Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

Hold on to your heart as you step into the world of Barbara Meyer's watercolor sketches. Immerse yourself in the tranquility and serenity of every brush stroke as she shares her keenness for empty, wind-swept beaches, new-mown hay and rough -wooded barns. Smile out loud at her humorous and ironic observations of those pesky island birds who insist on occupying every post and piling, especially if it says "No Trespassing". This collection, gently lifted from her sketchbooks, represents the unique observations of one woman's 25-year journey through the timeless space that is the San Juan Islands. Pick up this book as often as you wish, to find a new corner in which to visit and escape. Take a deep breath and inhale the atmosphere. By Barbara Meyer. 1996. Paper Jam Publishing

94 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 22 cm

Sketches of Indian Life in the Pacific Northwest provides a firsthand account of a Jesuit missionary working among the Coeur d'Alene people deep within the heavily forested, mountainous panhandle of northern Idaho. The narrative chronicles the profound physical and cultural transitions of the tribe as their mission was relocated from the banks of the Coeur d'Alene River to the high agricultural plateau near DeSmet. By detailing the harsh winter conditions and formidable isolation of the surrounding Bitterroot Range, Diomedi illustrates how the severe inland topography directly shaped both indigenous subsistence strategies and the immense logistical challenges faced by early Catholic pioneers. Ultimately, the book serves as a localized geographic record of a remote inland frontier undergoing rapid cultural and environmental transformation.

96 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm

Nelia Binford Fleming’s Sketches of early High Prairie chronicles the arduous pioneer colonization and rigorous agricultural subjugation of a violently exposed, wind-scoured plateau suspended directly above the massive tectonic rift of the Columbia River Gorge. The narrative maps how the severe environmental realities of this unforgiving inland topography—defined by vast, sun-baked steppes, brutal rain-shadow drought, and the sheer basalt barricades severing the plateau from the region's primary aquatic arteries—initially paralyzed efficient terrestrial transit and dictated a profoundly isolated, precarious pioneer existence. By detailing the grueling transition from vulnerable, disconnected homesteads relying on primitive subsistence farming to the aggressive clearing of rugged scrubland and the eventual deployment of heavy, mechanized dry-land wheat infrastructure, the text illustrates how the physical and economic survival of the settlement was strictly governed by the urgent necessity of artificially domesticating this harsh, elevated geographic void. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that violently breaking the arid hardpan soil and systematically imposing a robust, integrated agrarian grid to conquer the profound continental detachment of Klickitat County were the absolute prerequisites for binding a desolate, wind-swept rimrock frontier to the broader commercial machinery of the inland empire.

61 pages, 4 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations, portrait ; 23 cm

Published in 1842, Philip Leget Edwards’s Sketch of the Oregon Territory: Or, Emigrants' Guide stands as one of the earliest practical manuals designed to facilitate American overland migration to the Pacific Northwest. Drawing from his firsthand experiences as an educator at Jason Lee’s Methodist mission in the 1830s, Edwards provided prospective pioneers with critical logistical details regarding the region's geography, climate, indigenous populations, and agricultural potential. A keen insight drawn from the publication is how its strategic printing in Missouri—the primary launching point for the Oregon Trail—demonstrates how seemingly objective frontier guidebooks functioned as deliberate promotional propaganda to accelerate American mass settlement and physically preempt British claims to the disputed territory.

20 pages 19 cm

British Columbia's Skeena River is one of the great salmon rivers of the North Pacific. The river and its fish have supported indigenous peoples for thousands of years. More recently, the Skeena has earned world renown for its recreational fishery and magnificent wilderness setting. Yet, over the last century, fish populations have declined from overfishing, habitat alteration and, to an unknown degree, climate change. Development of mining as well as oil and gas resources may also pose threats to fish populations. This book presents the first thorough review of the salmon stocks and freshwater species of the Skeena River. Initial chapters summarize the river's environment, fish, and fisheries. The book then examines the physical geography, development history, indigenous use, and major salmon stocks of each of the watershed's sub-basins. This volume makes available for the first time – to researchers, field biologists, fishermen and natural history enthusiasts – both the published, and largely unpublished, literature on this productive salmon ecosystem.

341 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

Skeena country: the people and the landscape chronicles the grueling pioneer settlement and massive resource extraction along the turbulent, glacier-fed river valleys of northwestern British Columbia. The Provincial Archives of British Columbia Aural History details how the region's formidable physical barriers—specifically the massive, impenetrable peaks of the Coast Mountains and the violent, rapid-choked currents of the Skeena River itself—strictly dictated the margins of early human survival, overland travel, and economic expansion. By mapping the immense physical labor required to carve precarious salmon canneries along the treacherous estuary shorelines and to push fragile sternwheeler and rail supply lines deep into the precipitous inland river canyons, the narrative highlights the monumental effort necessary to anchor permanent outposts in this demanding northern environment. The utter lack of viable overland routes to the southern population centers initially forced these remote, resource-dependent communities into an absolute reliance on the perilous riverine highway and deepwater maritime ports, completely anchoring their commercial existence to the severe hydrological force and unpredictable northern climate. Ultimately, this aural and historical record serves as a deeply localized spatial history, demonstrating how the immense hydrological power and rugged intermountain topography of this northern Pacific Northwest frontier fundamentally shaped the fiercely resilient, strictly resource-dependent character of the Skeena country communities.

vi, 47 pages : illustrations, maps.

Skagit settlers trials and triumphs, 1890-1920 chronicles the grueling agricultural transformation and isolated pioneer settlement situated within the vast, flood-prone river corridors and dense lowland forests of northwestern Washington's Skagit River valley. Willis and the Skagit County Historical Society detail how the region's formidable physical barriers—specifically the massive, unpredictable seasonal inundations of the Skagit River, the towering, impenetrable stands of old-growth cedar and fir, and the dense, waterlogged tidal marshes of the river delta—strictly dictated the margins of early human survival and agrarian expansion. By mapping the immense physical labor required to painstakingly construct extensive earthen dikes against the swelling river currents and intruding saline tides, extract deep-rooted stumps from the damp earth, and forcibly carve productive agricultural tracts from the heavy coastal wilderness, the narrative highlights the monumental cooperative effort necessary to anchor permanent farming communities in this demanding riparian environment. The initial geographic isolation from established overland routes forced these remote homesteaders into a strict reliance on the precise topography of the Skagit River for transportation, completely anchoring their physical survival and early commercial existence to the precarious navigation of shallow-draft sternwheelers and the severe hydrological realities of the basin. Ultimately, this civic and historical record serves as a deeply localized spatial history, demonstrating how the extreme riverine geography, heavy seasonal flooding, and immense physical labor of this Pacific Northwest frontier fundamentally shaped the fiercely resilient, tightly knit, and strictly agriculturally dependent character of the early Skagit settlements.

ix, 228 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm.

Skagit Memories compiles firsthand pioneer accounts detailing the grueling late-nineteenth-century settlement of the expansive Skagit River Valley in northwestern Washington. The narratives vividly describe the immense physical labor required to reclaim the rich, marshy deltas near Skagit Bay, where early settlers constructed extensive diking systems to hold back the tidal waters of Puget Sound and create fertile farmland. Moving further inland, the compiled accounts focus on the dense, seemingly impenetrable old-growth cedar and fir forests that choked the river corridor, dictating a relentless logging economy as communities pushed eastward toward the rugged foothills of the Cascade Range. By anchoring these personal reminiscences to specific river bends, flood-prone flats, and isolated timber camps, the book provides a visceral geographic record of how early inhabitants carved a thriving agricultural and industrial basin out of a formidable maritime wilderness.

170 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm.

"Bill Gulick's writing career, spanning more than six decades, is truly remarkable. He has written twenty-seven novels, eight nonfiction books and several plays. He was a regular contributor to The Saturday Evening Post and other national magazines. His stories have become major motion pictures starring screen legends like Burt Lancaster, and Jimmy Stewart. A list of his literary friends reads like a whose who of western wrtiting. Gulick is considered one of the foremost authorities on Pacific Northwest history. In Sixty-four Years as a Writer, he details the journey from his Depression era Oklahoma roots to his position as one of the nation's premier western authors."--Publisher's description

344 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

"The author, Gerald Hickman, has lived and worked in the Channeled Scablands since his birth and still lives in Cheney, WA on the northern extent of the geologic area known as the Scablands. The book describes the creation of the Scablands as determined by scientists, the wildlife and people who live there and the author's travels to similar habitats in other parts of our planet from Alaska to Africa." -- Back cover

vii, 125 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Charles Shirley Walgamott arrived by stage at Rock Creek Station, Idaho Territory in 1875. In an untamed land, far from his native Iowa, he survived illness, hardship, and lawlessness. Walgamott mined, trapped, ranched and hunted, while living with settlers, Indians and outlaws.

xxv, 357 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.

Co-authored by anthropologists Leo Joachim Frachtenberg and Franz Boas under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, Siuslawan (Lower Umpqua): An Illustrative Sketch provides a rigorous grammatical analysis of a severely endangered language native to the central Oregon coast. Published as part of Boas’s monumental Handbook of American Indian Languages, the monograph meticulously diagrams the phonetics, morphology, and complex verbal structures of the Siuslaw and Lower Umpqua dialects. By documenting these intricate linguistic mechanics directly from a dwindling number of fluent elders, the researchers created an invaluable, highly technical repository of a coastal culture that had been systematically fractured by pioneer settlement and forced relocations to the Siletz Reservation. A keen insight drawn from the work is how the federal sponsorship of "salvage anthropology" created a profound institutional hypocrisy; by utilizing the Bureau of American Ethnology to painstakingly catalog the structural brilliance of the Siuslaw language, the United States government funded the academic preservation of Indigenous intellectual heritage while simultaneously enforcing the devastating assimilation policies that actively drove these very languages to the brink of extinction.

pages 433-629 ; 25 cm.

Sitting on a Salt Spring chronicles the ongoing challenges and profound isolation of maintaining a remote island resort amidst the rugged Gulf Islands archipelago in the marine waters of British Columbia. Conover details how the small, forested landmass of Wallace Island—surrounded by the treacherous tidal currents and sudden squalls of the Strait of Georgia—demanded relentless physical labor to sustain basic infrastructure and a tenuous maritime lifeline to the mainland. By anchoring his narrative to specific rocky coves, weathered docks, and dense stands of coastal timber, the author illustrates how the island's imposing natural barriers actively dictated the daily rhythms of survival and coastal hospitality. Ultimately, the book serves as a deeply localized environmental memoir, capturing how the beautiful yet unforgiving marine topography of the Pacific Northwest inextricably shaped a fiercely self-reliant, water-bound existence.

160 pages ; 18 cm

"This book is a biography of two British Columbian ships that performed legendary service in the Canadian Arctic. The St. Roch, now on permanent display at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, is the better known of the two, although North Star of Herschel Island is still sailing and still adding to her legend. Historian Bruce Macdonald--who, along with his wife, owns North Star of Herschel Island--has meticulously researched the origins and service logs of each ship and created a book that will enthrall old Arctic hands, maritime history buffs and anyone who appreciates well-written Canadian history. Under the command of Captain Henry Larsen, the sturdy RCMP vessel St. Roch spent years showing the Canadian flag in the Arctic, performing many duties including delivering medical supplies and taking census information in addition to enforcing the law in the North. St. Roch is world renowned for achieving many firsts, including being the first vessel through the Northwest Passage west to east, the first vessel to navigate the passage in both directions and the first vessel to circumnavigate North America. Inspired by St. Roch, renowned trapper and Inuit leader Fred Carpenter designed the elegant North Star, the ultimate ice vessel used to transport furs and people to and from remote Banks Island. Together, the two iconic ships have helped to solidify Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic and have become symbols of unity among Northern communities. In Sisters of the Ice, Macdonald documents in vivid detail the adventurous histories of these two vessels, as well as the history of the Northern communities in which they gained renown. Detailing daring escapes from dangerous ice conditions to thrilling sea voyages to raucous whaling towns, Macdonald reveals the perilous and often lawless climate in which these vessels operated and the ties of Canadian identity that they helped forge."-- Provided by publisher

xiii, 146 pages : black and white illustrations, map ; 23 cm

Authored in 1930 by University of British Columbia historian Walter Noble Sage, Sir James Douglas and British Columbia is a foundational academic biography chronicling the life of the man widely heralded as the "Father of British Columbia." The text meticulously traces the geopolitical transition of the Pacific coast from the sprawling, resource-extracting corporate fiefdom of the Hudson’s Bay Company into a formal, legally structured British Crown colony. Sage emphasizes Douglas’s autocratic but stabilizing governance during the chaotic influx of tens of thousands of American miners during the 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush, framing his tenure as the critical administrative bulwark that successfully secured British sovereignty in the Pacific Northwest against the aggressive tide of American Manifest Destiny.

A keen insight drawn from the work is how the academic reliance on the "Great Man" theory of history functions to morally validate the mechanics of imperial state formation. By framing Douglas as a pragmatic, enlightened patriarch who single-handedly imposed civilized British law upon an unruly frontier of rowdy prospectors and "untamed" Native populations, Sage effectively sanitizes the inherent violence of colonization. This historiographical maneuver subtly recasts the systemic dispossession of First Nations peoples—including Douglas's own highly contested, paternalistic land policies and inadequate reserve allocations—not as acts of territorial theft, but as necessary, sober administrative burdens managed by a benevolent British bureaucracy. Consequently, the establishment of the modern province is memorialized as a triumph of dignified imperial order over wilderness, structurally obscuring the profound colonial trauma embedded in its legal foundation.

398 pages folded map 25 cm.

This 1997 edition of Sine Die is a completely new book. Since the first edition of Sine Die was published in 1987, there have been dramatic changes in the Washington State Legislature and in state politics. Limits have been placed on campaign contributions and reporting requirements are expanded; ethics laws were passed following revelations of improper use of caucus staff; Initiative 601 was passed by the voters imposing limitations on state taxing and spending powers; the legislative process has been computerized and information is now easily and quickly accessible electronically to all; and term limits, passed in 1992, start taking their toll on state legislators in 1998. Even more significant, there has been a gender revolution in the legislature. Women are on the verge of having an equal place in numbers and power and are having a dramatic effect on the legislative climate and on state policy. Sine Die is a clear and up-to-date description of how the Washington State Legislature works. Presenting substantially more information on women in the legislature, the role of the governor, and the various origins of legislation, the 1997 edition explains the process by which thousands of proposed laws are introduced each year and are culled down to the approximately twenty percent that are eventually enacted.

xiii, 203 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

"The Nuu-chah-nulth, Ditidaht, and Makah occupy western Vancouver Island and the northern tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. This book examines the long culture history of these closely related peoples, a history that extends back to mythic times, when the powerful transformers put the landscape and the animals in their present forms." "Alan McMillan brings together an impressive array of sources and integrates them into a single account. Archaeological evidence dating back more than 4,000 years is discussed in detail. Native oral traditions, linguistic studies, and historic evidence also contribute to a rounded picture of these societies and to an understanding of the changes that have occurred over time."--Jacket

xii, 252 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Silviculture, once regarded solely as reforestation and growing trees for timber, is understood today as also maintaining forest health, reducing fire potential, benefitting wildlife and aesthetics, and ensuring multiple options for the future against the uncertainties of a changing climate. Silviculture and Ecology of Western U.S. Forests, Second Edition, is a text for students, professional forest managers, and scientists that summarizes both early and contemporary research and principles relevant to the silviculture, ecology, and multi-purpose management of western U. S. forests. Based on its authors’ significant experiences and contributions in the field, as well as nearly 1000 additional references, Silviculture and Ecology remains the only text that focuses on silviculture in western U.S. forests—providing background and basis for current biological, ecological, and managerial practices. Detailed chapters on fire, tree growth, and management of complex stand structures, as well as shrub ecology and an ecosystem framework, are bolstered in the second edition. A new series of case studies illustrates how silvicultural practices are developed and modified as forests grow and new challenges and opportunities occur. Contemporary silvicultural practices, particularly pertaining to fire use, vegetation management, soil fertility, and fertilization have been updated, and modifications that enhance standard practices are demonstrated throughout the text. In this comprehensive reference, readers entering the field will come to understand the significance of carefully managing forests by conscious design, and experienced silviculturists will benefit from the edition’s up-to-date information, providing forest users with a greater range of ecosystem services and consumable products alike.

vii, 440 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Silver Rush tells the story of British Columbia’s “Silvery Slocan.” In the 1890s, mining camps like Sandon, Three Forks, Whitewater and their neighbours; New Denver, Silverton, Slocan City, Kaslo and Nakusp, thrived. Once the most productive mining region in British Columbia, prospectors and miners came from Idaho, Montana and other mining centres to reap the silver harvest. Capitalists flooded in from Spokane, Seattle, Vancouver, and investment centres across North America and the world. Plummeting silver prices, labour troubles and the Klondike gold rush eventually put an end to the silver rush but the legacy of that rush endures to this day.

vi, 642 pages : illustrations (some colour), maps ; 28 cm

This is the story of one of the most revered trout fisheries in the world. The book includes color photographs, detailed Silver Creek area map, Nature Conservancy map, s-curves map, Silver Creek hatch chart, fly chart, and tips on equipment, flies, and techniques.

xiv, 210 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 23 cm

Milton Parent’s Silent Shores & Sunken Ships documents the spatial, maritime, and industrial history of Upper Arrow Lake and the Columbia River reaches stretching south from Revelstoke to Galena Bay and Shelter Bay. The chronicle focuses on the strategic role of Arrowhead as the CPR railhead where transcontinental rail traffic transferred directly onto sternwheelers servicing the mining towns and lumber camps of the Kootenay and Lardeau districts. Parent details the establishment of massive shoreline lumber operations, including the giant mills at Comaplix and Beaton, while recording the perilous navigation of steamships like the S.S. Revelstoke and S.S. Columbia. The volume concludes by documenting the civic and geographical dislocation triggered by the construction of the Hugh Keenleyside Dam, which permanently flooded historical townsites, farms, and ferry landings beneath the expanded lake reservoir.

368 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 29 cm

Compiled across five volumes by the North Shuswap Historical Society, Shuswap Chronicles serves as the baseline local and geographic repository for the communities situated along the rugged northern perimeter of Shuswap Lake. The collection details how late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century homestead pre-emptions, small-scale logging flumes, and isolated farming clearings were established across the ancestral lands, seasonal berry grounds, and fishing camps of the Secwépemc. Regional writers document the arduous lake-bound logistics that preceded motor roads, tracing how early settlers in Scotch Creek, Celista, Magna Bay, Anglemont, St. Ives, and Seymour Arm depended on lake steamers like the S.S. Andover for mail, heavy equipment, and agricultural shipments. Through extensive pioneer accounts, school records, and cadastral maps, the series captures the transition from off-grid lakeshore independence to organized civic infrastructure.

5 volumes : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 28 cm

This full-color, simple-to-use field guide makes shrub identification easy and fun. It features 100 of the most common shrubs that grow in and around Pacific Northwest forests—from southern British Columbia to northern California and from the Pacific Ocean to the northern Rockies. It includes an overview of shrub communities in the Pacific Northwest; more than five hundred color photos; individual range maps and complete descriptions for each species; notes on range and habitat, response to disturbance, traditional and current uses, and origin of names; glossary of identification terms; and an easy-to-use, well-tested identification key.

141 pages : color illustrations, color maps ; 23 cm.

An overview of how horses came to be used by various peoples in the American West, particularly the Shoshoni Indians, discussing the difference that horses made in their lives

32 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 22 cm

Bruce Ramsey’s Shortline to Lillooet: A History of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway chronicles the heroic engineering and turbulent financing of the railway constructed through the precipitous mountain canyons of the Pacific Coast and southern Interior. Ramsey details the physical challenges of blasting track beds along the vertical granite bluffs of Cheakamus Canyon, crossing the alpine summits of Alta Lake, and skirting the sheer cliffs flanking Anderson Lake and Seton Lake. The text documents the operation of lakeside transfer docks and rail communities—including D'Arcy, Seton Portage, Shalalth, and South Shalalth—where passenger and freight traffic connected to inland branch routes. Ramsey illustrates how the railway line served as an indispensable physical and economic artery linking isolated ranching and mining settlements across the Squamish-Lillooet region directly to coastal tidewater.

189 pages : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm