Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

"Between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, General William S. Harney became one of the best-known military figures in America. In a career aided by Andrew Jackson and the concept of an expansible army, Harney saw duty in virtually every part of the country and participated in most of the key military episodes of his time. He chased remnants of Lafitte pirates in Louisiana, campaigned with Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis during the Black Hawk War, developed Vietnam-style riverine tactics that ended the Second Seminole War, and led Winfield Scott's cavalry in the Mexican War. In the 1850s Harney devised the army's largest and most successful pre-Civil War campaign against Plains Indians, commanded troops charged with upholding federal authority in Kansas and Utah, and almost provoked hostilities with Great Britain in the Pacific Northwest. Removed from command amid false charges of disloyalty during the Missouri secession crisis, he returned as a leading member of the Indian Peace Commission of 1867-68." "Harney was bold, ambitious, and innovative, but also impulsive, vindictive, and violent. His career illustrates the nineteenth oentury army's role in implementing federal policy, highlights its limited resources compared to its responsibilities, and illuminates key aspects of its organizational structure, the behavior of its officers, and its impact on personal lives."--Jacket

xix, 389 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

"The twenty-five years between 1821 and 1846 were turbulent but important years in the history of the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest: 1821 saw the merger of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, and 1846 saw the signing of the Oregon Treaty, which established the Canada-US border." "Archibald McDonald was a man who experienced these changes first-hand. As a senior HBC officer, he was sent to the Columbia District headquarters at Fort George in 1821 to oversee the recently absorbed NWC posts and assets. After the merger, McDonald went on to direct operations at Thompson River (1826-28), Fort Langley (1829-33), and Fort Colvile (1834-44)." "During his tenure in the Pacific Northwest, letters were McDonald's only link with the outside world. Collected here for the first time by Jean Murray Cole, these public and private letters to friends, business colleagues, missionaries, botanists, and many others provide a fascinating narrative of the expansion of the fur trade at a critical time in its history."--Jacket

ix, 297 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Celebrating America's favorite cityscapes, this series combines historic interest and contemporary beauty. Then and Now features fascinating archival photographs contrasted with specially commissioned, full-color images of the same scene today. A visual lesson in the historic changes of our greatest urban landscapes

144 pages : chiefly illustrations (some color) ; 26 x 29 cm

For more than 150 years, Pacific Northwest writers have sought out the region's shared stories and traditions in an attempt to explain the common features of its places and people. A key element in the study of place and region is the relationship between human experience and the natural world. This newest volume in the acclaimed Culture and Environment in the Pacific West series offers a compelling blend of ideas and perspectives on region identity in the Pacific Northwest. In The Great Northwest, historian William G. Robbins gathers writings that explore the idea and reality of the Pacific Northwest from a surprising variety of viewpoints. Descriptions of and stories about such distinct places as Celilo Falls on the Columbia river, Alaska, interior British Columbia, and the reforested Tillamook Burn in Oregon show why the search for regional identity is a complex but ultimately rewarding endeavor. "The business of understanding the Pacific Northwest is messy but important," writes series editor William Lang. "Knowing what we think about our place and our region offers opportunities to understand ourselves our communities, and our relationships to the larger world."

x, 190 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Authored by Carolyn Neal and Thomas Kilday Janus, Puget Sound Ferries: From Canoe to Catamaran, an Illustrated History presents a visual and narrative chronicle of the vessels that have spanned Washington’s inland sea across generations. The book traces the technological evolution of water transit from indigenous dugout canoes and early steam-powered "mosquito fleet" boats to modern automobile ferries and high-speed catamarans. Richly illustrated with historical photographs and detailed vessel logs, the text highlights how changing ship designs directly reflected the growing mobility needs of a decentralized coastal population. A keen insight drawn from the work is how the ferry system functioned as the original democratic equalizer of the region; by stitching together disparate islands and mainland shorelines before bridges were feasible, these vessels created a unified regional community out of a fragmented marine geography.

224 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm

Published by Binford & Mort and compiled by researchers Dean H. Byrd, Stanley R. Clarke, and Janice M. Healy, Oregon Burial Site Guide serves as a comprehensive genealogical and historical inventory of cemeteries across the state. The volume documents thousands of burial locations ranging from pioneer family plots and historic urban graveyards to remote rural resting places, providing precise geographic coordinates and historical context for each site. By systematically cataloging these final resting places, the text rescues forgotten local figures and early settlers from historical obscurity while mapping the shifting human settlement patterns of the Pacific Northwest. A keen insight drawn from the work is how regional cemeteries function as open-air archives of frontier demographics; the layout, marker materials, and clustering of these graves physically map out the waves of migration, epidemic diseases, and harsh environmental realities that shaped early Oregon communities long before modern municipal records were established.

xxxvi, 1180 pages : illustrations, maps ; 29 cm

The study of larval invertebrates is a vital and growing field in contemporary marine science. The key ecological role of larvae in determining adult population sizes has been recognized for decades and has inspired extensive research. This volume, the first of its kind, is an identification guide to the planktonic larvae of shallow subtidal and intertidal invertebrates common to the Pacific Northwest coast. Each chapter provides a brief background to the larval biology of an invertebrate group; keys, line drawings, and descriptions for the identification of larvae; a list of the species present in the Pacific Northwest; and a reference section. The geographic range covered is roughly from southeast Alaska to northern California; however many of the species are found along the entire coast of California, as far south as Baja California. An essential reference for anyone attempting to identify larval invertebrates from zooplankton samples, this working manual is intended for students as well as scientists and researchers. It offers an important new resource for marine biologists, biological oceanographers, marine and intertidal ecologists, and especially larval biologists.

314 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm

Anthropologist Rodney Frey culminates a decade of work with the Schitsu’umsh (the Coeur d’Alene Indians of Idaho) in this portrait of the unique bonds between a people and the landscape of their traditional homeland. The result of an intensive collaboration between investigator and Native people, the book includes many traditional stories that invite the reader’s participation in the world of the Schitsu’umsh. The Schitsu’umsh landscape of lake and mountains is described with a richness that emphasizes its essential material and spiritual qualities. The historical trauma of the Schitsu’umsh, stemming from their nineteenth-century contacts with Euro-American culture, is given dramatic weight. Nonetheless, examples of adaptation and continuity in traditional cultural expression, rather than destruction and discontinuity, are the most conspicuous features of this vivid ethnographic portrait. Drawing on pivotal oral traditions, Frey mirrors the Schitsu’umsh world view in his organization and presentation of ethnographic material. He uses first-person accounts by his Native consultants to convey crucial cultural perspectives and practices. Because of its unusual methodology, Landscape Traveled by Coyote and Crane is likely to become a model for future work with Native American peoples, within the Plateau region and beyond.

xi, 329 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

A classic account of a 1950s sex scandal that depicts middle America's traditional response to homosexuality. Written in 1965 about a same-sex sexual scandal that occurred in 1955 in Boise, Idaho, John Gerassi’s classic study depicts both middle America’s traditional response to homosexuality and an era in the country’s history before the modern gay rights movement really got underway. Because much of what Gerassi wrote about persists in today’s struggles over gay and lesbian issues, his book still has much to tell us about how contemporary society reacts to, and misunderstands, homosexuality. On the morning of November 2, 1955, the people of Boise, Idaho, were stunned by a screaming headline in the Idaho Daily Statesman, THREE BOISE MEN ADMIT SEX CHARGES. Time magazine picked up the story, reporting that a "homosexual underworld" had long operated in Idaho’s staid capital city. The Statesman led the hysteria that resulted in dozens of arrests—including some highly placed members of the community—and sentences ranging from probation to life imprisonment. Peter Boag’s Foreword places the book in historical perspective, summarizing the popular psychological theories and legal conceptions that helped to shape Gerassi’s research. He discusses advances in Idaho’s public approach to homosexuality and ways in which the provincialism chronicled by Gerassi persists to this day.

xxxii, 328 pages ; 22 cm.

Joseph R. Garry (1910–1975), a Coeur d’Alene Indian, served six terms as president of the National Congress of American Indians in the 1950s. He led the battles to compel the federal government to honor treaties and landownership and dominated an era in government-Indian relations little attended by historians. Firmly believing that forced assimilation of Indians and termination of federal trusteeship over Native Americans and their reservations would doom Indian cultures, Garry had his greatest success as a leader in uniting American Indian tribes to fend off Congress’s plan to abandon Indian citizens. Born into a chief’s family and raised on the Coeur d’Alene reservation in northern Idaho, Garry rose to chairmanship of his tribal council, president of the Affiliated Tribes of the Northwest Indians, and leadership of NCAI. He was the first Native American elected to the Idaho House and Senate. Handsome, personable, and articulate, Garry traveled constantly to urge Indian tribes to hold onto their land, develop economic resources, and educate their young. In a turbulent decade, Garry elevated Indians to political and social participation in American life, and set in motion forces that underlie Indian relations today.

xi, 220 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Lewis Green’s The Great Years: Gold Mining in the Bridge River Valley offers an authoritative technical, financial, and spatial history of the Bridge River gold district, which stood as the richest lode gold producer in British Columbia history. Green reconstructs the complex geological formation of the Cadwallader and Hurley river fault systems, examining the corporate development of the Bralorne and Pioneer mines from speculative frontier prospects into dividend-paying industrial giants. The volume details the logistical feats required to construct power plants, all-weather mountain roads, and company-planned residential townsites across Gold Bridge, Bralorne, Brexton, and Ogden. Green analyzes the economic resilience of the district during the Great Depression, the labor politics of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, and the technological innovations that enabled deep-vein mining until increasing operating costs and fixed gold prices forced eventual closure.

x, 262 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 23 cm

Bittersweet Oasis: A History of Ashcroft and District, 1885-2002, originally authored by Brian Belton, provides a comprehensive historical account of the development of the village of Ashcroft in British Columbia's Thompson region. The book chronicles Ashcroft's foundational years as the bustling "Gateway to the Cariboo," detailing how its position at the intersection of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Cariboo Wagon Road fueled its early economic boom. It further explores the community's cultural and economic evolution, highlighting the vital contributions of early pioneers, Chinese laborers, and a thriving agricultural sector famous for its tomatoes and potatoes. Ultimately, the narrative captures the enduring resilience of the district's residents as they successfully navigated devastating fires, shifts in regional transportation routes, and changing industries over more than a century.

160 pages : illustrations, facsimiles, portraits ; 29 cm

Published in local editions by Patricia Lander, Guide to Ferryboats of Puget Sound: Past and Present provides a comprehensive historical and structural inventory of the iconic vessels that have navigated the inland waters of Washington State. The book catalogs a diverse fleet ranging from the early mosquito fleet steamers to the modern auto-ferries that form an indispensable maritime highway across the Salish Sea. Through detailed vessel histories, operational timelines, and archival photographs, the text captures how these floating bridges shaped regional commerce, commuting, and coastal community-building. A keen insight drawn from the work is how Puget Sound ferries function as floating public town squares; by forcing diverse commuters, tourists, and islanders into shared, slow-paced transit, the ferry system preserves a unique communal culture that directly resists the anonymous speed of modern mainland highways.

145 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

A major contribution to the study of Indian-white relations in the Pacific Northwest, Uncertain Encounters provides a comprehensive view of relations in southern Oregon over a 50-year period beginning in the fur-trade era and ending with the Rogue River War and its aftermath. Nathan Douthit's meticulously researched study offers a complex view of Indian-white relations in the region. Rather than focus mainly on well-documented incidents of conflict and federal Indian policy as other historians have done, Douthit directs attention to peaceful interactions as well. He shows that in the years leading up to the Rogue River War, Indians and whites interacted with uncertainty, alternating between acts of friendship and hostility. Uncertain Encounters begins with a critical investigation of the Hudson's Bay Company's fur-trade relations with southern Oregon Indians, emphasizing its responsibility for Indian hostility. It turns next to exploration of the region by white Americans and to early encounters between Indians and white miners and settlers. It re-examines the tragic Rogue River War, providing the first detailed picture of Indian casualties and the war's impact on the Indian population. Finally, it describes the removal of Indians to the Siletz and Grand Ronde reservations as told from the perspective of Indian oral narratives as well as white accounts. As a major aspect of the story, Douthit highlights the development of a little-known middle ground of relationships between Indian women and white men during and after removal.

viii, 248 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

"Do law and legal procedures exist only so long as there is an official authority to enforce them? Or do we have an unspoken sense of law and ethics?" "To answer these questions, John Phillip Reid's Contested Empire explores the implicit notions of law shared by American and British fur traders in the Snake River country of Idaho and surrounding areas in the early nineteenth century. Both the United States and Great Britain had claimed this region, and passions were intense. Focusing mainly on Canadian explorer and trader Peter Skene Ogden, Reid finds that both sides largely avoided violence and other difficulties because they held the same definitions of property, contract, conversion, and possession." "In 1824, the Hudson's Bay Company directed Ogden to decimate the fur-bearing animal population of the Snake River country, thus making the region a "fur desert." With this mandate, Great Britain hoped to neutralize any interest American furtrappers could have in the area. Such a mandate set British and American fur men on a collision course, but Ogden and his American counter-parts implicity followed a kind of law and procedure and observed a mutual sense of property and rights even as the two sides vied for control of the fur trade." "Failing to take legal culture into consideration, some previous accounts have depicted these conflicts as mere episodes of lawless frontier violence. Reid expands our understanding of the West by considering the unspoken sense of law that existed, despite the lack of any formalized authorities, in what has otherwise been considered a "lawless" time."--Jacket

xiii, 258 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

History of Kellogg, Idaho, 1885-2002 by Ray Chapman provides a localized account of a legendary Silver Valley mining town, drawing on the author's decades of firsthand experience working for the prominent Bunker Hill Company. The narrative traces the community's origins back to the famous 1885 "Jackass Legend," when prospector Noah Kellogg and his wandering burro purportedly discovered the ore deposits that sparked the region's massive boom. Chapman details the profound social and economic evolution of the Coeur d'Alene Mining District, exploring the growth of its prolific lead, zinc, and silver industries through the twentieth century. Ultimately, the book captures how this isolated Idaho enclave navigated over a century of economic triumphs, industry closures, and complex environmental legacies tied to one of the nation's largest mining operations.

59 pages : illustrations, map ; 28 cm

Published by Fernando Monge, En la costa de la niebla: el paisaje y el discurso etnográfico ilustrado de la expedición Malaspina en el Pacífico examines the late 18th-century scientific voyage led by Alejandro Malaspina along the fog-shrouded Pacific Northwest coast. The book analyzes the intricate intersection of Enlightenment-era exploration, landscape representation, and the visual ethnography captured by artists and naturalists documenting indigenous societies from Alaska down to the Spanish colonial outposts. Through a close reading of historical journals and newly contextualized illustrations, the text reveals how imperial ambition sought to categorize and control remote foreign geographies through the dual lens of science and art. A keen insight drawn from the work is how Enlightenment science in the Pacific was never truly neutral; rather, the detailed cataloging of local native cultures and misty coastlines served as an aesthetic tool of Spanish territorial claim-making, transforming indigenous homelands into legible imperial commodities.

238 pages ; 24 cm

Published by local presses, Sally Portman’s The Smiling Country: A History of the Methow Valley chronicles the colorful evolution of north-central Washington's dramatic river valley from its indigenous roots to its modern incarnation as a recreational haven. The book details the arduous lives of early homesteaders, gold miners, stockmen, and orchardists who carved a living out of a geographically isolated landscape defined by scorching summers and brutal winters. Through extensive oral histories and rich archival imagery, the text preserves the rugged character of communities like Winthrop and Twisp as they transitioned from extractive resource economies to tourism. A keen insight drawn from the work is how the valley's iconic moniker, "the smiling country," serves as a historical mask for the harsh economic realities of frontier survival; it reflects an enduring human impulse to romanticize an unforgiving high-desert ecosystem that frequently tested the limits of those who tried to tame it.

381 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

This collection chronicles the cartographic history of the western United States from 1524 to 1890. The book begins with a look at the European powers' (Spain, France, England) efforts to comprehend their far-flung colonies, then directs our attention toward U.S. Government and military maps made by such notables as Lewis and Clark, Robert E. Lee, and C.T. Beauregard. Also included are maps by American Indians, maps that highlight the epicenter of the California gold rush, and maps that delineate the proposed and final courses of the transcontinental railroad, to mention only a few of the areas discussed. Many maps are here shown for the first time, most for the first time in color. Filled with fascinating historical anecdote and detailed scholarship, this is a work for map lovers and history buffs alike.--From publisher description

208 pages : illustrations, maps (chiefly color) ; 28 cm

Authored by preservation planner Mimi Sheridan in collaboration with McConnell/Burke, the National Park Service, and Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, How Coupeville Grew: A Short History of Town Development charts the architectural and spatial evolution of Washington’s second-oldest European settlement. Excerpted from the town's Historic Preservation Plan, the work traces Coupeville's transformation from a mid-19th-century maritime trading post and donation land claim into a preserved historic district defined by 19th-century New England-style architecture. Through municipal records, planning documents, and spatial analysis, the text details how maritime commerce and geographic isolation shaped the town's compact, pedestrian-oriented urban fabric. A keen insight drawn from the work is how modern historic preservation can intentionally weaponize municipal planning against suburban sprawl; by codifying vernacular architecture and historic spatial layouts into law, Coupeville successfully turned its historic isolation into an economic and cultural asset that safeguards its 19th-century character from modern erasure.

58 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm

Hold on to your hats! Jerry's second edition of Boom Towns & Relic Hunters of Washington State has hit the news stands and book shelves. Interested in reading about long-lost forgotten ghost towns, million-dollar mines, boomtown mining camps and historical sites in Washington State? Find out more about these histories and mysteries in this second edition book, Boom Towns & Relic Hunters of Washington State....Exploring Washington's Historic Ghost Towns & Mining Camps, your complete guide to ghost towns and historical sites in Washington State by noted local author, tour guide, historian and famed ghost town and treasure hunter Jerry Smith. Jerry's book is a comprehensive and detailed history of ghost towns, mining camps and picturesque locations in six historic counties, which include: Okanogan, Chelan, Ferry, Kittitas, Pend-Oreille, and Stevens. The book s author transports one back in time to the boomtown days of yesteryear, bringing back to life the ageless Old West mining-era days of prosperous boomtowns, miners, prospectors, pioneers and million-dollar gold and silver mines. Here is a literary work chalked full of rich concentrates of history. Jerry has prospected and sluiced out the hardships and tragedies of those early pioneering and prospecting days, literally filling one s reading cache with hours of high-grade pleasure and fascinating relics from his well-researched and personal treasure trove. Don t miss out! This second edition book is back by popular demand and provides over one hundred ghost town and mining camp locations, 137 of Jerry s rare and historic award-winning photographs, 23 rare and one-of-a-kind historic mining documents, 32 new adventure stories, 250 pages, and is complete with exact GPS coordinates. In one reader s words, This is a must for ghost town and gold prospecting buffs. In addition, the book, loaded with information and directions, makes a great self-guided ghost town tour book to carry in one s automobile. For those planning a trip to Washington State, the guide will provide advanced information for a greater appreciation of the historic sites and their relics which one can experience upon arrival. The book also serves as a wonderful educational tool for students and teachers prospecting the history of this unique part of Washington State. The chapter, Information on Metal Detecting and Relic Hunting, is an added bonus. The chapter includes several chapters on how to search out and locate long-lost, valuable treasures from the past. In the literal sense of the word, arming one s self with a little knowledge about using a metal detector, one s research can actually lead to pay-dirt. As a reader, if you re not looking to strike it rich, but would like to visit those colorful Old West days and relive some of Washington State's history, excitement is awaiting you in Jerry s new book.

xi, 124 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

Learn how to draw the Wolf, the Eagle, the Killer Whale and other powerful illustrations of the native arts with help from this step-by-step guide. The second coloring book in the Northwest Indigenous Arts Series. Learn about some of the real and legendary creatures revered by the natives of the West Coast by using these templates to create spectacular pictures. Over 80 instructional drawings of indigenous art. Learn to draw indigenous art! First Nations artist Robert E. Stanley Sr. shares his knowledge and technique in rendering classic northwest native drawings. Now you too, can learn to draw some of the legendary animals of the First Nations tribes, by learning Robert's techniques passed down to him from generation to generation.

64 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm

A freelance wildlife writer offers a biography of the life and work of Morley Nelson, a passionate defender of American birds of prey whose advocacy for conservation laws, as well as his achievements in the field of falconry, nature films, raptor rehabilitation, and related work are covered in the book, along with his years of WWII service as a company commander in the elite 10th Mountain Division in the Italian Alps. B & w photos, with a few in color

xx, 429 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Boise's Chinatown was a rich and colorful part of community life for more than a century. Arthur A. Hart has devoted more than thirty years to researching Chinese people in Idaho, including Boise s Chinatown. You will learn why the Chinese came here, the prejudice and hardships they faced, and their important contributions to the city and the state.

xiv, 144 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 28 cm

A fourth-grade textbook presenting the history, geography, resources, government, traditions, and ethnology of Idaho

257 pages : illustrations, maps ; 29 cm