Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

Early day history and folklore of the Idaho Panhandle, including Latah, Nez Perce, Idaho and Lewis counties. Preface by the author: "In writing the following pages I have been influenced by a desire to record for our sons and daughters, and their descendants, a written chronicle of the happenings of our lives, together with a mention of certain interesting events which occurred in the vicinity of Genesee during the pioneer days. As these events happened from sixty to seventy-five years ago, there may be some lapse of memory or wrong interpretations. I was only a small boy at the time the earlier events transpired, but they made such a deep impression on my mind that I have never forgotten them. This will not be a complete history – nor a literary masterpiece. It will contain some history, some biography, and perhaps a sprinkling of “blarney.” If the reader, as he peruses these pages, finds amusement, information or entertainment from my efforts, I will feel amply rewarded.”

[7], 75, [6],46, [1] pages : illustrations, map, portraits ; 23 cm

Through ten people, Pedersen tells the stories of 10 different places. The names are recognizable to many: Ranger Rick Blank at Deception Pass State Park, Roger Sherman on Central Whidbey, and Elliott Menasche, an authority on South Whidbey State Park, for example. In simple feature stories he smoothly describes the places and the people who treasure them. It’s an easy read, but surprisingly informative even for long-time islanders. You may not have known, for example, that the oldest tree on the island, located in Deception Pass State Park, recently celebrated its 860th birthday.

63 pages : color illustrations, color map ; 22 x 28 cm

Where the Waters Begin takes us up the Nisqually side of Mount Rainier through the traditional beliefs of the Nisqually people and their relationship to the bountiful natural resources the mountain offered them. The Nisqually are the original stewards of the prairies, mountains, and rivers west of the mountain on lands that are now Thurston and Pierce Counties. Living in a more natural world, without the complexities of today, they developed a coexistence with nature that included respect and appreciation of its beneficent forces as well as fear of its darker sides. The deep connection the Nisqually people developed with the mountain they called Ta-co-bet is best related through their traditional stories. Author and Nisqually tribal historian Cecelia Svinth Carpenter brings those stories to life here in Where the Waters Begin: the Traditional Nisqually Indian History of Mount Rainier.

108 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

"Billy Frank Jr. was an early participant in the fight for tribal fishing rights during the 1960s. Roughed up, belittled, and arrested many times at Frank's Landing on the Nisqually River, he emerged as one of the most influential Northwest Indians in modern history. His efforts helped lead to U.S. v. Washington in 1974, in which U.S. District Judge George H. Boldt affirmed Northwest tribal fishing rights and allocated half the harvestable catch to the tribes."--Page 4 of cover

ix, 322 pages : illustrations, genealogical table ; 23 cm

"Where the Power Is: Indigenous Perspectives on Northwest Coast Art brings together contemporary Indigenous knowledge holders with extraordinary works of historical Northwest Coast art that transcend the category of "art" or "artifact" and embody distinct ways of knowing and being in the world. Dozens of Indigenous artists and community members visited the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia to engage with these objects and learn from the hands of their ancestors. The photographs and their commentaries speak to the connections between tangible and intangible cultural belongings; how "art" remains part of Northwest Coast peoples' ongoing relationships to their territories and governance; Indigenous experiences of reconnection, reclamation, and return; and critical and necessary conversations around the role of museums."-- Provided by publisher

371 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps ; 32 cm

In 1978, Seattle writer Janet Yoder took a Lushootseed class at the University of Washington. She was expecting to learn a little about this Salish language, and while Yoder did begin her Lushootseed lessons, what followed was lifelong learning and lots of adventures with Skagit tribal elder Vi Hilbert. Drawn from thirty years of friendship and interviews, Where the Language Lives is a tribute to Vi Hilbert's life, work, and her quest to preserve her native language. Vi carried her culture by the example of her life as she shared her beloved Lushootseed language through her teaching, speaking, storytelling, recording, and publishing. Without her diligent research and her transcription and translation of early recordings in Lushootseed, much of the language could have been lost to the world. Her historical preservation efforts were recognized with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, presented by First Lady Hillary Clinton. She was also named a Washington State Living Treasure in 1989

