Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

British Columbia was among the last temperate places on Earth to appear on the map of the world, a function of its position-remote from Europe. When gold was finally discovered in quantity in 1858, leading to the gold rush that created British Columbia as a new colony, the interior was mostly unknown except for the routes blazed by the fur traders seeking the "soft gold" that characterized the exploration of much of Canada. The efforts of the explorers, the fur traders, the gold seekers, and the railway builders all involved the production of maps that showed what they had found, the routes and the settlements, the plans and the strategies that developed the province into what we know today. In British Columbia: A New Historical Atlas, acclaimed map historian Derek Hayes has curated nearly a thousand maps — the majority of which have never been published before —along with concise text, and extensive captions. Added to numerous other illustrations, the result is a geographically visual history, a unique and fascinating viewpoint on our province's past.

1 atlas (368 pages) : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 35 cm

Literary Nonfiction. History. Memoir. Native American Studies. Captain Richards's journal is an account of three survey seasons on Vancouver Island aboard two British Navy ships, the HMS Plumper and the HMS Hecate. Between 1860 and 1862 Richards and his dedicated crew surveyed and charted the entire coastline of Vancouver Island, creating baseline information for the nautical charts we use today. This monumental task, faithfully and often humorously recorded, also includes a lively description of California on the eve of the American Civil War as Richards sits in dry dock following the near wreck of the Hecate. Part of the private collection of a direct descendant of Captain Richards, the journal is a little known and untapped resource. Extensively annotated and supplemented with excerpts from the journals of Second Master John Gowlland, the journal provides a unique and personal view of the aboriginal, colonial, nautical and natural history of Vancouver Island. Richards is revealed as a man of immense energy and diplomacy; the descriptions of the First Nations he encounters are remarkably unbiased for the time and his keen observations are a portal into the social and political life of Vancouver Island during these formative years of the colony. The journal will appeal to historians, anthropologists, sailors, meteorologists and the general reading public alike.

271 pages, [32] pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps, portraits ; 23 cm

The fourth volume in the Secret Beaches series, one of two on the Salish Sea, covers 93 beaches in the southern Gulf Islands, including Salt Spring, Galiano, Saturna, Mayne, Thetis and Pender. At some locations, the selling point is a view of sandstone eroded into astounding curves and honeycombed lattices. At others, it's the chance of seeing the resident orcas of J1, K1 and L1 pods, whose summer home is the Gulf Islands. Theo's hand-drawn maps are indispensable, as each island marks its public beach access points differently, if they mark them at all. His detailed entries give comprehensive descriptions and an illustrative photo or painting for each beach. As usual, the charming paintings and photos are done by Theo himself. Whether seconds from the ferry or farther along a twisting, unsigned back road, the beach best suited to your adventure waits to be found in Secret Beaches of the Salish Sea.

236 p. : col. ill., maps, port. ; 22 cm.

According to scholars, the Shoshone, Bannock, and Nez Percés Indians of Idaho obtained horses roughly three centuries ago. That makes them the "first stockmen of Idaho," although we know little of that history. Still, when the Lewis & Clark expedition visited the future state in 1805 and 1806, they met bands of skill horseback hunters and warriors, who owned vast herds of fine horses. Before the Spud details the history of Idaho stock raising during the century that followed that meeting

iii, 245 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

John Fahey fell in love with Lake Chelan at an early age and became convinced it is the world's greatest lake. As an adult, he set out to prove it. What unfolds is a story of remarkable endurance through extensive travel, exhaustive research, and countless baffled looks from friends and family. By foot, barstool, and paraglider, John explored Lake Chelan’s complex drainage system, from the cozy towns and vineyards to the glaciered peaks, and all the diverse microclimates in between. He determined to discover how this incredible body of water compared to others around the globe.

243 pages ; 23 cm

This is a book about how well-intentioned Americans dammed up the Columbia, "Great River of the West," fulfilling dreams of cheap electricity and gardens flourishing in the desert. It is also a narrative of exploitation: of Native Americans, of endangered salmon, of nuclear waste, and of a river - once wild - tamed to puddled remains. Harden's story is a journey of rediscovery. His home town, Moses Lake, Washington, once bone dry, could not have existed without gargantuan irrigation schemes. His father, a Depression migrant trained as a welder, helped build dams - including Grand Coulee - and later worked at the secret Hanford plutonium plant. Now he and his neighbors, who had thought of themselves as patriots, stood accused of killing the river. As Blaine Harden traveled the thousand miles of the Columbia - by barge, by car, and sometimes on foot - his own past seemed both foreign and familiar. He met rugged individualists (albeit with government subsidies), fervent environmentalists, and Native Americans reduced to consuming canned salmon. He also encountered a newly ascendant political force whose more subtle agenda was to preserve and conserve for its own pleasure and recreation

286 pages : maps ; 21 cm

A history of the area from about 14,000 years ago through the present day. The book also presents a chronicle of the early farm community Alpha Prairie, Washington. Many black and white illustrations and some maps. Also includes an events timeline, endnotes, bibliography and an index.

xxiv, 480 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

"During a meteoric career that spanned from 1825 to 1834, David Douglas made the first systematic collections of flora and fauna over many parts of the greater Pacific Northwest. Despite his early death, colleagues in Great Britain attached the Douglas name to more than 80 different species, including the iconic timber tree of the region. David Douglas, a Naturalist at Work is a colorfully illustrated collection of essays that examines various aspects of Douglas's career, demonstrating the connections between his work in the Pacific Northwest of the 19th century and the place we know today"--Amazon

xv, 191 pages : illustrations (some color), color maps ; 23 cm

In 1792, Spanish naval officer and explorer Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra sailed from San Blas, Mexico, to Nootka Sound, on the west coast of present-day Vancouver Island. For nearly three years, he had been immersed in the aftermath of the Nootka Crisis of 1789, a dispute between Britain and Spain over sovereignty in the North Pacific. He was journeying north as his government’s commissioner to hand over Spanish-occupied territory at Nootka. This book offers the first published English translation of Bodega’s journal, a remarkable account of his travels along the Northwest Coast of America, encounters with Native peoples—most notably, Chief Maquinna—and the friendship that developed between Bodega and his British counterpart, George Vancouver. Until now, Bodega’s journal has been available only in Spanish publications or in manuscript form. This much-needed English-language edition results from the collaboration of three preeminent scholars of the Pacific Northwest, who provide an in-depth introduction and extensive footnotes that make the translation accessible to a contemporary audience. Also included in this edition is a generous selection of Bodega’s original charts and illustrations created by the artists who worked with José Mariano Moziño and José Maldonado, two scientists who—at Bodega’s insistence—accompanied him on his expedition to Nootka.

196 pages : illustrations.

The tale begins in sixteenth-century Venice, when explorer Juan de Fuca encountered English merchant Michael Lok and relayed a fantastic story of a marine passageway that connected the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This tale would be the catalyst for centuries of dreaming, and exacerbate English and Spanish rivalry. The search for the fabled Northwest Passage inspired explorers to seek out fame, adventure, knowledge and riches. Likewise, the empires of Spain and Great Britain were impelled by the hopes of finding a naval trade route that would connect Europe to Asia, thus securing their dominance over the other as an economic power. The story of the Northwest Passage is one of significant figures and great empires, jostling for a distant corner of North America. Gough provides meticulously researched insight, delving into diplomatic records, narratives of explorers and commercial aspirants, legal affidavits and court records to illuminate the journeys of Martin Frobisher, James Cook, Francis Drake, Manuel Quimper, José Mar�a Narv�ez, George Vancouver and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, among others.

287 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm

A collection of memories of growing up and beyond in Marshfield, Oregon during the midtwentieth century.

158 pages : illustrations, facsimiles, portraits ; 28 cm

The United States mandated the medical inspection of all arriving immigrants in 1891. The Columbia River Quarantine Station in Knappton Cove, Washington, established 1899, was one of four points of entry on the west coast for immigrants coming to America. Thousands of European and Asian immigrants underwent health inspections at the station

98 pages : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm

Maureen Alexander and Andrew S. Brown’s Bamberton: from dust to bust and back explores the intense industrial adaptation, cyclical economic resilience, and evolving environmental stewardship of a unique company town situated along Vancouver Island’s Saanich Inlet. The narrative illustrates how the rugged environmental realities of this coastal topography—defined by deep-water maritime channels, steep forested inclines, and massive, raw limestone deposits—required immense physical labor and cooperative engineering from early workers to establish a vital cement manufacturing enterprise. By detailing the gradual transition from an isolated, bustling industrial settlement united by shared, arduous labor to its eventual economic decline, the text highlights the complex social realities of the region's resource extraction boom-and-bust cycles. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that patiently navigating the town's industrial closure and collaboratively engaging in modern environmental reclamation and civic reimagining are essential steps in transforming a scarred extraction site into a thoughtfully integrated, enduring component of British Columbia’s coastal heritage.

107 p. : ill., ports. ; 23 cm.

On June 17, 1877, gunshots marked the start of war—one that swept twelve-year-old Tah-hy (Chief Joseph’s daughter) and her people into a harrowing journey across the American West. Relentlessly pursued, they endured multiple battles, cold, hunger, and death. Eventually, after months of exile and heartbreak, they began their path to a new way of life. Based on actual events and narrated by Tah-hy’s youthful voice, this biographical novel is intended for young adults, but will also interest older readers. The story presents many aspects of the Nez Perce Dreamer culture and reminds us of what was lost when they were overpowered and displaced.

134 pages : color illustrations ; 21 x 26 cm

Welcome to North Idaho Memories: The Early Years, 1800s-1939. We hope you enjoy this pictorial expedition down memory lane published as a joint venture by the Coeur d’Alene Press and the Museum of North Idaho. While this book is not intended to be a comprehensive account of North Idaho’s history, it does offer many fascinating snapshots of the people and places that help define our rich heritage. The Museum of North Idaho graciously provided the vast majority of photos and caption information, and noted local historian Robert Singletary penned the chapter introductions after much diligent research. Since 1892, The Press has been an integral part of our region’s history. And for more than half a century, newspapers owned by The Hagadone Corp. throughout North Idaho have been faithfully recording not just the events around us, but insight into the people who shaped those events. This book is an extension of our mission.

128 pages : illustrations (black and white photographs) ; 23 cm

In 2000, Medberry, an environmentalist, visited Craters of the Moon National Monument in southeast Idaho and suffered a stroke while there. In this memoir, he details his slow recovery and rehabilitation, the feelings he experienced, his problems with memory and language, what he learned along the way, and his return to Craters of the Moon

vii, 165 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Trucks are everywhere--crowding the highways, lining up for the ferries, roaring down dusty logging roads--and yet trucking is often left off the list when talk turns to British Columbia's major industries. It shouldn't be, as this gorgeous new illustrated history celebrating the BC Trucking Association's 100th anniversary shows. With annual revenues of $1.88 billion and 60,000 employees, trucking is among BC's five largest industries. Accompanied by hundreds of previously unpublished archival and contemporary photographs, award-winning historian Daniel Francis delivers a fascinating account of the last hundred years of trucking in BC. Beginning in Vancouver with James Stark's first delivery van in 1907, motorized transport exploded in the province, soon traversing every dirt track, hauling logs on temporary plank roads and leading to a frenzy of experimentation and innovation-- from the failed Renard Road Train and early battery-operated vehicles to some truly impressive purpose-built trucks, many of them manufactured in BC. From hair-raising tales of the road by trucking legends like the scholarly Andy Craig and the bombastic Cog Harrington to important infrastructure projects and vital innovations for the future, here is a story never told before--a road less travelled, so to speak--but an important and an exciting chapter in British Columbia's history.

208 pages : illustrations (some colour), portraits (some colour) ; 29 cm.

Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy, whose long life stretched from 1869 to 1967, challenged convention from the time she was a young girl. Her professional life began as one of Oregon's earliest women physicians, and her commitment to public health and medical relief took her into the international arena, where she was chair of the American Women's Hospitals after World War I and the first president of the Medical Women's International Association. Most disease, suffering, and death, she believed, were the result of wars and social and economic inequities, and she was determined to combat those conditions through organized action. Lovejoy's early life and career in the Pacific Northwest gave her key experiences and strategies to use for what she termed "constructive resistance," the ability to take effective action against unjust power. She took a political and pragmatic approach to what she called "woman's big job"-achieving a full female citizenship-and emphasized the importance of votes for women. In this engaging biography, Kimberly Jensen tells the story of this important western woman, exploring her approach to politics, health, and society and her civic, economic, and medical activism.

xiii, 346 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm

Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence is a compelling story of courage, community, endurance, and reparation. It shares the experiences of Japanese Americans (Nisei) who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, fighting on the front lines in Italy and France, serving as linguists in the South Pacific, and working as cooks and medics. The soldiers were from Hood River, Oregon, where their families were landowners and fruit growers. Town leaders, including veterans' groups, attempted to prevent their return after the war and stripped their names from the local war memorial. All of the soldiers were American citizens, but their parents were Japanese immigrants and had been imprisoned in camps as a consequence of Executive Order 9066. The racist homecoming that the Hood River Japanese American soldiers received was decried across the nation. Linda Tamura, who grew up in Hood River and whose father was a veteran of the war, conducted extensive oral histories with the veterans, their families, and members of the community. She had access to hundreds of recently uncovered letters and documents from private files of a local veterans' group that led the campaign against the Japanese American soldiers. This book also includes the little known story of local Nisei veterans who spent 40 years appealing their convictions for insubordination.

xx, 346 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Chinuk Wawa (also known as Jargon and Chinook Jargon) is a hybrid lingua franca consisting of simplified Chinookan, combined with contributions from Nuuchahnulth (Nootkan), Canadian French, English, and other languages. It originated on the lower Columbia River, where it once was the predominant medium of intertribal and interethnic communication. Even after English came into general use on the lower Columbia, Chinuk Wawa survived for generations in families and communities shaped by the meeting of the region's historically diverse tribes and races. This Chinuk Wawa dictionary is based primarily on records from one such community, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Oregon, where Chinuk Wawa is taught as a community heritage language.

494 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

For centuries, borders have been central to salmon management customs on the Salish Sea, but how those borders were drawn has had very different effects on the Northwest salmon fishery. Native peoples who fished the Salish Sea--which includes Puget Sound in Washington State, the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca--drew social and cultural borders around salmon fishing locations and found ways to administer the resource in a sustainable way. Nineteenth-century Euro-Americans, who drew the Anglo-American border along the forty-ninth parallel, took a very different approach and ignored the salmon's patterns and life cycle. As the canned salmon industry grew and more people moved into the region, class and ethnic relations changed. Soon illegal fishing, broken contracts, and fish piracy were endemic--conditions that contributed to rampant overfishing, social tensions, and international mistrust. The Nature of Borders is about the ecological effects of imposing cultural and political borders on this critical West Coast salmon fishery. This transnational history provides an understanding of the modern Pacific salmon crisis and is particularly instructive as salmon conservation practices increasingly approximate those of the pre-contact Native past. The Nature of Borders reorients borderlands studies toward the Canada-U.S. border and also provides a new view of how borders influenced fishing practices and related management efforts over time.

xi, 271 pages, 27 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.

James Bergquist is telecommunications a living on Stuart Island. married to retired engineer He is Linda Ericksen Bergquist, a descendent of an early Stuart Island family. Jim and Linda have spent many years compiling historical information on Stuart Island and its people. Stuart Island is a favorite destination for boaters. They visit the marine state park and walk the roads to the lighthouse without experiencing the rich history of this remote island. This book documents the early settlers arriving on the island and their struggles to live in this remote corner of the United States. Stuart Islanders were farmers, fishermen, loggers, lighthouse keepers, and school teachers. Each has a story to tell. This book is a work in progress as there is much more history hidden in descendents' closets just waiting to be discovered. James Bergquist: August 22, 1943 - November 26, 2024

183 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

In this ambitious history, Chuck Davis embraced 125 years of material with his signature exuberance and talent for storytelling that made him one of Vancouver's most beloved journalists. This volume represents the culmination of Davis' life as a folk historian, and celebrates his immense contribution to the historical knowledge of the City of Vancouver

xviii, 574 p. : ill., ports. ; 29 cm.

Remembering the Power of Words recounts the personal and professional journey of Avel Gordly, the first African-American woman elected to the Oregon State Senate. The book is a brave and honest telling of Gordly’s life. She shares the challenges and struggles she faced growing up black in Portland in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as her determination to attend college, the dedication to activism that took her from Portland to Africa, and her eventual decision to run for a seat in the state legislature. That words have power is a constant undercurrent in Gordly’s account and a truth she learned early in life. “Growing up, finding my own voice,” she writes, “was tied up with denying my voice or having it forcefully rejected and in all of that the memory of my father is very strong. To this day—and I am today a very experienced public speaker—preparation to speak takes a great deal of energy.” That this memoir has its origins as an oral history is fitting since Gordly has used her voice, out loud, to teach and inspire others for so many years. Important as a biographical account of one significant Oregonian’s story, the book also contributes “broader narratives touching on Black history (and Oregon’s place within it), and most particularly the politics associated with being an African American woman,” according to series editor Melody Rose.

176 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

In Potluck, Ana Maria Spagna explores the enduring human connection to place, journeying from Tijuana to a California beach to Utah’s canyon country—and, always, back to the sparsely populated valley in the North Cascades that she calls home. Potluck homes in on the everyday gatherings that, over time, define a community: a makeshift wedding, an art gallery opening, a farewell potluck, a work party, a work party, a campfire, a political caucus, a funeral. “What connects us?” Spagna asks, and she reveals, again and again, the gift of community—easy and uneasy, deep and enduring and essential.

175 pages ; 22 cm