Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

"Ten widely-recognized historians from the United States and Canada present thought provoking insights about society, culture, and change in the great, resource-laden Northwest. Essays examine early Spanish exploration of the Northern coast; the long-term relationship of a fragile Canadian union with its powerful southern neighbor; regional novelists and literature; important aspects of black and white immigration; the iconography of nuclear energy; and the continuing interaction of the region's many Indian reservations with the dominant society's economic, conservation, and legal institutions."--BOOK JACKET

xvii, 223 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

The largest of BC's southern Gulf Islands, beautiful Salt Spring Island has long been a favoured holiday destination and a prized real-estate area for those in search of an idyllic rural residence. Now available in trade paper, Salt Spring: The Story of an Island chronicles the island's rich history from the days when Coast Salish people inhabited Salt Spring's shores, through some 150 years of settlement by many diverse groups. Because of the island's rugged geography, the early story of Salt Spring is largely the story of hard-working people in small isolated communities industriously carving farms out of rough terrain. Many of the settlers who followed came to find a place where they could live their lives free of the constraints of most societies. This was as true for the African-Americans, many of whom were among the first non-aboriginal settlers to arrive in 1859, as it was for those fleeing conventional middleclass life and for Americans seeking to avoid the Vietnam War. And it's true of almost every new islander who arrives today with a unique personal dream.

344 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm

A comprehensive reference bibliography on Western Canada, including important works on the Arctic, the Klondike, Hudson's Bay, and some nautical titles relating to that area, with descriptions and price guide to approximately 1,800 of the most important books. 1,754 books described with pricing guidance.

316, xii ; 24 cm.

This is an autobiographical account of experiences with historical BC's logging industry.

271 p., [28] p. of plates : ill., geneal. table, map, ports. ; 22 cm.

Reveals the natural history of the Puget Sound region. This book begins with a discussion of how the ice ages and vulcanism shaped the land and examines the natural attributes of the region - flora and fauna, climate, special habitats, life histories of key organisms - as they pertain to the ecosystem. It contains over three hundred photographs. Winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. Bounded on the east by the crest of the Cascade Range and on the west by the lofty east flank of the Olympic Mountains, Puget Sound terrain includes every imaginable topograhic variety. This thoughtful and eloquent natural history of the Puget Sound region begins with a discussion of how the ice ages and vulcanism shaped the land and then examines the natural attributes of the region―flora and fauna, climate, special habitats, life histories of key organisms―as they pertain to the functioning ecosystem. Mankind's effects upon the natural environment are a pervasive theme of the book. Kruckeberg looks at both positive and negative aspects of human interaction with nature in the Puget basin. By probing the interconnectedness of all natural aspects of one region, Kruckeberg illustrates ecological principles at work and gives us a basis for wise decision-making. The Natural History of Puget Sound Country is a comprehensive reference, invaluable for all citizens of the Northwest, as well as for conservationists, biologists, foresters, fisheries and wildlife personnel, urban planners, and environmental consultants everywhere. Lavishly illustrated with over three hundred photographs and drawings, it is much more than a beautiful book. It is a guide to our future.

xxiv, 468 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Authored by Sarah M. Berry and Joan R. Henderson alongside the Indianola Beach Improvement Club History Committee, Indianola: A Community Memoir chronicles the evolution of the historic waterfront enclave on Washington’s Kitsap Peninsula. The book traces the area’s transformation from an indigenous gathering place and a 20th-century mosquito-fleet resort destination into a tight-knit, fiercely protective seasonal and year-round community. Drawing on archival photographs, diaries, and local records, the text preserves the distinct social traditions and ferry-dependent isolation that shaped generations of cabin owners and residents. A keen insight drawn from the work is how recreational enclaves foster a unique brand of communal preservation; by relying on shared infrastructure like community docks and improvement clubs, residents turned their collective isolation into a deliberate tool for shielding their waterfront heritage from rapid commercial overdevelopment.

128 pages : illustrations, maps ; 21 x 27 cm

Though Cowlitz County is one of the smallest counties in Washington state, its past has been richly textured by the six rivers that flow through it: The Columbia, Kalama, Lewis, Coweeman, Toutle and Cowlitz rivers. Rivers throughout history have given rise to civilizations, so it is not surprising that Cowlitz County's rivers have lured settlers and industries. But each of these rivers had its own appeal, its own convenience or difficulty of settlement, its own methods of logging or fishing, its own vessels and bridges, and even its own scenery; each thus offered its own unique possibilities to the people who came here. Virginia Urrutia has taken these six strands and deftly woven them together with narratives of families, communities, governments, agriculture, industries, and events, creating a colorful and entertaining tapestry that will reward the attention of any reader, from the most casual tourist to the most knowledgeable citizen of the region. Book contains map of region and is illustrated with 100 photographs

223 pages : illustrations, map, portraits ; 29 cm

Courthouses are often overlooked as significant historical sites, perhaps because they are "working" buildings open to the public. As this informative and entertaining guide proves, however, Oregon courthouses are fascinating places to explore aspects of the state's history. For this first guide to Oregon's historic courthouses, Kathleen Wiederhold traveled extensively throughout the state visiting courthouses and talking to county officials and local residents. What she discovered were buildings rich in historical meaning and significance. This book explains these buildings and tells their stories, from political drama to salty local lore. The author introduces twenty-one courthouses in towns and cities from Astoria to Enterprise. Each profile includes a look at the county seat, past and present; a history of the courthouse; a detailed description of the building as it stands today; and tips on what to see. Exploring Oregon's Historic Courthouses combines local histories and their intriguing anecdotes with valuable information on the state's architectural heritage and old and new photographs of these venerable structures. It offers visitors and readers new opportunities to encounter history and historic architecture in the guise of these living buildings.

xv, 289 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

With Green Afternoons in hand, travelers, gardeners, and plant enthusiasts now have an exciting new guide to more than six dozen gardens throughout western and central Oregon and southwestern Washington. In her tour of the region, Amy Houchen uses the word "garden" broadly to include not only traditional gardens but also plantings of interest in such places as parks, college campuses, farms, and community gardens. Along with providing detailed descriptions of Oregon's best known and best loved gardens, Green Afternoons introduces readers to such unlikely but rewarding spots as an arboretum at a freeway rest area and climbing roses dressing up the cyclone fence around a ballfield. Arranged geographically, the garden listings include seasons of interest, directions, whether plants are labeled, a section on background and history, and a description of what to see. Indexes by plant name and topic allow for ease in locating plant specialties and such features as gardens for the blind and composting exhibits. Also included is information on holding weddings and listings of special events. From the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens in Woodland and the International Rose Test Garden in Portland's Washington Park to Shore Acres in Coos Bay and the Sunriver Botanical Garden, Green Afternoons offers an informative and easy-to-use guide for locating and learning about the region's most beautiful gardens.

iv, 250 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm

Colorfully beaded handbags, superbly tanned and decorated deerskin shirts, finely woven baskets, exquisitely beaded and fringed horse trappings -- these distinctive Native arts of the Columbia River Plateau have been overshadowed in the public eye by the arts of the Northwest Coast, Great Plains, and American Southwest. But Indians in the region where present-day Washington, Oregon, and Idaho share boundaries have for centuries combined function and beauty in the items they made for even the most mundane of uses, and their traditional arts are still vital today. This book brings overdue recognition to the artistry and craftsmanship of the Plateau Indians by focusing on the remarkable collection amassed by the late Doris Swayze Bounds, a banker in Hermiston, Oregon, who grew up with and deeply loved Native people and their culture. She was loved in return, and many of the nearly 1,000 Plateau items in her collection came to her as gifts from her Indian friends, who expressed their respect and affection through the time-honored tradition of gift-giving. Exposed to Euro-Americans relatively late, the Plateau Indians managed to retain many of their traditional lifeways of fishing, hunting, and gathering, as well as a vigorous ethic of generosity and respect for others. The pieces in the Bounds collection, which date mainly from the 1870s to the 1960s, reflect all these aspects of Plateau culture. They range from sturdy baskets made to hold roots or berries to elaborately beaded elkhide “tail dresses” worn on festive occasions. In five essays, both Native and non-Native experts describe the art styles and the uses and cultural meanings of the items; two other recount Doris Bound’s life, collecting practices, and relationships with Native Americans. The essays are handsomely illustrated with items from the Bounds collection. This book offers and introduction to this visually stunning art tradition.

Beach of Heaven is a history of the earliest settled areas in Washington. As the birthplace of both the state's canned salmon industry and the cooperative extension movement, as well as Congresswoman Julia Butler Hansen, Wahkiakum County has a historical significance far beyond its borders. Today it stands at the cusp of major change as the rural occupations of fishing, farming, and logging, upon which the country has traditionally depended, suffer from outside influences and demographic shifts. Beach of Heaven documents these changes and looks ahead to future possibilities. This book is much more than a county history. It is a story of the development of a place, of the settlement of ethnic groups, of the establishment of social and transportation networks that made life livable in a wild and forested country. As Irene Martin writes, Beach of Heaven is "an emotional engagement with the place we call home." It will resonate for all who have a passion for the little places, the rural areas, the community values that are gradually passing into history.

xiii, [1], 178 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 23 cm

These fifteen essays invite readers in and make them feel at home in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. The straightforward and unpretentious writing carries the imagery and emotion of people and place in a way that defines a region

xiv, 122 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

As the earliest "ethnographic" accounts of the Native peoples of northern North America, fur-trade records have long been mined for data by legal researchers, historians, and anthropologists. Traders' Tales provides the first sustained critical analysis of these fascinating historical documents. Drawing on the latest techniques in ethnohistory and cultural and literary theory, Elizabeth Vibert unpacks the assumptions behind traders' views - assumptions shaped by culture, gender, social class, and race. At the same time the author explores the responses of the Native Americans of the Plateau region to the pressures and changes wrought by this early colonial incursion into latter-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. The cultural perceptions of these white men in Indian country were open to inventive refashioning, and Native peoples played a central role in the encounter and in the way it was portrayed. Traders' Tales is both an analysis of fur-trader writings as a form of colonial discourse and a meticulous historical narrative providing significant new insights into early Native-white relations in a little-studied region of the West. A broadly comparative perspective and finely tuned critical skills enable Vibert to shed new light on the nature of colonial cultural relations, and to illuminate the ways in which racism and ethnocentrism are constructed historically

xviii, 366 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Pacific Northwest Lighthouses pays tribute to the forty-five lifesaving beacons From Coos Bay, Oregon, to Unimark Island in the Aleutians. The lighthouses on the harrowing northwestern coastline of the United States and Canada are memorialized in dramatic tales and glorious photos that evoke the continuing battle between men and sea. Profiles include complete details on directions and visiting hours

88 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm.

The mighty Columbia River encompasses not only the full range of American history but a geography of myth, hope, and tragedy. With the intricate detail of a scholar and the art of a storyteller, author Robert Clark captures the impact of Manifest Destiny, the conquest of native peoples, emigrants from the drought-ridden Midwest, and hydropowered New Deal dreams

x, 406 pages ; 21 cm

Authored by local historian Doug Devin, Mazama the Past 100 Years: Life and Events in the Upper Methow Valley & Early Winters chronicles the century-long social and environmental evolution of an isolated high-country community in north-central Washington. The book draws on oral histories, diaries, and archival photographs to document the arduous lives of early homesteaders, miners, and trappers who braved deep winter snows and rugged mountain terrain along the eastern slopes of the Cascade range. Through these collected records, the text captures how a sparse population of self-reliant outdoorsmen gradually transformed into a tight-knit recreational and residential valley. A keen insight drawn from the work is how seasonal isolation acts as a powerful community filter; the extreme winter climate of the upper Methow Valley routinely weeded out casual settlers, leaving behind a resilient population whose social cohesion was entirely dependent on mutual survival tactics and an enduring tolerance for wilderness seclusion.

155 pages : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm

Authored by Michael Burgess and illustrated by Steve McLeod, Uncle Mike's Guide to the Real Oregon Coast offers an unconventional, highly personal travelogue that strips away polished resort gloss to reveal the quirky characters, hidden tide pools, and gritty working-waterfront towns of the Pacific Northwest shore. The book combines irreverent local lore, practical backroads navigation, and offbeat commentary to direct travelers toward authentic, uncommercialized coastal experiences. Through its humorous and direct prose, the text highlights the idiosyncratic cultural texture that survives just off the beaten highway. A keen insight drawn from the work is how true regional identity often exists in the overlooked margins between major tourist attractions; by celebrating the weathered fish shacks, eccentric locals, and forgotten roadside stops, the guide exposes how authentic coastal culture thrives precisely where commercial tourism fears to tread.

xiii, 87 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Stories of the Wishram chief Tsagaglalal and Coyote. Authored by Willa Holmes and Anderson Benally, She Who Watches explores the rich history, spiritual significance, and cultural legacy surrounding the famous Columbia River petroglyph known as Tsagaglalal, located near the Dalles. The book weaves together Native oral traditions, historical documentation, and Indigenous perspectives to illuminate the sacred rock art site that has overlooked the river valley for centuries. Through these collected narratives, the text honors the profound spiritual connection regional tribes maintain with ancestral sacred places despite the inundation of the landscape by modern dams. A keen insight drawn from the work is how ancient rock art functions as an eternal sentinel of tribal sovereignty; by enduring through eras of profound ecological and political displacement, figures like Tsagaglalal serve as silent legal and spiritual witnesses asserting an unbroken Indigenous title to the land that industrial modernization could never submerge.

ix, 37 pages : color illustrations ; 28 cm

Examines the work of Boston mariners in the fur trade and other trades during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century

137 pages ; 25 cm.

Northwest Women features concise descriptions of more than 700 books and articles that examine the contributions of Washington and Oregon women -- bringing to light generations of scholarship about celebrated and anonymous women, from Native American basket makers to Japanese-Americans interned during World War II

x, 134 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm

Authored by longtime southern Oregon resident Granny Abbott, Bandon Tales: Stories of Country Life offers a charming, homespun collection of reminiscences documenting early homesteading, farming, and coastal community life near Bandon during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The book captures the unvarnished realities of rural survival, neighborly mutual aid, and domestic routines against the backdrop of raw wilderness and sweeping Pacific shores. Through affectionate and straightforward prose, the text preserves the colloquial voice and everyday folklore of pioneers who carved out an existence on a windswept frontier. A keen insight drawn from the work is how domestic humor and storytelling served as vital psychological currency for frontier women; by framing crushing physical hardships through the lens of wry local comedy, homesteaders built emotional resilience and forged unbreakable social ties that kept isolation at bay.

111 pages : illustrations ; 21 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

Stanley W. Johnson traces the ways that the Milwaukee Railroad shaped the lives of its employees and their families on its route from Three Forks, Montana, to Spokane, Washington

239 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Idaho's history centers, in many regards, on its rivers. Idaho has more free flowing water than any other state in the continental US. Idaho rivers have played an important role in the state's history, travel and commerce. River Tales of Idaho includes fifty eight stories that illustrate the importance of the state's streams to Native Americans, explorers, settlers, industry and recreationists.

xi, 342 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Authored by Mike and Maxim Hurwicz, The Official Illustrated Orcas-American Dictionary and Phrase Book and Gazetteer presents a witty, satirical lexicon capturing the distinct cultural quirks, local geography, and insider vernacular of Orcas Island in Washington's San Juan archipelago. Through humorous definitions, phrase guides, and custom illustrations, the book lampoons the everyday realities of ferry schedules, rainwater catchment systems, and the peculiar friction between lifelong islanders and seasonal newcomers. The text uses self-deprecating humor to decode the unwritten social codes of a fiercely independent, geographically isolated community. A keen insight drawn from the work is how regional dialects and specialized humor serve as cultural gatekeeping tools in rapidly gentrifying rural areas; by codifying local jargon into a satirical dictionary, island residents establish a linguistic boundary that playfully rebuffs outsiders while reinforcing a shared, resilient identity.

17 pages : portrait