustrations, newspaper clippings, and modern photos help make Vancouver Island Scoundrels, Eccentrics and Originals a delightful and illluminating read.

184 pages : illustrations (some colour), maps, portraits ; 19 cm.

Obstinate Hope studies Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth who is not numbered among America’s greatest heroes. The successful Boston ice merchant is considered a failure in the fur trade. Yet Wyeth was a practical businessman with an adventurous Yankee spirit that led him twice across the continent and back, in 1832 and again in 1834, prior to the development of reliable maps or emigrant trails. Wyeth’s contributions to westward expansion have been largely overlooked by historians. Obstinate Hope is part one of a two part examination of the life of Nathaniel J. Wyeth. The book begins with a look at Wyeth's pre-fur trade life including his heritage, operation of the family's Fresh Pond Hotel and his early career in the ice industry. The bulk of the book details his first expedition to the west (1832-1833) using his letters and journals as its base. The narrative follows Wyeth on his trip to the fur trade rendezvous in Pierre's Hole, on to the Pacific Northw...est and then back to the East coast. Each of Wyeth's journal entries are accompanied by the author's commentary, providing insight into Wyeth's experiences. The story is supplemented with information from the journals and letters of other people who were with him for all or part of the trip. The commentary also compares what Wyeth encountered in the west with events and occurrences from other trapper diaries. Ten maps and more than three dozen images illustrate the text. Jim Hardee is the editor of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, published by the Sublette County Historical Society and the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming. Jim is the author of Pierre’s The Fur Trade History of Teton Valley, Idaho. He is also the director of the Fur Trade Research Center and is a presenter for many conferences and symposiums. He has published numerous articles on various fur trade topics, and lives in Pierre's Hole, Idaho.

v. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.

When they were brought to Oregon in 1844, Missouri slaves Robin and Polly Holmes and their children were promised freedom in exchange for helping develop their owner’s Willamette Valley farm. However, slaveholder Nathaniel Ford, an influential settler and legislator, kept them in bondage until 1850, even then refusing to free their children. Holmes took his former master to court and, in the face of enormous odds, won the case in 1853. In Breaking Chains, R. Gregory Nokes tells the story of the only slavery case ever adjudicated in Oregon courts—Holmes v. Ford. Drawing on the court record of this landmark case, Nokes offers an intimate account of the relationship between a slave and his master from the slave’s point of view. He also explores the experiences of other slaves in early Oregon, examining attitudes toward race and revealing contradictions in the state’s history. Oregon was the only free state admitted to the union with a voter-approved constitutional clause banning African Americans and, despite the prohibition against slavery, many in Oregon tolerated it, and supported politicians who were pro-slavery, including Oregon’s first territorial governor. Told against the background of the national controversy over slavery, Breaking Chains sheds light on a somber part of Pacific Northwest history, bringing the story of slavery in Oregon to a broader audience.

xvi, 224 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing U.S. Armed Forces to remove citizens and noncitizens from “military areas.” The result was the abrupt dislocation and imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese American citizens in the western United States. In Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp, Teresa Tamura documents one of ten such camps, the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Jerome County, Idaho. Her documentation includes artifacts made in the camp as well as the story of its survivors, uprooted from their homes in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California. The essays are supplemented by 180 black-and-white photographs and interviews that fuse present and past. Tamura began her project after President Bill Clinton designated part of the Minidoka site as the 385th unit of the National Park Service. Her work furthers the tradition of socially inspired documentary photojournalism, illuminating the cultural, sociological, and political significance of Minidoka. Ultimately, her book reminds us of what happens when fear, hysteria, and racial prejudice subvert human rights and shatter human lives.

vii, 305 pages : illustrations ; 23 x 28 cm

As Rugged as the Terrain: CCC Boys, Federal Convicts, and World War II Alien Internees Wrestle with a Mountain Wilderness explores some intriguing history of Idahos wild and scenic Lochsa River. In 1893 this site, at turbulent Canyon Creek, was a footnote in the saga of the ill-fated Carlin hunting party. Next, in 1933, it held nearly 200 tent-dwelling Civilian Conservation Corps recruits, most from New York State. The antics of these city slickers provide colorful insights into CCC camps housing young men far from home.

xxxviii, 393 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.

