Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

Wonderful history of the Puget Sound Electric Railway, part of Stone & Webster's empire of west coast interurbans. With beautiful black and white photos on almost every page plus 8 pages in color. Includes 200 photos, maps and complete equipment roster. 144 pages.

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

"The Queen Charlotte Islands have always been a half-legendary land of mists and mystery, set off and seemingly different from the rest of the coast. Human occuption goes back some 9,000 years, with intriguing hints of a people there before the Haida. Although the islands were "discovered" by Juan Perez, a Spaniard, in 1774, records indicate that voyagers from Asia had arrived much earlier. This is a story of people - Edenshaw, Weah, Davidson, Dawson, Collison and others - from Haida chiefs and carvers to European explorers and settlers

xii, 180 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm

Since its first appearance in 1964 this delightful little book on the magic San Juan Islands has gone through several editions and numerous reprintings to become a real classic. Newly revised and up-to-date for today's generation of readers, this affectionate survey of the San Juans - replete with the legends and romance that make the Islands such a special place - is still the very best book of its kind. Magic Islands will add to the fun of every visitor and island-dweller. It contains descriptions of the San Juan as they are today, adds a bit of the Islands' history for flavor and hazards a peek at what the future may hold for this special place many call "paradise."

95 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm

As stated, "When the first group of pioneers explored the rugged Olympic mountain range during the harsh winter of 1889, they encountered both breathtaking beauty and cruel acts of nature. In subsesuent years, numeruous expeditions followed, and with the gripping tales of these trailblazers, collected here for the first time". This book includes never-before published historical photos and features detailed maps of explorers' routes.

175 pages : illustrations, maps ; 16 x 23 cm

Delivered by pioneer physician and politician Anson G. Henry, Rogue River War Speech captures a fiery public address given in Corvallis, Oregon, in December 1855 to rally support for military action against Indigenous tribes during the height of the Rogue River Wars. The speech plays upon frontier anxieties, detailing alleged atrocities and framing the violent subjugation of local native populations as an urgent, righteous defense of American settlers. Through contemporary rhetorical appeals, the text preserves the raw, unmasked political panic and racial animosity that drove territorial policy during the Pacific Northwest's Indian wars. A keen insight drawn from the work is how wartime rhetoric deliberately inverted the roles of aggressor and victim; by casting preemptive military campaigns of displacement as defensive humanitarian rescue missions, pro-war leaders successfully mobilized civilian volunteers and legitimized state-sanctioned violence under the banner of civic protection.

41 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm

Authored by Lucia W. Moore, Nina W. McCornack, and Gladys W. McCready, The Story of Eugene chronicles the founding and growth of Oregon’s third-largest city from its humble beginnings as a remote Willamette Valley settlement in the mid-19th century. The book draws on pioneer diaries, local records, and oral histories to trace the community's evolution from a muddy river crossing named after Eugene Skinner into a bustling agricultural and educational hub anchored by the University of Oregon. Through its detailed civic narrative, the text highlights the entrepreneurial drive and social institutions that transformed a fragile frontier outpost into a thriving urban center. A keen insight drawn from the work is how the intentional integration of higher education served as a vital urban survival strategy; by aggressively lobbying to secure the state university, early town leaders successfully insulated Eugene from the boom-and-bust cycles of purely resource-dependent timber and rail economies, cementing the city's long-term cultural and economic resilience.

277 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Dismissed in early years as a wasteland, the rolling open country that covers the interior parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho is today one of the richest farmlands in the nation. This work is the story of its transformation. Meinig traces all of the aspects of its development by combining geographic description with historical narrative

xxiv, 576 pages, [1] folded leaf : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Authored by Leland G. Jackson and Trudy Howarth, An Early History of Spirit Lake & the Toutle River Valley chronicles the pioneer settlement, timber extraction, and rugged recreation that defined the remote wilderness surrounding Mount St. Helens before the 1980 cataclysmic eruption. The book draws on historical photographs, diaries, and local records to document the daring homesteaders, early cabin builders, and resilient loggers who carved out a living in the shadow of the active volcano. Through these preserved vignettes, the text captures the idyllic, rustic era of lakeside resorts and mountain trails that existed prior to the mountain's dramatic reconfiguration. A keen insight drawn from the work is how human history in volcanic zones is defined by a collective, deliberate amnesia regarding natural hazards; by building permanent communities and thriving tourist hubs directly beneath a dormant geological giant, early settlers demonstrated an irrepressible human tendency to mistake temporary mountain stability for a permanent guarantee.

v, 113 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Authored by Pacific Northwest writer Ann Briley, The Great North Road and Other Stories presents a evocative collection of regional fiction exploring the emotional landscapes and quiet struggles of individuals living along the rugged northern fringes of Washington State. The book weaves together poignant narratives of isolation, family dynamics, and community ties against the backdrop of dense evergreen forests, misty coastlines, and remote rural highways. Through sensitive character studies, the text captures the nuanced human experiences that unfold far away from bustling urban centers. A keen insight drawn from the work is how geographical isolation acts as a magnifying glass for personal conflict; by setting her character-driven dramas along quiet frontier routes where escape is physically difficult, Briley reveals how regional remoteness forces individuals to confront their deepest emotional truths rather than outrun them.

182 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

The cast of characters in Elizabeth Poehlman’s book, Darrington: Mining Town/Timber Town reads like a Wild West novel set in Paul Bunyan country. But this is no novel – Poehlman has written a memorable small-town history. The book starts in the late 1800s with the struggles of Chief Wawetkin and the Sauk-Suiattle Indians to deal with the onset of miners and settlers throughout their homelands deep in what would soon be renamed the North Cascades mountains in the new state of Washington. Subsequent chapters feature gold-fevered miners (and a revenge murder); a hotel owner who asked to be deputized for a half hour to deal with a knife-wielding drunk the sheriff couldn’t handle; the town doctor who kept a bear cub as a pet; the “sky pilot” minister who was too scared to preach in the rough railroad logging camps, opting to show slides instead; the Tarheels who followed the timber industry from North Carolina and brought their love of bluegrass and moonshine; the Depression-era housewife who distrusted banks and stashed her family’s savings around her waist in a hidden money belt – enough to almost pay off their land and house. Darrington, as Poehlman learned while living there, may be backwoods, but never boring.

176 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Authored by local historian Louise Ross Poppleton, There Is Only One Enumclaw: Pioneer History and Early Years chronicles the establishment and agricultural development of the plateau community nestled beneath Mount Rainier in western Washington. The book draws on early homestead records, family journals, and vintage photographs to trace how rugged pioneers cleared dense timberlands to build dairy farms and small-town institutions at the gateway to the Cascades. Through these localized archives, the text preserves the grit and mutual dependence required to tame a damp, heavily forested frontier. A keen insight drawn from the work is how geographical positioning at the foot of a major mountain pass shaped the town's unique identity; by acting as the mandatory staging ground for travelers and resource extraction moving into the high country, Enumclaw forged an enduring commercial resilience rooted entirely in its role as a transitional hub between wilderness and civilization.

v, 123 pages : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm

Authored by historian Tom Hackenmiller, Wapato Heritage: The History of the Chelan and Entiat Indians documents the traditional lifeways, displacement, and survival of Indigenous bands native to the dramatic river valleys and lake shores of north-central Washington. The book draws on oral histories, government documents, and ethnographic records to trace how native communities harvested abundant wapato roots and salmon runs before facing rapid encroachment by Euro-American miners, orchardists, and homesteaders. Through these documented accounts, the text chronicles the severe pressures of forced reservation confinement and the systematic erasure of native geography along the Columbia River watershed. A keen insight drawn from the work is how botanical and food-gathering sites served as the true geopolitical anchors of Indigenous sovereignty; by documenting how the loss of specific seasonal root-digging grounds like wapato beds dismantled native self-sufficiency far more effectively than military defeat, the book reveals that colonial land dispossession was fundamentally an assault on a people's nutritional and ecological autonomy.

187 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Postmaster General James A Farley's famous toast "to the forty-seven states and the soviet of Washington" introduces and sets the tone for this study of Washington State radicalism. The state's colorful reputation for radical movements was established in the 1920s and 1930s by free speech fights, strikes, strong labor organizations, and woman suffrage reforms. Charles LeWarne finds the roots of this radicalism in the communitarian experiments of the late nineteenth century. Through analyses of several of these experiments, LeWarne demonstrates that the influence of a coterie of liberals and radicals centered on Puget Sound in such communities as Home, Burley, Freeland, Equality, and Port Angeles was felt in the state long after the "utopias" they came to colonize had ceased to exist. Probably the most famous of the experiments was Home Colony on Joe's Bay near Tacoma. From a nucleus of three families, Home grew to over two hundred residents and lasted for more than twenty years. Its reputation for anarchism and flamboyance contributed to a jail sentence conviction for one editor of the Home newspaper for publishing an editorial called "The Nude and the Prudes." Readers interested in current social movements and lifestyles will find many enlightening parallels with recent communal attempts, particularly the rejection of traditional values and the belief in a perfectible world. Whatever the differences within individual colonies, the communitarian ideal has certain general characteristics that find their way into each of these attempts to form a perfect society. Historians will welcome this treatment of an important part of the social and cultural history of the area. The book contains a mine of previously scattered information on the subject. It is a delightful footnote to the history of the Puget Sound region.

XXIV, 325 Seiten Illustrationen, Karten 23 cm

Rufus Woods, for more than forty years the publisher of the Wenatchee Daily World, has often been called the "High Priest of the Columbia River." No person deserves the title more. From the editorial platform of the World, Woods tirelessly promoted Wenatchee and north central Washington. For decades he pegged his brightest hopes for the region's future on a huge Columbia River dam in the isolated Grand Coulee region. From 1918 through Grand Coulee's completion in 1941, Woods enthusiastically promoted the largest dam-building project in American history

xvi, 312 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map portraits ; 24 cm

Authored by regional writer Robert H. Dreisbach, Guide to Northeast Oregon provides a comprehensive travel companion and historical handbook exploring the rugged canyons, high desert plateaus, and forgotten mining towns of Oregon's Blue Mountains and Wallowa country. The book details backroad itineraries, local geological anomalies, and the fascinating remnants of frontier settlement scattered across the state's most isolated eastern terrain. Through precise route descriptions and historical context, the text encourages travelers to look past the damp Willamette Valley to discover a radically different, arid landscape defined by deep gorges and pioneer grit. A keen insight drawn from the work is how regional geography directly dictates historical consciousness; by guiding modern explorers through a landscape shaped by ancient basalt flows and grueling wagon trails, the book illustrates how northeastern Oregon's vast, unforgiving topography has preserved a sense of frontier time that more densely populated urban centers have long since paved over.

156 pages ; 22 cm

Authored by regional historian Robert L. Ferguson, The Pioneers of Lake View: A Guide to Seattle's Early Founders and Their Cemetery provides a compelling biographical and historical tour of Lake View Cemetery, the final resting place for many of the Emerald City's most prominent 19th-century figures. The book connects the physical monuments and headstones to the turbulent lives of the lumber barons, politicians, and ordinary settlers who laid the foundational infrastructure of frontier Seattle. Through meticulous research into pioneer genealogies, the text unearths the personal triumphs and tragedies hidden beneath manicured urban turf. A keen insight drawn from the work is how historic urban cemeteries function as subterranean archives of class stratification and civic myth-making; by examining who was granted prominent burial plots versus who was relegated to unmarked ground, the book reveals how city founders carefully engineered their own posthumous legacies to sanitize the brutal corporate ruthlessness of early Pacific Northwest capitalism.

119 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

In the 1890s, the name of Rossland was on every investor’s lips. Known at one time as the new Johannesburg, this small town in southeastern British Columbia was the most important mining centre in the region. Apparently possessed of vast quantities of ore, the town’s mines seemed to promise wealth for all, and Rossland grew dramatically throughout the decade. By the early 1900s, it was the province’s fourth largest centre. During that time, hard rock mining changed from a loosely structured pioneer activity to a fully fledged industry that relied on sophisticated technology, a complex corporate infrastructure, and economies of scale. Despite these advances, Rossland’s success was shortlived. A bitter strike in 1901 signalled the beginning of the Golden City’s slow decline. Nearby Trail, originally a subsidiary of Rossland’s mining industry, soon surpassed its neighbour in size and importance.. Roaring Days explores the history of the mining industry in British Columbia. Mouat examines the many different aspects of mining, from work underground to corporate strategies, and he also brings to life the unique individuals who were a part of this history--the miners who toiled long hours in semi-darkness, the hardy citizens who built a bustling town out of the wilderness, and the wealthy mine owners and corporate entrepreneurs whose wealth exceeded all expectations. --From publisher's description

xviii, 236 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

On April 1, 1908, Lola G. Baldwin, aged forty-eight, was sworn in "to perform Police Service" for the city of Portland, Oregon. She was the first woman hired by an American municipality to carry out regular enforcement duties. In telling Lola Baldwin's story, Gloria Myers examines the social and cultural impulses that gave rise to the policewoman idea. The Progressive Era redefined the role of women in society; Baldwin's career benefited from the Progressive belief that women could ameliorate urban evil as they had earlier civilized the household. The need for the urban policewoman arose out of concern for the moral and physical welfare of families, single working women, and children living in the cities. Supported by socially active women's organizations and informed by the ideals of "social hygiene," the first policewoman led a crusade against urban vice, deviance, and corruption in the Rose City. Preventive policing strategies developed by "municipal mothers" like Baldwin aid and influence policing policies to this day

viii, 232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Port Orford, Oregon, in the 1930s and 40's. Here a curious, blabbermouth boy learns more at the bottom of a ditch than in kindergarten and finds real home in a booth at Red's Bar holding hands with Dorothy, who he is never supposed to talk to. With a little help from his friends, young Johnny learns about life and death and sex and Indians. And, with his help, we remember what it is to be a kid

viii, 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

In 1940, the Grays Harbor Post in Aberdeen, Washington, introduced its readers to "The Kitchen Critic," a new column chronicling life in nearby Cohassett Beach. Within a year the U.S. was at war, and columnist Kathy Hogan's weekly dispatches turned to soldiers, rationing, and the barbed wire that lined the sand dunes around her weathered cottage. 50 years later, Kathy Hogan's writings provide a window onto how one Pacific Northwest community responded to World War II. Cohassett Beach Chronicles, a collection of Hogan's columns from the war years, offers a remarkable social history of the war at home. The attack on Pearl Harbor brought U.S. troops to Cohassett Beach and to towns up and down the West Coast. With wit and perception, Hogan writes of civilians valiantly coping with this friendly occupation and wartime scarcity. Her neighbors — loggers, commercial fishermen, Finnish cranberry farmers — learn to live with blackouts, blimps, and a ban on beachcombing. Hogan's weekly descriptions of life on the home front capture America's wartime mood. Together, her columns document the war's tremendous impact at home, from the internment of Japanese Americans and the spread of government regulations to the changing role of women. They also reveal that in spite of the war effort life, in many ways, continued as it always had. There was still time to pick blackberries, gossip at the local tavern, and attend the occasional Friday night dance. As children, the editors spent summers in the Cohassett Beach cottages that still, in the late 1940s, bore scars of the Army's occupation.

xxx, 290 pages : illustrations, maps ; 27 cm

From their home bases in Idaho and neighboring areas of the Northwest, organizations such as the Order, the Aryan Nations Church, the Posse Comitatus, and the Golden Mean Society have drawn national attention and spread the gospel of a “constitutionally pure, Christian homeland.” For the reader who knows these groups only from a selection of inflammatory quotes and violent deeds, this compelling work presents the first disciplined exploration of the backgrounds and belief systems of the Christian patriot movement. Using information gathered from interviews and direct observation of patriot gatherings, Aho replaces the stereotype of solitary crazies from the fringes of society with more complex and disturbing realities.

x, 323 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

On a hot summer night in 1963, a teenager named Walt Crowley hopped off a bus in Seattle’s University District, and began his own personal journey through the 1960s. Four years later at age 19, he was installed as “rapidograph in residence” at the Helix, the region’s leading underground newspaper. His cartoons, cover art, and political essays helped define his generation’s experience during that tumultuous decade. Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle weaves Crowley’s personal experience with the strands of international, intellectual, and political history that shaped the decade. As both a member and in-house critic of the New Left and counter-culture, the author offers a unique perspective in explaining why the experiments and excess of the period “made sense at the time.” Anti-war marches, human be-ins, rock festivals, psychedelic drugs, underground newspapers, free universities, light shows, inner-city riots, radical skirmishes, and hippie antics are chronicled with personal anecdotes, contemporary accounts, and historical insights. In the pages of Rites of Passage, the reader will encounter Black (and White) Panthers, the Seattle and Chicago Seven, Weathermen and Radical Women, and many more remarkable characters. As an engaging blend of history and personal reminiscence, Rites of Passage places the sixties in a context unavailable to its participants at the time. In addition to his text, Crowley has assembled a chronology of the decade beginning with its harbingers in the forties and fifties and continuing through its aftermath. This compilation covers political, social, and cultural events, and provides the most complete synopsis of sixties history now in print.

xiv, 351 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

"A guide to turtles, lizards, and snakes. Each species entry includes: description, distribution, ranges, habits, comparison to similar species, and remarks regarding the uniqueness of the species. Also the only field guide to cover all marine and freshwater turtles in the region" --back cover

viii, 176 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), maps ; 22 cm.

Across the inland West, forests that once seemed like paradise have turned into an ecological nightmare. Fires, insect epidemics, and disease now threaten millions of acres of once-bountiful forests. Yet no one can agree what went wrong. Was it too much management—or not enough—that forced the forests of the inland West to the verge of collapse? Is the solution more logging, or no logging at all? In this gripping work of scientific and historical detection, Nancy Langston unravels the disturbing history of what went wrong with the western forests, despite the best intentions of those involved. Focusing on the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, she explores how the complex landscapes that so impressed settlers in the nineteenth century became an ecological disaster in the late twentieth. Federal foresters, intent on using their scientific training to stop exploitation and waste, suppressed light fires in the ponderosa pinelands. Hoping to save the forests, they could not foresee that their policies would instead destroy what they loved. When light fires were kept out, a series of ecological changes began. Firs grew thickly in forests once dominated by ponderosa pines, and when droughts hit, those firs succumbed to insects, diseases, and eventually catastrophic fires. Nancy Langston combines remarkable skills as both scientist and writer of history to tell this story. Her ability to understand and bring to life the complex biological processes of the forest is matched by her grasp of the human forces at work—from Indians, white settlers, missionaries, fur trappers, cattle ranchers, sheep herders, and railroad builders to timber industry and federal forestry managers. The book will be of interest to a wide audience of environmentalists, historians, ecologists, foresters, ranchers, and loggers—and all people who want to understand the changing lands of the West.

xii, 368 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm.

52 pages of great newspaper articles written by Allen Miller, many vintage black and white photos covering logging, new buildings in town, schools and more.

iv, 52 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 28 cm