Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

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

During the night of August 14, 1944, an Italian prisoner of war was lynched on the Fort Lawton army base in Seattle--a murder that shocked the nation and the international community. It was a time of deep segregation in the army, and the War Department was quick to charge three African American soldiers with first-degree murder, although there was no evidence linking them to the crime. Forty other black soldiers faced lesser charges over the incident, launching one of the largest and longest army trials of World War II. In this harrowing story of race, privilege, and power, Jack Hamann explores the most overlooked civil rights event in American history. On American Soil raises important questions about how justice is carried out when a country is at war, offering vital lessons on the tensions between national security and individual rights.

xviii, 358 pages ; 23 cm

Authored by Irene Barfoot O'Neill, Olga 125 Years: Memories and Potlucks celebrates more than a century of community history in the historic waterfront settlement on Orcas Island, Washington. The book weaves together family recollections, archival records, and community traditions to trace how a pioneer farming and canning outpost evolved into a close-knit, enduring residential hamlet. Through these shared narratives and local recipes, the text highlights the social glue that has sustained generations of residents through changing economic tides. A keen insight drawn from the work is how communal food traditions and shared gatherings function as vital infrastructure in isolated island enclaves; by anchoring local history around the community potluck, the narrative reveals that shared meals served as the primary mechanism for bridging generational divides, welcoming newcomers, and preserving collective memory when formal institutions were scarce.

144 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm

Old Yamhill: the early history of its towns and cities chronicles the grueling agricultural transformation and early pioneer settlement situated within the fertile but heavily untamed river corridors of the western Willamette Valley. The Yamhill County Historical Society details how the region's formidable physical barriers—specifically the steep, heavily timbered eastern foothills of the Coast Range, the unpredictable winter flooding of the meandering Yamhill River, and the dense, waterlogged riparian zones of the valley floor—strictly dictated the margins of overland migration and initial agrarian expansion. By mapping the immense physical labor required to clear thick stands of valley brush, drain the marshy lowlands, and painstakingly carve productive agricultural tracts from the damp earth, the narrative highlights the monumental cooperative effort necessary to forcibly convert this dense temperate environment into a highly structured farming grid. The profound lack of viable overland roads during the severe, rain-drenched winters initially forced these remote homesteaders into a strict reliance on the precise topography of the Yamhill River for transportation, completely anchoring their commercial existence and early civic development to the precarious navigation of shallow-draft steamboats and the severe hydrological realities of the basin. Ultimately, this civic and historical record serves as a deeply localized spatial history, demonstrating how the specific riverine geography, heavy maritime precipitation, and immense physical labor of this Pacific Northwest frontier fundamentally shaped the fiercely resilient, tightly knit, and strictly agriculturally dependent character of the Yamhill County communities.

106 pages : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm

Authored by local historian Monty Hormel, Old West in Grant County Country chronicles the rugged frontier heritage and colorful historical legacy of eastern Oregon's high desert mining and ranching country. The book details the turbulent late-19th-century era defined by gold rushes, cattle drives, vigilante justice, and the sheer tenacity of homesteaders who carved out lives in an arid, isolated landscape. Through vintage photographs and local archives, the text preserves the vanishing oral histories and dramatic episodes that shaped communities like John Day and Canyon City. A keen insight drawn from the work is how the popular mythology of the "Old West" masks the mundane economic desperation of frontier extraction; by examining the boom-and-bust cycles driven by mineral exhaustion and grazing limits, the narrative reveals that legendary tales of outlaw lawlessness often served to distract from the grinding precariousness of living on depleted land.

vii, 95 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

64 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

August 12, 2003, marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir James Douglas. Although he played an integral role in British Columbia's history, in many ways Douglas remains misunderstood and an enigma. He is known for his contradictory qualities he was self-serving, racist, a military hawk, sometimes violent and arrogant. Yet he was also extremely community oriented, a humanitarian, brave and a devoted family member. John Adam's bestseller Old Square-Toes and His Lady: The Life of James and Amelia Douglas serves as an important source of information regarding Douglas's public and private lives. As Adams writes, [the term] old square-toes characterizes him as an unbending, stodgy, boring individual, but nothing could be further from the truth. At the pinnacle of his career, Douglas was knighted by order of Queen Victoria. Considering his modest, mixed-race beginnings in South America, his lofty status is, indeed, remarkable. Equally so is the life of his wife, Amelia. She was also of mixed blood, her mother being Cree and her father Irish. But unlike Douglas, who was educated in Scotland, she never left the northern forests until they married. Their ending up as a knight and lady of the British Empire was an unusual achievement. Old Square-Toes discusses the Douglases' diverse experiences of astonishing contrasts, from crossing North America by canoe to touring Europe by train, from Native uprisings to the frantic gold rush. Besides finding glory, they also faced grief in losing seven of their beloved children. This is a story of the adventure, heartbreak, and devotion that lies at the roots of western Canada

xi, 243 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm

Herbert M. Hart’s Old Forts of the Northwest serves as a comprehensive architectural and military chronicle of the strategic frontier outposts established to secure the vast, violently contested territories of the inland and coastal Pacific Northwest. The narrative meticulously maps the formidable geography that dictated the precise placement of these isolated garrisons, ranging from the rugged, storm-battered coastal defenses guarding the estuarine entrances of the Columbia River and Puget Sound, to the arid, wind-swept plateaus and steep alpine passes of the interior empire.

By detailing the construction of these timber, stone, and adobe fortresses at critical topographical chokepoints—such as major river confluences, treacherous overland trail crossings, and deep-water maritime harbors—the book illustrates how the United States military sought to systematically control the region's vital transit corridors. Hart highlights the profound logistical nightmares of supplying these remote outposts, demonstrating how the sheer physical isolation, challenging terrain, and brutal winter climates often proved as formidable an adversary to the enlisted men as the indigenous nations fiercely resisting pioneer land seizures. Ultimately, the text captures the severe environmental realities of nineteenth-century military expansion, demonstrating how the unforgiving topography and sprawling distances of the western frontier fundamentally shaped the strategic architecture and geopolitical consolidation of the region.

192 pages : illustrations, portraits, map (on lining papers) plans ; 28 cm

Old Fort Boise examines the strategic fur-trade outpost and vital overland pioneer sanctuary situated at the critical riverine confluence of the arid western Snake River Plain. Bird details how the region's formidable interior topography—specifically the powerful, flood-prone currents of the converging Snake and Boise rivers, the vast, sun-scorched sagebrush steppes of the surrounding high desert, and the vital, narrow riparian corridors of sustaining forage—strictly dictated the margins of early Euro-American trapping operations and the precarious overland routing of the Oregon Trail. By mapping the establishment and tenuous survival of this adobe fortress, which leveraged the crucial hydrological convergence to provide a mandatory, life-saving oasis for exhausted pioneer wagon trains before they faced the grueling Blue Mountains, the narrative highlights how this specific riparian geography anchored a highly transient but deeply necessary desert waystation. Ultimately, this historical record serves as a localized spatial history, demonstrating how the severe arid isolation, dynamic riverine forces, and critical confluence of this interior Pacific Northwest landscape fundamentally shaped the highly resilient, transit-bound character of Old Fort Boise.

90 pages : maps ; 23 cm

Mary Cousins’s Okanagan Landing: A Glimpse of the Past chronicles the maritime and transportation history of the vital freshwater port established at the northern head of Okanagan Lake. Cousins details how the 1892 completion of the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway spur from Sicamous transformed a quiet shoreline into the primary transshipment terminal connecting transcontinental rail freight to interior lake waterways. The text documents the establishment of the Canadian Pacific Railway shipyards, where iconic sternwheelers—including the S.S. Aberdeen, S.S. Okanagan, and S.S. Sicamous—were fabricated and launched to service fruit ranches and mining camps across the lake basin. Cousins preserves detailed records of the shipyard labor force, lakeside family settlements stretching toward Beachcomber Bay, and the eventual obsolescence of the fleet following the construction of modern valley highway corridors.

112 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 28 cm

Oh Shaw! and other islands captures the localized history and unique pioneer character of the deeply secluded communities scattered throughout the San Juan archipelago in the marine waters of northwestern Washington. The narrative focuses prominently on Shaw Island, detailing how its rocky, heavily timbered shorelines and protected coves dictated an isolated, fiercely self-reliant lifestyle dependent on small-scale agriculture and the turbulent tidal currents of the Salish Sea. By exploring the broader chain of surrounding landmasses, the authors highlight the profound physical barriers of these marine waterways, where early daily survival and trade relied entirely on hazardous navigation by small boats and regional steamers. Ultimately, the book serves as a geographic tribute to how the remote, water-bound topography of the Pacific Northwest coast inherently shaped the enduring independence of these early maritime settlements.

Limited edition prose and poetry book about Shaw Island which highlights watercolors by Rex Brandt, Joan Irving, and illustrator Malcolm Cameron.

38 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

June Crithfield's Of Yesterday and the River provides a localized history of the early agricultural communities and transportation networks nestled along the dramatic gorges of the Snake River in eastern Washington. The narrative focuses extensively on Whitman and Garfield counties, capturing the daily life and commerce of bustling, yet remote, pioneer river ports such as Wawawai and Almota. By chronicling the construction of the ingenious bucket tramways and grain chutes—most notably the Mayview and Interior tramways—that moved harvested wheat from the steep Palouse bluffs down to waiting steamboats, the book vividly maps how settlers adapted to the severe topography of this vital inland Pacific Northwest waterway.

