Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

"Just how, and why, did Vancouver Island get onto the map? How was knowledge of our immediate geography acquired and recorded? With 130 maps, dating between 1593 and 1915, this cartographic history tells the story of how Vancouver Island and the surrounding area came to be mapped. The book shows local cartographic milestones, marking progress in our knowledge through the island's rich--although comparatively short--recorded history. However, the maps, by themselves and without context, cannot tell the whole story. The accompanying text reveals the motives, constraints, agendas, and intrigues that underpin their making."--Publisher's description

232 pages : maps (chiefly color) ; 25 cm

From the clear water of Crater Lake to the desolate desert valleys near the California and Nevada borders, South-Central Oregon is a region of cinder cones, ancient forests and rugged living. Roads Less Traveled in South-Central Oregon leads modern explorers on nearly 900 miles of routes and explains what they'll find along the way.

vi, 103 pages : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm

Published in 2013 by Art Chin and Doug Chin, The Chinese in Washington State chronicles over a century of Chinese American history, detailing the trials, contributions, and enduring resilience of pioneers who helped shape the Pacific Northwest. Drawing on rich archival photographs and community narratives, the book documents early immigration waves, the harsh realities of labor discrimination and anti-Chinese expulsion movements, and the eventual establishment of vibrant cultural enclaves like Seattle's Chinatown-International District. A keen insight drawn from the text is how it deliberately shifts the historical lens away from passive victimhood, emphasizing instead how early Chinese communities actively built robust mutual-aid networks, economic institutions, and political coalitions that transformed them into foundational architects of modern Washington society.

144 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

IN EARLY 1968, the gates of City of Tacoma's Mossyrock Dam on the Cowlitz River in Lewis County, Washington closed and the 23.5 mile long reservoir be- hind the dam began to fill, inundating the former town sites of Riffe, Nesika and Kosmos. Thus ended the short-lived history of a fertile valley that had first been settled in the 1880s and 1890s; mostly by people from Appalachia who came west looking for a better life. The town of Riffe was named after one of those early settlers, Floyd Riffe, who came to the area from West Virginia in 1893 with a group of about 60 people. Riffe established a post office, named after him, that would eventually serve about 1,500 people until they were all forced to sell their homes and land and leave the valley so the City of Tacoma could build their dam. Stories from Riffe, Wash, is a collection of narratives that recalls some of those peo- ple, how they lived and died, and what it was like in the valley that now lies deep beneath the waters of Riffe Lake. --From Backcover

ix, 150 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

An anthology of poems, oratory and prose on the Cascadia region

xv, 223 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.

"A history of the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon, spanning from 1883 to 2012"--Provided by publisher

334 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

"Using imported heirloom grains and fruits, Spanish explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and some Native Americans planted subsistence gardens in the Pacific Northwest. After immigration surged in 1843, it took a surprisingly short time for the region's fertile lands to become a commercial agricultural powerhouse. Demand for food exploded with the industrial revolution as well as the urbanization of Europe and eastern America, and the doors of international export opened wide. Agribusiness expanded to meet the need. By 1890, advancements in mechanization, seed quality, irrigation and sustainable practices had spurred a farming boom. Columbia Basin irrigation and the development of synthetic fertilizers, as well as Cooperative Extension efforts and impressive work by agricultural researchers, greatly boosted regional production. This text explores the people, history, and major influences that shaped and transformed the Pacific Northwest's flourishing agrarian economy." Provided by publisher

xiii, 186 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm

"Lewis and Clark Among the Nez Perce is a generous and careful re-evaluation of what we all thought we knew about Lewis and Clark west of the Bitterroot Mountains. It is also a template for a series of tribal histories of the Lewis and Clark expedition that will be inspired by this book. Incidents we thought we knew backwards and forwards suddenly take on a new light when the historical lens is reversed, and the reader begins to understand what the extended visit of Lewis and Clark meant to their hosts--approximately four months of daily interchange with a community of Indians the white visitors regarded as especially friendly, hospitable, and helpful to the success of the expedition"-- Publisher's description

xx, 299 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Like most Native children forced by law to attend schools across Canada and the United States, Sellars and other students of St. Joseph's Mission were allowed home only for two months in the summer and for two weeks at Christmas. The rest of the year they lived, worked, and studied at the school. St. Joseph's Mission is the site of the controversial and well-publicized sex-related offenses of Bishop Hubert O'Connor, which took place during Sellars's student days, between 1962 and 1967, when O'Connor was the school principal. After the school's closure, those who had been forced to attend came from surrounding reserves and smashed windows, tore doors and cabinets from the wall, and broke anything that could be broken. Overnight their anger turned a site of shameful memory into a pile of rubble. In this frank and poignant memoir, Sellars breaks her silence about the institution's lasting effects, and eloquently articulates her own path to healing

xx, 227 pages : illustrations, map, portraits ; 22 cm.

"In 1846, French Canadian-born A.M.A. Blanchet was named the first Catholic bishop of Walla Walla in the area soon to become Washington Territory. He arrived at Fort Walla Walla in late September 1847, part of the largest movement over the Oregon Trail to date. During the thirty-two years of Blanchet's tenure in the Northwest, the region underwent profound social and political change as the Hudson's Bay Company moved headquarters and many operations north following the Oregon Treaty, U.S. government and institutions were established, and Native American inhabitants dealt with displacement and discrimination. Blanchet chronicled both his own pastoral and administrative life and his observations on the world around him in a voluminous correspondence-almost nine hundred letters-to religious superiors and colleagues in Montreal, Paris, and Rome; funding organizations; other missionaries; and U.S. officials. This selection of Blanchet's letters provides a fascinating view of Washington Territory as seen through the eyes of an intelligent, devout, energetic, perceptive, and occasionally irascible cleric and administrator. Almost all of Blanchet's correspondence was in French. Roberta Stringham Brown and Patricia O'Connell Killen have chosen forty-five of those letters to translate and annotate, creating a history of early Washington that provides new insights into relationships, events, and personalities. A number of the letters provide first-hand glimpses of familiar events, such as the Whitman tragedy, the California gold rush, Indian wars and land displacement, transportation advances, and the domestic material culture of a frontier borderland. Others voice the hardships of historically underrepresented groups, including Native Americans, Metis, and French Canadians, and the experiences of ordinary people in growing population centers such as Seattle, Walla Walla, and Vancouver, Washington. Still others describe the struggle to bring social, medical, and educational institutions to the region, a struggle in which women religious workers played a key role. The letters-and the editors' fascinating annotations-provide an engaging and insightful look at an important period in the history of the Pacific Northwest and southwest Canada. Roberta Stringham Brown is professor of French at Pacific Lutheran University. Patricia O'Connell Killen is professor of religious studies and academic vice president at Gonzaga University"-- Provided by publisher

xviii, 272 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

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

127 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

In 1931, a 12-year-old boy shot and killed the sheriff of Asotin, Washington. The incident stunned the small town and a mob threatened to hang him. Both the crime and Herbert Niccolls's eventual sentence of life imprisonment at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla drew national attention, only to be buried later in local archives. Journalist Nancy Bartley has conducted extensive research to construct a compelling narrative of the events and characters that make this a unique episode in the history of criminal justice in the United States. Niccolls became a cause for Father Flanagan of Boys Town,who took to the airwaves, imploring listeners to write Governor Hartley on the boy's behalf. The bitter campaign put Hartley in such a negative light that he lost his bid for reelection. Under a new and progressive warden, Niccolls thrived in prison. Inmates like physician Peter Miller and literary agent James Ashe became his tutors, finding that Niccolls had an insatiable appetite for knowledge. During the deadly 1934 prison riot at Walla Walla, several prisoners kept him from harm. Niccolls was finally released from prison in his early twenties. He went to work at 20th Century Fox in Hollywood, where he kept his secret for the rest of his long life. The Boy Who Shot the Sheriff explores this little-known story of a young boy's fate in the juvenile justice system during the bloodiest years in the nation's penitentiaries.

xii, 284 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

The North Pacific temperate rainforest, stretching from southern Alaska to northern California, is the largest temperate rainforest on earth. This book provides a multidisciplinary overview of key issues important for the management and conservation of the northern portion of this rainforest, located in northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. This region encompasses thousands of islands and millions of acres of relatively pristine rainforest, providing an opportunity to compare the ecological functioning of a largely intact forest ecosystem with the highly modified ecosystems that typify most of the world's temperate zone. The book examines the basic processes that drive the dynamic behavior of such ecosystems and considers how managers can use that knowledge to sustainably manage the rainforest and balance ecosystem integrity with human use. Together, the contributors offer a broad understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by scientists, managers, and conservationists in the northern portion of the North Pacific rainforest that will be of interest to conservation practitioners seeking to balance economic sustainability and biodiversity conservation across the globe.

xi, 383 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Each year thousands of drivers travel Washington State’s breathtakingly beautiful North Cascades Highway (State Route 20), observing the region’s alpine flora and fauna and its dramatic geologic features. The North Cascades Highway, an illustrated natural history guide, helps travelers and readers to appreciate the deeper beauty behind the landscape. Organized as a series of stops at eye-catching sites along eighty miles of the highway, The North Cascades Highway reveals the geological story of each location. Plate tectonics, rock formation, erosion, and glaciation are explored to show how the features of the North Cascades landscape came into being as they exist today. Human history is also included, as the book describes how miners, climbers, and poets have been inspired by the geology and terrain of the North Cascades. For travelers on the road, the easy-to-use guidebook format includes mileage, parking information, and detailed maps. Stunning color photographs allow armchair travelers to enjoy the journey as well. Appendices provide detailed information on geologic time, rock types, glaciers, and the geologists who have decoded stories hidden in rock and ice. The North Cascades Highway provides a unique experience of a striking landscape that is also a rich, interwoven system of living things, climate, and geology.

xv, 104 pages : color illustrations color maps ; 29 cm

Becoming Big League is the story of Seattle's relationship with major league baseball from the 1962 World's Fair to the completion of the Kingdome in 1976 and beyond. Bill Mullins focuses on the acquisition and loss, after only one year, of the Seattle Pilots and documents their on-the-field exploits in lively play-by-play sections. The Pilots' underfunded ownership, led by Seattle's Dewey and Max Soriano and William Daley of Cleveland, struggled to make the team a success. They were savvy baseball men, but they made mistakes and wrangled with the city. By the end of the first season, the team was in bankruptcy. The Pilots were sold to a contingent from Milwaukee led by Bud Selig, who moved the franchise to Wisconsin and rechristened the team the Brewers. Becoming Big League describes the character of Seattle in the 1960s and 1970s, explains how the operation of a major league baseball franchise fits into the life of a city, charts Seattle's long history of fraught stadium politics, and examines the business of baseball.

xii, 348 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

In 1893, the Washington State legislature quietly began passing a set of laws that essentially made homosexuality, and eventually even the discussion of homosexuality, a crime. A century later Mike Lowry became the first governor of the state to address the annual lesbian and gay pride rally in Seattle. Gay Seattle traces the evolution of Seattle’s gay community in those 100 turbulent years, telling through a century of stories how gays and lesbians have sought to achieve a sense of belonging in Seattle. Gary Atkins recounts the demonization of gays by social crusaders around the turn of the century, the earliest prosecutions for sodomy, the official harassment and discrimination through most of the twentieth century, and the medical discrimination and commitment to mental hospitals that continued into the 1970s as homosexuality was diagnosed as a disease that could be "cured." Places of refuge from this imposed social exile were created in underground theater and dance clubs: the Gold Rush-era burlesque shows, modern drag theater, and in mid-century the emergence of openly gay bars, from the Casino to Shelley’s Leg. Many of these were subjected to steady exploitation by corrupt police - until bar owner MacIver Wells and two Seattle Times reporters exposed the racket. The increasingly public presence of gays in Seattle was accompanied by the gradual coalescence of social services and self-help organizations such as the Dorian Society, gay businesses and advocacy groups including the Greater Seattle Business Association, and the stormy relationship between the Vatican, Seattle's Catholic hierarchy, and gay worshippers. Atkins’ narrative reveals the complex and often frustrating process of claiming a civic life, showing how gays and lesbians have engaged in a multilayered struggle for social acceptance against the forces of state and city politics, the police, the media, and public opinion. The emergence of mainstream political activism in the 1970s, and ultimately the election of Cal Anderson and other openly gay officials to the state legislature and city council, were momentous events, yet shadowed by the devastating rise of AIDS and its effect on the homosexual community as a whole. These stories of exile and belonging draw on numerous original interviews as well as case studies of individuals and organizations that played important roles in the history of Seattle’s gay and lesbian community. Collectively, they are a powerful testament to the endurance and fortitude of this minority community, revealing the ways a previously hidden sexual minority "comes out" as a people and establishes a public presence in the face of challenges from within and without.

xl, 451 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

In 1845, an estimated 2,500 emigrants left Independence and St. Joseph, Missouri, for the Willamette Valley in what was soon to become the Oregon Territory. It was general knowledge that the route of the Oregon Trail through the Blue Mountains and down the Columbia River to The Dalles was grueling and dangerous. About 1,200 men, women, and children in over two hundred wagons accepted fur trapper and guide Stephen Meek's offer to lead them on a shortcut across the trackless high desert of eastern Oregon. Those who followed Meek experienced a terrible ordeal when his memory of the terrain apparently failed. Lost for weeks with little or no water and a shortage of food, the Overlanders encountered deep dust, alkali lakes, and steep, rocky terrain. Many became ill and some died in the forty days it took to travel from the Snake River in present-day Idaho to the Deschutes River near Bend, Oregon. Stories persist that children in the group found gold nuggets in a small, dry creek bed along the way. Fom 2006 to 2011, Brooks Ragan and a team of specialists in history, geology, global positioning, metal detecting, and aerial photography spent weeks every spring and summer tracing the Meek Cutoff. They located wagon ruts, gravesites, and other physical evidence from the most difficult part of the trail, from Vale, Oregon, to the upper reaches of the Crooked River and to a location near Redmond where a section of the train reached the Deschutes. The Meek Cutoff moves readers back and forth in time, using surviving journals from members of the 1845 party, detailed day-to-day maps, aerial photographs, and descriptions of the modern-day exploration to document an extraordinary story of the Oregon Trail.

xi, 156 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps ; 24 x 29 cm

"I walked across the highway and stood on the bank overlooking Lake Roosevelt. My attention was directed to the area where Kettle Falls once flowed. As I stood there the wind came. As I listened I imagined that it talked to me. It seemed that it was telling me of how things once were. I began to think of friends and relatives who were no longer living. They began to appear before me, perched on the large rocks, fishing for the great salmon." In his distinctive voice, Lawney Reyes, grandson of Pic Ah Kelowna or White Grizzly Bear of the Sin Aikst, relates the history of his family and his people. The Sin Aikst are now known as the Lakes tribe, absorbed into the Colville Confederated Tribes of eastern Washington. And where Kettle Falls once flowed and the Sin Aikst once fished are places that exist now only in memory, flooded when the Grand Coulee Dam was completed in 1942. Reyes uses personal and family history to explore the larger forces that have confronted all Native Americans: displacement, acculturation, and the potent force of self-renewal. The son of a Filipino immigrant and a mother who traced her ancestry to the earliest known leaders of the Sin Aikst, Reyes paints a vivid picture of his early life in the Indian village of Inchelium, destroyed by the building of the dam. Reyes describes the loss of homeland and traditional ways of life, the scarcities that followed, and the experiences of a court-ordered Indian boarding school in Oregon. These well-known facts of loss and injustice take on a compelling dimension in Reyes’s blend of history and autobiography, brought to life by the vivid images and personalities he describes. Despite the loss of heritage beneath the waters of the Columbia River and the flood of white acculturation, Reyes and his younger brother, the late Native American leader Bernie Whitebear, were able to fashion rich lives in a changed world, lives that honor the past while engaging with the present.

xviii, 197 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

This is about my father's mastery of everything that makes life worthwhile: ships, boats, airplanes, families, oceans, pets, and alcohol. Some of these he managed better than others. A master mariner whose unlimited licenses covered all oceans and any ship's tonnage, he learned to fly airplanes in order to land on docks next to his ship, tamed a kangaroo by playing the organ aboard his vessels, threw good parties and disastrous ones, sailed a 50-foot ketch from Fiji to Juneau, and made "good times" during most of his life, along with a notable failure. He was a Sunset Magazine Chef of the West. He also was a water witch, discovering that he could use dowsing sticks to discover water resources for his community on tiny Orcas Island, off the West Coast, where he treated his friends to cases of Scotch that he dumped overboard in the Strait of Georgia.

vi, 131 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Lost Seattle looks at the cherished places in the city that time, progress and fashion have swept aside. As well as celebrating forgotten architectural treasures, Lost Seattle also looks at buildings that have changed use, vanished under a wave of new construction or been transformed beyond recognition

143 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 29 x 26 cm

Idaho's Place is an anthology of the most current and original writing on Gem State history. From the state's indigenous roots and early environmental battles to recent political and social events, these essays provide much-needed context for understanding Idaho's important role in the development of the American West. Through a creative approach that combines explorations of concepts such as politics, gender, and race with the oral histories of Idaho residents - the very people who lived and made state history - this unique collection sheds new light on the state's surprisingly contentious past. Readers, whether they are longtime residents or newcomers, tourists or seasonal dwellers, policy makers or historians, will be treated to a rich narrative in which the many threads of Idaho's history entwine to produce a complete tapestry of this beautiful and complex Western state.

ix, 310 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

A firsthand look at one of the world’s most livable cities, this fun take on the guidebook genre explores the atmosphere of Portland, Oregon, versus detailing its landmarks and restaurants. It both explains and embraces how beautiful and ridiculous Portland life can be, and includes essays on everything from the rain and bicycling to beards and tater tots. With its approachable and often hilarious tone, this book is perfect for anyone who wants to learn more about the city that is earning its way onto more and more top cities lists each year.

62 pages : illustrations, map

On a March evening in 1964, ten-year-old Tom Horning awoke near midnight to find his yard transformed. A tsunami triggered by Alaska’s momentous Good Friday earthquake had wreaked havoc in his Seaside, Oregon, neighborhood. It was, as far as anyone knew, the Pacific Northwest coast’s first-ever tsunami. More than twenty years passed before geologists discovered that it was neither Seaside’s first nor worst tsunami. In fact, massive tsunamis strike the Pacific coast every few hundred years, triggered not by distant temblors but by huge quakes less than one hundred miles off the Northwest coast. Not until the late 1990s would scientists use evidence like tree rings and centuries-old warehouse records from Japan to fix the date, hour, and magnitude of the Pacific Northwest coast’s last megathrust earthquake: 9 p.m., January 26, 1700, magnitude 9.0—one of the largest quakes the world has known. When the next one strikes—this year or hundreds of years from now—the tsunami it generates is likely to be the most devastating natural disaster in the history of the United States. In The Next Tsunami, Bonnie Henderson shares the stories of scientists like meteorologist Alfred Wegener, who formulated his theory of continental drift while gazing at ice floes calving from Greenland glaciers, and geologist Brian Atwater, who paddled his dented aluminum canoe up muddy coastal streams looking for layers of peat sandwiched among sand and silt. The story begins and ends with Tom Horning, who grew up to be a geologist and return to his family home at the mouth of the river in Seaside—arguably the Northwest community with the most to lose from what scientist Atwater predicts will be an “apocalyptic” disaster. No one in Seaside understands earthquake and tsunami science—and the politics and complicated psychology of living in a tsunami zone—better than Horning. Henderson’s compelling story of how scientists came to understand the Cascadia Subduction Zone and how ordinary people cope with that knowledge is essential reading for anyone interested in the charged intersection of science, human nature, and public policy.

322 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

"Field Guide to the Sedges of the Pacific Northwest" is an illustrated guide to all 169 species, subspecies, and varieties in the genus "Carex" that grow in the wild in Oregon and Washington. Most of these species are found throughout the Pacific Northwest and California. This updated second edition includes eight additional species documented in the region since the guide was first published, along with an improved identification key, updated nomenclature and taxonomy, revised range maps, and improved illustrations. Sedges can be difficult to identify, with differences between species based on small, technical characters. This comprehensive guide contains identification keys, descriptions, more than 650 color photographs, and distribution maps for each species, providing users with helpful tools and tips for identifying the plants in this challenging group. Information about sedge ecology, habitat, management and restoration, ethnobotanical uses, and propagation enhances the guide's utility."Field Guide to the Sedges of the Pacific Northwest" provides an invaluable resource for botanists, land managers, restoration ecologists, and plant enthusiasts. And, as the genus "Carex" becomes increasingly important amongst landscapers, nurseries, and gardeners, the guide will serve as a handy tool for choosing Northwest natives for the garden

432 pages : color illustrations ; 23 cm

"Since 1879, Indian children from all regions of the United States have entered federal boarding schools - institutions designed to assimilate them into mainstream society. Chemawa Indian School in western Oregon, one of the nation's oldest and the longest still in continuous operation, is an emblem of a system that has intimately impacted countless lives and communities. In To Win the Indian Heart: Music at Chemawa Indian School, Melissa Parkhurst records the history of the school's musical life. She explores the crucial role music was meant to play in the total transformation of Indian children, and the cultural recovery and resiliency it often inspired instead. Parkhurst chronicles the complex ways in which students, families, faculty, and administrators employed music, both as a tool for assimilation and, conversely, as a vehicle for student resistance - a subject long overlooked in literature on Indian education and the assimilation campaign. Combining oral histories of Chemawa alumni with archival records of campus life, the book examines the prominent forms of music making at Chemawa - school band, choirs, private lessons, pageants, dance, garage bands, and powwows. Parkhurst traces the trajectory of federal Indian policy, highlighting students' creative responses and the ways in which music reveals the inherent contradictions in the U.S. government's assimilation practices."--Back cover

236 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.