xvii, 216 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

There is an otherness to the high desert, something momentous and sacred in the purity of the silence. In this compelling collection of personal essays, award-winning poet and author Ellen Waterston illuminates the people, places, and landscape of Central Oregon’s vast high desert. In Where the Crooked River Rises, Waterston reveals the blessings and challenges of decades spent as a rancher and town resident in a place that “has been, and remains,” her touchstone and crucible. The high desert is Waterston’s teacher, and she describes its lessons with grace and care, inviting readers to look at their own lives through a lens of wide-open spaces, sagebrush and juniper, pumice and rabbit brush.

142 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

"Where Mountains Meet the Sea commemorates the 125th anniversary of the District of North Vancouver's incorporation as a municipality. Combining hundreds of illustrations with the personal accounts of residents and a lively text, the book presents the story of North Vancouver in all its colour and complexity. Instead of a conventional chronological narrative, Where Mountains Meet the Sea divides the story of North Vancouver's development into three major parts: 1) the origins of the community, its First Nations residents and the development of its waterfront; 2) the political and cultural evolution of the community; and 3) the development of the mountain resorts and the creation of the many parks which characterize the North Shore. From the District's auspicious beginnings with the sawmill at Moodyville dominating the industry of Burrard Inlet, through the postwar population boom that saw the municipality evolve from a suburb of Vancouver into a bustling community in its own right, to the District's rich legacy of outdoor recreation, the text, residents' anecdotes and photographs create a vivid portrait of the development of a thriving community. Each section of the book is richly illustrated in full colour with biographies, eyewitness memories, artifacts from the collection of the North Vancouver Museum and Archives, historic photographs, maps and charts."-- Provided by publisher

ix, 245 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 29 cm

Water and land interrelate in surprising and ambiguous ways, and riparian zones, where land and water meet, have effects far outside their boundaries. Using the Malheur Basin in southeastern Oregon as a case study, this intriguing and nuanced book explores the ways people have envisioned boundaries between water and land, the ways they have altered these places, and the often unintended results. The Malheur Basin, once home to the largest cattle empires in the world, experienced unintended widespread environmental degradation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After establishment in 1908 of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as a protected breeding ground for migratory birds, and its expansion in the 1930s and 1940s, the area experienced equally extreme intended modifications aimed at restoring riparian habitat. Refuge managers ditched wetlands, channelized rivers, applied Agent Orange and rotenone to waterways, killed beaver, and cut down willows. Where Land and Water Meet examines the reasoning behind and effects of these interventions, gleaning lessons from their successes and failures. Although remote and specific, the Malheur Basin has myriad ecological and political connections to much larger places. This detailed look at one tangled history of riparian restoration shows how—through appreciation of the complexity of environmental and social influences on land use, and through effective handling of conflict—people can learn to practice a style of pragmatic adaptive resource management that avoids rigid adherence to single agendas and fosters improved relationships with the land.

xiv, 230 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

"Nearly seventy-five years of my lifetime have come and gone since hearing of the sparse historical events from the old-timers," American Indian elder George Aguilar tells us. "It’s my turn now." When the River Ran Wild! is Aguilar's recounting of events he heard about while watching his grandmother make moccasins by the light of a coal-oil lamp and while strapped to the back of his aunt's horse on the way to the huckleberry grounds. He learned them at Coyote's Fishing Place, where his uncles built scaffolds and taught him how to use traditional technologies to catch salmon as they made their seasonal runs up the river. In this remarkable personal memoir and tribal history, we learn about Aguilar's people, the Kiksht-speaking Eastern Chinookans, who lived and worked for centuries connected to the rhythms and resources of the great fishing grounds of the Columbia River at Five Mile Rapids. When the River Ran Wild! is the story of a culture and a community that has undergone tremendous change since 1805, when the River People encountered Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they traveled down the Columbia River on their way to the Pacific Ocean. To find the stories of that change, Aguilar draws on the journals and diaries of early White missionaries and settlers, such as Gabriel Franchere, Rev. Henry Perkins of Wascopum Mission, and A. B. Meacham. He found other stories in anthropological papers and historical studies that recorded the voices of people who practiced and remembered ceremonies and traditions that were lost or changed during the difficult years of removal to the Warm Springs Reservation in north-central Oregon. He heard yet others from tribal elders who have kept the history and stories of the River People in their memories. When the River Ran Wild! is the history of names and naming, of deep family connections, and of traditional customs. It is a descriptive catalogue of the plants the River People used for sustenance and medical purposes, and it is a detailed guide on how to pack out an elk and how to tan a hide. Aguilar retells the stories and myths of the river, the stories that "are now infrequent and told from books in the English language," the stories whose "body language, animal mimicry, and facial expressions are gone." Aguilar has written this book to help us know what the River People have lost on the Columbia River over the decades, but he also gives testimony to what has been conserved and enlivened by a people who love the land and who honor tradition and those who came before. He takes us, perhaps better than anyone else can, back to a time when the river ran wild.

xviii, 252 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Sophie Frye Bass’s When Seattle was a village chronicles the arduous pioneer colonization and massive terrestrial subjugation of the violently contoured, rain-choked maritime frontier of Elliott Bay. The narrative maps how the severe environmental realities of this untamed coastal topography—defined by plunging glacial ridges, treacherous, fluctuating tideflats, and an impenetrable barricade of towering old-growth Douglas fir—initially paralyzed efficient terrestrial transit and dictated a profoundly isolated, precarious pioneer existence. By detailing the grueling transition from vulnerable, mud-bound shoreline camps reliant on fragile aquatic transit to the explosive deployment of heavy, steam-powered sawmills and the relentless, mechanized leveling of the city's steep topography, the text illustrates how the physical and economic survival of the settlement was strictly governed by the urgent necessity of artificially mastering this heavily saturated and vertically hostile environment. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that systematically domesticating the wild tidal estuaries of Puget Sound and violently carving a rigid, integrated urban grid out of sheer, forested hillsides were the absolute prerequisites for shattering the region's profound geographical detachment and transforming a rugged frontier encampment into a heavily mechanized maritime anchor of the Pacific seaboard.

209 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

"When Coal Was King illuminates the origins of the 1912-14 strike by examining the development of the coal industry on Vancouver Island, the founding of Ladysmith the experience of work and safety in the mines, the process of political and economic mobilization, and how these factors contributed to the development of identity and community. While the Vancouver Island coal industry and the strike have been the focus of a number of popular histories, this book goes beyond to emphasize the importance of class, ethnicity, gender, and community in creating the conditions for the emergence and mobilization of the working-class population. Informed by current academic debates on the matter and within the discipline, this readable history takes into account extensive archival research, and will appeal to historians and others interested in the history of Vancouver Island."--Jacket

viii, 276 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Phil Beach’s Wheat country railroad: the Northern Pacific's Spokane & Palouse and competitors explores the collaborative infrastructure development and profound economic integration of the uniquely fertile Palouse region in the inland Pacific Northwest. The narrative illustrates how the specific environmental realities of this expansive topography—defined by undulating, deep-loess hills, vast dry-land farming expanses, and profound geographic isolation from coastal maritime ports—required immense engineering resilience and shared daily adaptation from early agricultural communities. By detailing the gradual transition from isolated wheat farms relying on arduous overland wagon freight to the thoughtful engineering of complex, interwoven rail networks, the text highlights how the area's prosperity relied on cooperative responses to its immense natural abundance. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that patiently overcoming the logistical challenges of eastern Washington and collaboratively laying the vital steel corridors of the Spokane & Palouse were essential steps in transforming a remote frontier into a deeply rooted, highly connected agrarian heartland.

"A detailed history and reference work concerning railroads south of Spokane, Washington, and north of the Snake River."--Provided by publisher

xviii, 349 pages : illustrations, maps ; 29 cm

Whatcom seascapes the influence of the sea on Whatcom County examines the deep maritime commerce, coastal resource extraction, and early aquatic infrastructure situated along the deeply indented, island-studded littoral margin of northwestern Washington. Barrow details how the region's formidable coastal topography—specifically the sheltered deep-water harbors of Bellingham Bay, the labyrinthine, tide-swept channels of the San Juan archipelago, and the towering, impassable alpine barrier of the Cascade Range that restricted overland access—strictly dictated the margins of early native canoe trade, commercial salmon fishing, and aggressive maritime shipping. By mapping the development of these isolated coastal communities that relied entirely on the sea as their primary highway to connect remote timber camps and coal mines with regional markets, the narrative highlights how this specific maritime geography anchored a profoundly water-bound, industrially driven frontier society. Ultimately, this exhibition and historical record serves as a localized spatial history, demonstrating how the severe overland barricades, rich estuarine fisheries, and vital deep-water access of this Pacific Northwest landscape fundamentally shaped the highly maritime-dependent, commercial character of early Whatcom County.

78 pages illustrations, map (on inside covers) 24 cm

Whatcom Scenes, 1981, edited by Dorothy Koert. A miscellany of prose and verse by residents of the fourth corner, with illustrations by local artists and photographers. Paperback with 134 pages, published by The Fourth Corner Registry.

xvi, 134 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

viii, 184 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

"A narrative of resistance and resilience spanning seven decades in the life of a tireless advocate for Indigenous language preservation. Life histories are a form of contemporary social history and convey important messages about identity, cosmology, social behaviour and one's place in the world. This first-person oral history--the first of its kind ever published by the Royal BC Museum--documents a period of profound social change through the lens of Sti'tum'atul'wut--also known as Mrs. Ruby Peter--a Cowichan elder who made it her life's work to share and safeguard the ancient language of her people: Hul'q'umi'num'. Over seven decades, Sti'tum'atul'wut mentored hundreds of students and teachers and helped thousands of people to develop a basic knowledge of the Hul'q'umi'num' language. She contributed to dictionaries and grammars, and helped assemble a valuable corpus of stories, sound and video files--with more than 10,000 pages of texts from Hul'q'umi'num' speakers--that has been described as "a treasure of linguistic and cultural knowledge." Without her passion, commitment and expertise, this rich legacy of material would not exist for future generations. In 1997 Vancouver Island University anthropologist Helene Demers recorded Sti'tum'atul'wut's life stories over nine sessions. The result is rich with family and cultural history--a compelling narrative of resistance and resilience that promises to help shape progressive social policy for generations to follow."-- Provided by publisher

xviii, 167 pages, 31 pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), maps ; 23 cm

Published in local editions by Shirley Nelson, What Happened Here? Stories and Legends Based on the History of Coos and Curry Counties, Oregon weaves together local folklore, pioneer accounts, and historical research to chronicle the dramatic frontier past of Oregon's rugged southwestern coast. The book captures the dangerous realities of early coastal settlement, detailing shipwrecks along treacherous bars, gold-mining rushes in river canyons, and the often-tense interactions between Euro-American homesteaders and indigenous populations. Drawing on regional oral histories, Nelson preserves the vibrant, hard-scrabble legends that defined the daily existence of isolated coastal communities. A keen insight drawn from the text is how regional folklore functions as a vital psychological coping mechanism; by transforming the brutal isolation and constant tragedies of a perilous maritime frontier into enduring campfire legends, early settlers forged a resilient collective identity that helped them tame a deeply unforgiving landscape.

111 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm

156 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Charles Munson’s Cozy Cove Farm was the first registered farm in Latah County. He also served in Idaho’s state legislature for more than a decade, and as the state’s land commissioner from 1906 to 1909. His autobiography, Westward to Paradise, provides a firsthand account of Munson’s migration to Idaho and the early days of town building in Moscow. From the introduction by Kenneth B. Platt: “A great tale of adventure, made all the more appealing by understatement of the very real dangers encountered, hardships endured, difficulties overcome, and achievements won.”

174 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.

Westward to Alki: the story of David and Louisa Denny chronicles the grueling overland migration and foundational pioneer settlement of the dense, rain-drenched coastal basin of Puget Sound. Newell details how the region's formidable physical barriers—an unbroken, towering expanse of old-growth timber extending to the very edge of the tidal flats—strictly dictated the precarious survival of Seattle's earliest founders. By mapping the Denny party's initial, desperate winter encampment on the storm-battered, exposed shores of Alki Point and their subsequent, strategic relocation to the deeper, protected anchorages of Elliott Bay, the narrative highlights the immense physical labor required to carve a permanent foothold in this unforgiving maritime environment. The utter lack of viable overland routes forced these early homesteaders into a complete reliance on the deepwater highway of the Sound, immediately anchoring their economic survival to the arduous extraction of coastal timber for marine export. Ultimately, this biographical record serves as a deeply localized spatial history, demonstrating how the severe winter climate and heavily forested, deeply indented aquatic topography of the Pacific Northwest inherently forged the resilient, strictly maritime-dependent origins of Washington's central metropolis.

[6], 122 pages : illustrations, coat of arms, maps, portraits ; 26 cm

"This collection of essays explores the meanings and uses of contemporary public history in the American West"-- Provided by publisher

xii, 232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

West Side Story, edited and partly written by Clay Eals, is a highly regarded 1987 local history published by the West Seattle Herald to chronicle the heritage of this distinct Seattle community. The comprehensive, 288-page volume combines archival photographs, pioneer accounts, and neighborhood profiles to trace the civic development and unique cultural identity of the West Seattle peninsula. Ultimately, it remains a celebrated foundational resource for exploring the historical roots and grassroots evolution of Seattle's oldest continuously settled area.

288 pages : illustrations (some color), maps, portraits ; 35 cm

John A. Hemphill and Robert C. Cumbow’s West Pointers and early Washington: the contributions of U.S. Military Academy graduates to the development of the Washington Territory, from the Oregon Trail to the Civil War, 1834-1862 chronicles the foundational military engineering and civic administration across the expansive landscapes of the early Pacific Northwest. Set against the vast distances of the territorial frontier, the narrative details how formally trained Army officers were tasked with surveying critical wagon roads and mapping seemingly uncharted topography.

Crucially, the text reveals that these West Point engineers—such as Captain George B. McClellan during his 1853 railroad surveys of the Naches and Snoqualmie passes, and Lieutenant John Mullan during the construction of the 624-mile Mullan Road linking Fort Walla Walla to the Missouri River—did not forge new paths through untouched wilderness. Instead, they relied heavily on local indigenous guides to expand a continent-spanning, pre-existing network of Native American trade and migration routes. By documenting the complex collaborative dynamic between military detachments, civilian pioneers, and indigenous geographic intelligence, the text highlights how the territory's earliest organized infrastructure was physically layered directly on top of the ancient, established highways of the Yakama, Coeur d'Alene, and other regional nations.

Ultimately, this historical account demonstrates how the application of military engineering and the vital appropriation of deep-rooted indigenous geographic knowledge successfully laid the physical groundwork that anchored the early American settlement of Washington Territory.

The contributions of U.S. Military Academy Graduates to the Development of the Washington Territory, from the Oregon Trail to the Civil War 1934-1862.

iv, 235 pages : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm

The stories of the sailors, lighthouse keepers, and linemen who have weathered the infamous west coast storms. The southwest coast of Vancouver Island is a reef-studded stretch, notorious for dramatic winter storms and thick cloaks of summer fog. Many ships have found themselves well off course, even lost, during sudden storms. This book tells the stories of the sailors, lighthouse keepers, and linemen who have weathered these west coast storms.

107 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm.