Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

The first book account of the Donner Party. Thornton’s journal of his crossing with the Russell party in 1846 provides details of the Trail and the Donners and Reeds up to the parting of the ways at the Little Sandy. Thornton describes the difficulties he faced taking the Applegate Cutoff to Oregon and excoriated Applegate as a liar for promoting the route. Two years later he traveled to California where he interviewed Donner Party survivors and rescuers including William Eddy and researched accounts previously published in the California newspapers. Thornton’s description of the events set the tone for most of the Donner Party histories to this day. Thornton’s chapters about the Donner Party were excerpted and published as The California Tragedy, Biobooks, 1945, and Camp of Death, Outback Books, 1986

2 volumes : frontispiece, plates, folded map ; 20 cm.

Offers information needed to travel through Oregon's 19 original counties at the moment of statehood. This book includes: a map showing each county's 1859 place names; the history of native peoples and settlers; and early roads and bridges. It includes historical photographs. Oregon became the 33d state in the Union on February 14, 1859. Portland had wooden sidewalks, and gold glittered in southern Oregon streams. Towns like Lookingglass, Needy, and Sodaville were springing up all around. It is a time to remember—and to revisit—today, 150 years later, with this detailed and lively guide. Janice Marschner provides all you need to travel through each of Oregon's 19 original counties at the moment of statehood: a map showing each county's 1859 place names and current reference points; the history of native peoples and settlers; early roads and bridges; the first homes, schools, stores, hotels, and churches; biographical sketches of notable individuals throughout the state; lists of family names from Applegate and Lovejoy to McLoughlin, Reed, and Zumwalt; and sites to see. Historical photographs show the determined faces of natives and settlers; their oxen and wagons on wide, rough roads; their rafts and ferries on the rivers; and their towns under development.

295 pages : illustrations, maps (chiefly color) ; 24 cm

"In 1922, the US Forest Service offered one of the largest timber sales in the agency's history, encompassing 890 million board feet of mostly Ponderosa pine timber in the mountains north of Burns, Oregon. Among other requirements, the sale terms required the successful bidder to build and operate 80 miles of common carrier railroad through some of the most remote and undeveloped country in the state. The Fred Herrick Lumber Company and its Malheur Railroad initially won the bidding, only to lose it when a crash in the lumber market forced the company into insolvency. The Edward Hines Lumber Company of Chicago picked up the pieces, and fro m1929 until 1984, its subsidiary Oregon & Northwestern Railroad made a living hauling logs, lumber, and occasional livestock between Burns and Seneca, Oregon."--Provided by publisher

127 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

The story of one adventurer from Massachusetts who made the overland journey to the Rocky Mountains in 1832. A cousin of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, he joined his expedition and relates the tragedies and travails that plagued the expedition and its members as they passed through barren lands and encountered Native Americans.

87 pages ; 19 cm

Traces the history of Oregon and discusses the state and its people today

xiv, 240 pages, 8 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm.

With this attractive and easy-to-use guide in hand you’ll discover the Oregon you never knew existed. Nine maps and thirteen black-and-white illustrations help you become acquainted with this unknown Oregon.

x, 261 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Oregon is a landscape of brilliant waterfalls, towering volcanoes, productive river valleys, and far-reaching high deserts. It is also a land of stories. People have lived on the Oregon landscape for at least twelve thousand years, and during that time they have established communities, built railroads, harvested fish and timber, and made laws that both protected and threatened the land. Oregon, This Storied Land tells many of those stories, giving us a broad, sweeping history of a state that has resisted being made into a stereotype

xviii, 219 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Nash, a prominent London attorney, came to Oregon in 1877 to investigate possibilities for railroad building and land development. When he returned to England, he wrote this book, here reprinted with a foreword and notes. Wallis Nash, a native of England, was a Benton County lawyer and entrepreneur. He was on the initial Board of Regents for Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University).

xviii pages, 2 leaves, 285 pages including frontispiece, illustrations, plates, double map 20 cm

xi, 96 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Presents a selection of vintage images culled from the archives of the Orcas Island Historical Society and Museum and a short history of Orcas Island. Orcas Island, the largest of the 172 islands in San Juan County, lies in the Salish Sea north of Puget Sound

128 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

In 1964 when the Vancouver Aquarium obtained its first killer whale, Moby Doll, the prevalent attitudes towards killer whales was that they were fierce and vicious man-eaters. Over the years, attitudes have begun to change, and orcas are now revered as loveable, intelligent creatures and iconic symbols of the marine environment. In January 2002, a young killer whale was discovered alone in the waters of Puget Sound near Seattle. Determining that the whale would not survive alone so far from home, a team of scientists captured "Springer" and transported her by boat north to her home range where she rejoined her family. At the same time Springer was making her historic journey, another lone whale turned up in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The people of Nootka Sound adopted "Luna" as their own, but he was a large, boisterous youngster who liked to cuddle boats and the government feared he would get into trouble. Another rescue was planned to return Luna to his family but this time there was no happy ending. In Operation Orca, winner of the 2008 Foreword Magazine Nature Book of the Year award, author Daniel Francis and long-time Vancouver Aquarium staff member Gil Hewlett give breadth to the complications, contradictions, and political posturing that twice engulfed the debate of whether to interfere or let nature take its course. Through the amazing story of these two "orphan" whales, Operation Orca tells the larger story of orcas in the Pacific Northwest, the people who have studied them and the transformation of the whale's image from killer to icon.

280 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 24 cm.

"When Eric A. Hegg rushed north to Alaska in 1897, he as a journeyman photographer, largely self-trained. He forced a sled load of photographic equipment across the coastal mountains in the dead of winter. He hiked out to the claims on Bonanza and Eldorado, and he poked his camera into the banks and bars and bordellos in Dawson. He rode a paddle-wheel steamer down the Yukon to the Bering and was on the dark sands of the beach at Home when the prospectors swirled gravel in their pans and worked their mechanical rockers. Most important, he was there, high on the Chilkoot Pass in the winter of 1897-98, as the dark-clad men climbed antlike up the frozen steps of The Scales under the burden of a year's supplies." -- amazon.com

213 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 22 x 27 cm

316 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm

""Our well beloved dead who died that we might live." In the town of Merritt, in British Columbia's Nicola Valley, stands a granite cenotaph erected in memory of 44 men who died soldiering in the First World War. Those men came from a Nicola Valley that had been suddenly and dramatically settled just a decade before by the will of railway executives and the arrival of British colliers. Twelve of those soldiers are the subject of these pages--and through them, we meet the men, women and children of the Nicola Valley, the dead and their survivors: the people who built and were built by a Canadian community that was also distinctly British Columbian."-- Provided by publisher

134 pages : illustrations, maps ; 21 cm

"With evidence of human habitation dating back fifteen thousand years to the last ice age, British Columbia boasts a fascinating array of famous and lesser-known archaeological sites. Across the province, archaeologists are changing how archaeology is practised by working in partnership with Indigenous and other descendant communities to document important cultural sites. In this up-to-date overview, professional archaeologist Robert Muckle visits sites around the province to explain what archaeology is (and isn’t), how research is undertaken in this province, and what it contributes to our broader understanding of human history. Once upon This Land introduces readers to some of the most notable archaeological investigations, including footprints left in mud on Calvert Island thirteen thousand years ago, the remains of a large First Nations village near Lillooet, and the body of a man frozen in ice for centuries in the Tatshenshini region. He also investigates more recent phenomena, such as a fur-trade fort, remains of the gold rush, a World War I internment camp near Fernie, a Japanese logging camp in North Vancouver, shipwrecks, airplane crashes, and even the remnants of COVID-19 left behind in urban landfills."-- Provided by publisher

xii, 205 pages cm

242 pages illustrations, portraits 22 cm

Luckily for him, and for us, Emmett Watson's beat as a columnist for The Seattle Times required him to stay in touch with his beloved native city. In his daily meanderings, usually accompanied by his miniature poodle, Tiger, Watson saw much that is invisible to the rest of us. Of course, he was around longer than most of us, too--over eight decades, five of them as a newspaperman whose happy fate it had been to assay the crooked timber of humanity and reassure us of its worth. As he looked at Seattle, Watson discerned, with a geologist's eye, human fossils buried in layers of history here, there and everywhere. In this volume, a companion to his Digressions of a Native Son, published almost four decades ago, Watson brings to life some of the citizens Seattle should not forget, and, along the way, reminds us that a city is a human habitat whose history can properly be told only in the tale of its people.

xxiii, 166 pages ; 23 cm

"A fascinating collection of concise stories about twenty-one courageous, independent, and diverse women who shaped the history of Vancouver Island. From the lush rainforest of Clayoquot Sound to the bustling city streets of Victoria, Vancouver Island has been home to an astounding number of inspiring women. On Their Own Terms: True Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island celebrates the achievements of twenty-one amazing heroines working in multiple fields, from world-famous artists to social activists to groundbreaking scientists and quietly defiant labourers. The diverse women in this engaging new collection include: - pioneer and midwife Tuwa 'hwiye Tusium Gollelim, Mary Ann Gyves; - world-renowned algae botanist Josephine Tilden; - undiscovered aviatrix Lilian Bland; - Vancouver Island's first African-Canadian teacher, Emma Stark; and - entrepreneur and bounty hunter Ada Annie Rae-Arthur, better known as Cougar Annie. On Their Own Terms will delight and empower anyone looking for true stories of nineteenth- and twentieth-century women who confronted uncertainty, challenged gender norms, and excelled in their respective vocations. Whether you are an entrepreneur, an educator, a rebellious spirit, or an armchair adventurer, these incredible women who thrived on Vancouver Island will captivate you."-- Provided by publisher

141 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

ix, 121 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

On the ragged edge of medicine offers a unique and personal glimpse into a medical practice for the homeless and urban poor in Portland, Oregon. Told through 15 patient vignettes and drawn from the author's decades of experience on the front lines, this revealing memoir illuminates the impact of poverty on the delivery of health services and the ways in which people adapt and survive (or don't survive) in conditions of abuse and deprivation

162 pages ; ! 22 cm

On the Northwest is the first complete history of commercial whaling in the Pacific Northwest from its shadowy origins in the late 1700s to its demise in western Canada in 1967. Whaling in the eastern North Pacific represented a century and a half of exploration and exploitation which involved the entrepreneurs, merchants, politicians, and seamen of a dozen nations. The results of the whaling effort mirrored the outcome of whaling throughout the world. By exploiting the large whales without considering their finite numbers or reproductive capacity, the industry drove its prey to commercial extinction. It was the seamen themselves, however, who gave substance to the business of whaling. On the Northwest focuses on the working lives of these men: the shellbacks 'before the mast,' the colourful harpoon gunners who chased the whales from spray-soaked gun platforms, and shore-station workers who preserved the international flavour of the Pacific Northwest whaling industry until its demise only two decades ago.

xxi, 425 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

The BC tradition of fighting back against unfair pay and unsafe working conditions has been around since before the colony joined Confederation. In 1849 Scottish labourers at BC’s first coal mine at Fort Rupert went on strike to protest wretched working conditions, and it’s been a wild ride ever since. For years the BC labour movement was the most militant in the land, led by colourful characters like Ginger Goodwin, murdered for his pains, and pull-no-punches communist Harvey Murphy, who brought the house of labour down on himself with his infamous “underwear speech.” Through years of battles with BC’s power elite and small victories followed by bitter defeats, BC unions established the five-day work week, the eight-hour day, paid holidays, the right to a safe, non-discriminatory workplace and many more taken-for-granted features of the modern work landscape. But unions’ enemies never sleep and, well into the second decade of the twenty-first century, battles still go on, like that of BC teachers in their long and ultimately successful struggle to improve classroom conditions. On the Line also highlights the role played by women, Indigenous and minority workers in working toward equality and democracy in workplaces and communities. In prose that is both accessible and engaging, accompanied by over two hundred archival photos, Mickleburgh tells the important story of how BC’s labour organizations have shaped the economic, political and social fabric of the province―at a cost of much blood, sweat, toil and tears. This volume is the most comprehensive overview of labour’s struggle in BC and will be of particular interest to union members, community activists, academics and readers of regional history.

xii, 300 pages : illustrations ; 29 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

"Sybil Andrews was one of Canada's most prominent artists working throughout the late twentieth century. From a cottage by the sea in Campbell River, Andrews created striking linocut prints steeped in feeling and full of movement. Inspired by the working-class community that she lived in, her art is known for its honest depiction of ordinary people at work and play on Canada's West Coast. Although she was raised in Bury St Edmunds, England, On the Curve focuses on Andrews' life after she immigrated to Canada in 1947. Settling in Campbell River, Andrews taught private art and music lessons and created artwork that gained her recognition across the globe. In the final years of her life, retrospective exhibitions of her prints in Canada and Britain skyrocketed her popularity. Prints of her artwork became even more valuable after her death in 1992. In this first fully illustrated biography, author Janet Nicol weaves together stories from Andrews' letters, diaries and interviews from her former students and friends, creating a portrait of this determined, resilient and gifted British-Canadian artist. Andrews' work is as popular today as it was in her lifetime and continues to celebrate the cultural, industrial, agricultural and natural world of Canada's West Coast."-- Provided by publisher

158 pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 21 cm

Dream of escaping to an island, for the slower pace and stunning views? An illustrated love letter to the Pacific Northwest's iconic islands--focusing on Puget Sound, the San Juans, and Canada's Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island--this guide charms and educates travelers, locals, and armchair adventurers alike. Kick back, relax, and get On Island Time! This quirky illustrated travel guide showcases the hidden delights, natural wonders, and singular history of Washington and British Columbia's islands, from the author of bestselling The Best Coast, Illustrated Adventures Along the West Coast Historic Highways

xi, 195 pages : color illustrations, color maps ; 27 cm