This cross-continental history demonstrates Abraham Lincoln’s strong connections with the Oregon Country on various political issues—Indian relations, military policies, civil and legal rights, and North-South ideological conflicts—before and during the Civil War years. Richard Etulain refutes the argument that Pacific Northwest residents were mere “spectators of disunion,” revealing instead that men and women of the Oregon Country were personally and emotionally involved in the controversial ideas and events that inflamed the United States during the fractious era. Etulain’s well-researched and clearly told story demonstrates how links between Washington, D.C., and the Oregon Country helped shape both Lincoln’s policies and Oregon politics. About the author: Richard W. Etulain is the author or editor of more than fifty books, including Conversations with Wallace Stegner on Western History and Literature, Beyond the Missouri: The Story of the American West, and Lincoln Looks West: From the Mississippi to the Pacific. A Professor Emeritus of History at the University of New Mexico, he lives in Clackamas, Oregon.

xii, 210 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

"Terrestrial mollusks, the second largest phylum in the animal kingdom, are vitally important to the earth's ecology. With the publication of Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest, a definitive and comprehensive guide to snails and slugs of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western Montana is finally available. Primarily an identification guide, this richly illustrated volume offers complete information on the range of terrestrial mollusk shapes, sizes, and characteristics. It presents an overview of their habitat requirements as well as details of land snail and slug ecology, collection and preservation methods, and biogeography. Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest is an essential reference for biologists, horticulturalists, gardeners, and naturalists, and anyone wishing to identify species in the field."--Publisher's website

344 pages : color illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Despite frequent depiction as a bird of California and the desert southwest, North America’s largest avian scavenger once graced the skies of the Pacific Northwest, from northern California to British Columbia. This important volume documents the condor’s history in the region, from prehistoric times to the early twentieth century, and explores the challenges of reintroduction. Jesse D’Elia and Susan Haig investigate the paleontological and observational record as well as the cultural relationships between Native American tribes and condors, providing the most complete assessment to date of the condor’s occurrence in the Pacific Northwest. They evaluate the probable causes of regional extinction and the likelihood that condors once bred in the region, and they assess factors that must be considered in determining whether they could once again thrive in Northwest skies. Incorporating the newest research and findings and more than eighty detailed historical accounts of human encounters with these birds of prey, California Condors in the Pacific Northwest sets a new standard for examining the historical record of a species prior to undertaking a reintroduction effort. It is a vital reference for academics, agency decision makers, conservation biologists, and readers interested in Northwest natural history. The volume is beautifully illustrated by Ram Papish and includes a number of previously unpublished photographs.

xvi, 208 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

In this rich and engaging history, Tami Parr shows how regional cheesemaking found its way back to the farm. It?s a lively story that begins with the first fur traders in the Pacific Northwest and ends with modern-day small farmers in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. For years, farmers in the Pacific Northwest made and sold cheese to support themselves, but over time the craft of cheesemaking became a profitable industry and production was consolidated into larger companies and cooperatives. Eventually, few individual cheesemakers were left in the region. In the late sixties and early seventies, influenced by the counterculture and back-to-the-land movements, the number of small farms and cheesemakers began to grow, initiating an artisan cheese renaissance that continues today

208 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

On October 1, 1917, prohibition came into effect in the province of British Columbia. Washington and Oregon had gone dry the previous year. The ban on liquor sales led to deadly conflict and legal chaos in the Pacific Northwest, and the legacy of those booze battles continues into the 21st century. Rich Mole introduced readers to West Coast prohibitions pioneer years in Scoundrels and Saloons: Whisky Wars of the Pacific Northwest, 18401917. In Rum-runners and Renegades, he recounts the wild and wacky—and sometimes tragic—results of later prohibition laws through the exploits of both prohibitionists and prohibition-busters, among them Jonathan Rogers, a wealthy Vancouver builder and prohibition leader; the Billingsley brothers, a quartet of handsome bootleggers from Seattle; and enterprising Johnny Schnarr, Victorias number-one rum-runner. From vicious marine hijackers and bedeviled police to corrupt politicians and frustrated drinkers on both sides of the border, this is an action-filled account of liquor and lawlessness on the West Coast.

142 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 22 cm.