1 online resource (iv, 116 pages) illustrations, facsimiles, portraits

William O. Douglas’s autobiographical Of men and mountains explores the physical and spiritual resilience forged within the rugged alpine landscapes of the Cascade Range and the agricultural foothills of the Yakima Valley. Set against the formidable backdrop of Mount Adams, the Goat Rocks, and the Tieton River basin, the narrative details how early outdoorsmen, sheepherders, indigenous groups, and pioneers cooperatively navigated this demanding high-altitude wilderness. By chronicling his own physical recovery through grueling backcountry expeditions alongside these scattered mountain inhabitants, Douglas illustrates how shared endurance in the unforgiving Pacific Northwest high country created a unique, deeply rooted frontier kinship. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that testing oneself against these towering volcanic peaks and isolated river valleys was essential not only for personal survival but for establishing a lasting community identity intimately tied to the region's dramatic geography.

xiv, 338 pages : map ; 23 cm

Of man, time, and a river the Skagit River, how should it be used? captures the intense late-twentieth-century environmental and industrial conflicts over one of the most powerful and ecologically vital watersheds in western Washington. DeLorme details how the region's complex topography—spanning from the sheer, glaciated alpine canyons of the North Cascades down to the broad, fertile alluvial floodplains emptying into Puget Sound—strictly dictated competing models of resource extraction and human settlement. By documenting a series of pivotal community meetings, the narrative highlights the immense spatial tension between exploiting the steep, narrow upper river corridors for massive hydroelectric dam projects to power distant urban centers, and preserving the delicate hydrography required to sustain the lower valley's rich agricultural grid and ancient, fragile salmon runs. The proceedings underscore how the sheer scale, velocity, and seasonal flooding of the river forced residents, engineers, and conservationists into a fierce debate over the ultimate physical control of the landscape. Ultimately, this documentary record serves as a deeply localized spatial history, demonstrating how the immense hydrological force and extreme topographic diversity of this Pacific Northwest river basin fundamentally shaped the modern political and environmental battlelines over the region's natural resources.

x, 67 pages : map ; 28 cm

"Of Forest and Fields tells the story of the ethnic Mexicans that toiled in the fields, canneries, packing sheds, and forests who helped turn the Pacific Northwest into one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country. The book explores the struggle of Braceros, Tejanos, and Mexican immigrants, to contest their exploitation in various ways. The history of their resistance culminated in the creation of one of the most important farm worker's unions in the country, the Pineros y Campesinos Unidos Noreste (PCUN)"--Provided by publisher

x, 169 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

The Federal Writers’ Project’s Odd place names and their origin explores the linguistic footprint and enduring civic identity forged during the pioneer settlement of the diverse Oregon landscape. The narrative illustrates how the challenging environmental realities of this vast topography—spanning from the rugged, rain-swept coastal estuaries to the arid expanses of the eastern high desert—required early communities to intimately familiarize themselves with their surroundings, a process fundamentally reflected in how they named their environment. By detailing the gradual linguistic evolution from indigenous place names to the idiosyncratic, practical designations of overland pioneers, the text highlights the complex cultural intersections and shared daily adaptations required to map and organize the frontier. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that thoughtfully documenting these local toponyms provides a profound, community-driven record of how early settlers cooperatively anchored themselves to a demanding geography and cultivated a shared, enduring regional heritage.

1 online resource (5 pages)

Ocosta-by-the-Sea, the site chosen by the Northern Pacific Railroad as its Washington Territory western terminus, is an historical account of a young town's hopes and hardships, and the pioneers who were willing to take the risks necessary to create what was expected to be the "San Francisco of the Washington coast."

This book deals with the physical aspects of the sea as exemplified by the Pacific Ocean and the contiguous waters of the British Columbia coast. Although principally devoted to waves, currents and tides, the book spans a broad spectrum of topics ranging from meteorology and marine biology to past and present marine geology. It attempts to elucidate the nature of oceanic motions and to relate them to everyday experience for the general interest of the casual reader and for the practical benefit of the professional mariner, scientist, or engineer

xii, 291 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm

Authored by pioneering anthropologist Charles Hill-Tout, Oceanic Origin of the Kwakiutl-Nootka and Salish Stocks of British Columbia presents an early 20th-century linguistic and ethnological study exploring the ancestral roots of Pacific Northwest Indigenous peoples. The book investigates complex grammatical structures, cultural customs, and physical characteristics to argue for maritime migration theories linking Northwest Coast tribes to Pacific island populations. Through meticulous comparative analysis, the text reflects the ambitious scope of early anthropological attempts to map the peopling of the Americas. A keen insight drawn from the work is how obsolete scientific theories often inadvertently highlight the profound maritime orientation of coastal tribes; by obsessing over trans-oceanic origins to explain advanced coastal cultures, early researchers underscored a fundamental truth—that the Salish, Kwakiutl, and Nootka peoples treated the open ocean not as a barrier of isolation, but as a vast, unifying highway for human movement.

60 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm