Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

For over a century, water has connected the communities on Puget Sound, starting with days of the iron-hulled steamers of the Black Ball Line and continuing to the vessels of Washington State Ferries. Puget Sound continues to be a vital link between cities, well into the era of smart phones and self-driving cars. From the recycled ferries of San Francisco Bay to the elegant pocket liners of the Canadian Pacific Railway, transporting people from one isolated community to another has grown to carrying 25 million commuters and tourists every year. Modern ferry travel on Puget Sound begins with the converted passenger steamers at the early part of the twentieth century. Built in the days before cars became the main mode of travel, these small steamers morphed into the blueprint of today's largest double-ended ferries in the United States. Ferry travel today is as scenic as in the days of Model Ts and steamships. Puget Sound remains a nautical highway as much now as it was in the era of high button shoes and derby hats.

143 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), facsimiles ; 24 cm

"A retrospective on one of BC's most famous artists that features beautifully reproduced landscape paintings from all over mainland BC, and unveils new photographs, sketches, and ephemera from the artist's estate. E. J. Hughes (1913-2007) is British Columbia's best-loved landscape painter. His lavish, picturesque views of the province are appreciated by art professionals and the public alike. Following the success of his previous volume, E. J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island, author and artist Robert Amos tracks the footsteps of Hughes as he travelled throughout mainland British Columbia, from Stanley Park to Savary Island, from the Fraser Valley to the Okanagan, and from the Kootenays to the Rockies between the 1930s and 1970s. Working the with Estate of E. J. Hughes, Amos has crafted a nuanced representation of the activities and life of this exceptionally talented and private man. Both biography and monograph, this book features full-page, full-colour reproductions of Hughes's finest paintings, many of them published here for the first time. Each painting is accompanied by supporting sketches, drawings, and photographs from Hughes's personal archive."-- Provided by publisher

ix, 189 pages : illustrations (some color), colour map ; 24 x 26 cm

A free-ranging pig that caused an international war; a year's crop of ginseng that paid off a mortgage; and a breachy cow that led to a bloody murder. Farming in the San Juan Islands has always presented challenges and opportunities. From Coast Salish camas cultivation through homesteading to commercial farming, explore the islands' rich agricultural history in the landscape and farms of today. -- from publisher's description

vi, 222 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm

"LEWISTON: Alice and Connor sit by their roadside stand selling cheap fireworks while developers swallow the land around them. Promised a condo in the new development, their future is secure. Enter Marnie, Alice's long-lost granddaughter, proposing to buy the land to save her family's legacy. Marnie and Alice will become reacquainted with each other's deeply held secrets, uncertain pasts, and hopeful futures. Hunter, a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship recipient, explores the emotional frontiers of a family struggling to make a home in the vastness of the American landscape with affection, poignancy, and a profound sense of empathy."-- Back cover

161 pages ; 21 cm.

"Long before the days of jet planes, Nick Mamer and co-pilot Art Walker set an awe-inspiring record. They flew from Spokane, Washington to San Francisco, to New York, and from New York back to Spokane- without landing. This is the true story of the 1929 flight- during which their airplane was again and again refueled in the air with ropes and hose- by other daring airmen flying wood-and-fabric airplanes. For five long days, these two aviators in their single-engine biplane battled nearly-empty gas tanks, hazardous mountain ranges, electrical storms, thirst, hunger, and fatigue to set the nonstop, transcontinental round trip record."--Back cover

vi, 279 pages : black and white illustrations ; 23 cm

"British colonialism, US cultural influences and Canadian immigration policies - these and other forces in Canadian history have helped to shape the evolution of cricket on Vancouver Island. Declared to be the national sport of Canada in the mid-nineteenth century, and today one of the world's most widely played mass spectator sports, cricket has gone largely into the shadows in Canada. Yet the sport retains a committed player base, has become a symbol of Canadian multiculturalism, and has one of the most active cricket communities in the country on Vancouver Island. This in-depth review of a largely overlooked part of the island's social history should appeal not only to those involved in Vancouver Island cricket, but also to historians of sport, local history buffs and enthusiasts of the game beyond Vancouver Island."-- Amazon.ca web site

xiii, 178 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

"A smart, concise analysis of the legend of Slumach's Gold, which strives to uncover the truth behind this mythical gold deposit said to be hidden north of Pitt Lake. British Columbia is gold country, and with gold comes legends that have been passed down through the generations. Ever since the Fraser Canyon gold rush, prospectors and adventurers have been looking for a mysterious, exceedingly rich gold deposit in the watershed of Pitt Lake, first mentioned in a small newspaper entry in November 1869. Over time, as the story spread, the man at the centre of this legendary gold start was endowed with the identity of Slum.ook, better known as Slumach, a Katzie man who was ultimately hanged in 1891 for shooting and killing another man in anger. The legend of the gold grew into that of an exceedingly rich deposit known as 'Slumach's gold.' This book presents, unravels, and dissects the legends of the gold of Pitt Lake, and tells the stories of some of the daredevils and venerable prospectors who searched for the mythical gold at their peril."-- Provided by publisher

133 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 22 cm

"The author, Gerald Hickman, has lived and worked in the Channeled Scablands since his birth and still lives in Cheney, WA on the northern extent of the geologic area known as the Scablands. The book describes the creation of the Scablands as determined by scientists, the wildlife and people who live there and the author's travels to similar habitats in other parts of our planet from Alaska to Africa." -- Back cover

vii, 125 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

A woman teaches her niece to make a pair of beaded earrings while ruminating on a fractured relationship. An eleven-year-old girl narrates the unfolding of the Fish Wars in the 1960s as her family is propelled to its front lines. A Nez Perce-Cayuse family is torn apart as they debate the fate of ancestral remains in a moving revision of the Greek tragedy Antigone. Told with humor, subtlety, and spareness, the mixed-genre works of Beth Piatote’s first collection draw on Indigenous aesthetics and forms to offer a powerful, sustaining vision of Native life.. Beth Piatote's luminous debut collection opens with a feast, grounding its stories in the landscapes and lifeworlds of the Native Northwest, exploring the inventive and unforgettable pattern of Native American life in the contemporary world.

195 pages ; 22 cm

"The Nestucca Valley is a small watershed, tucked away in one corner of a county in far western Oregon. There are no incorporated towns, and cows outnumber humans. It has long been a place without a written history, yet its past offers many surprising twists on received wisdom about rural economies. In crisp prose and succinct chapters, Persistent Callings carries readers from aboriginal times to the present, illustrating the wisdom of seasonal labor, the complex relationships between work and identity, and the resilience of rural economics across more than a century of almost continual change. Life in this watershed, known to locals as 'South County,' has always been demanding. Farming, fishing, and logging were difficult occupations, but work had deeper meanings. Challenges arrived in many forms, including climate shifts, market crashes, regulatory changes, and industry consolidations. Residents' ability to innovate was their greatest resource, and their persistence helps us to recognize the callings they pursued. During the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, disruptions came more quickly, and they coincided with infusions of capital that dramatically altered the structure of employment, with devastating results for the valley's hardest working residents. Unemployment and poverty skyrocketed while health and life expectancy dropped to alarming levels. Moreover, the arrival of retirees and rise of environmental amenities actually exacerbated some ecological problems. Little in this history plays out as expected, and much of it will make readers reconsider how they think about the social, economic, and environmental contours of rural life in the American West"-- Provided by publisher

viii, 219 pages : illustrations, charts, facsimiles, map ; 23 cm

"Fishes of the Salish Sea is the definitive guide to the identification and history of the marine and anadromous fishes of Puget Sound and the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca. Featuring striking illustrations of the Salish Sea's 260 fish species by noted illustrator Joseph R. Tomelleri, this comprehensive three-volume set details the ecology and life history of each species, as well as recounts the region's rich heritage of marine research and exploration. Beginning with jawless hagfishes and lampreys and ending with the distinctive Ocean Sunfish, leading scientists Theodore W. Pietsch and James W. Orr present the taxa in phylogenetic order, based on classifications that reflect the most current scientific knowledge. Illustrated taxonomic keys facilitate fast and accurate species identification. These in-depth, thoroughly documented, and yet accessible volumes will prove invaluable to marine biologists and ecologists, natural resource managers, anglers, divers, students, and all who want to learn about, marvel over, and preserve the vibrant diversity of Salish Sea marine life."

3 volumes (xiii, 1048 pages) : illustrations (some color), color maps, portraits ; 24 x 27 cm

Field Guide to the Grasses of Oregon and Washington is an illustrated guide to all 365 species, subspecies, and varieties of grasses--both native and introduced--that grow wild in Oregon and Washington. It also has broad applicability in neighboring states and provinces. Grasses are important functional components in a variety of ecosystems and are highly valued for habitat restoration in ecosystems ranging from wetlands to deserts, and from sea level to alpine. They are important weeds and are also cultivated as ornamental plants. --Publisher

ix, 460 pages : color illustrations, color maps ; 23 cm

"The Pacific Northwest coast is home to one of the most diverse displays of intertidal marine life in the world. Featuring sponges, clams, snails, crabs, sea stars, sea anemones, jellies, fishes, seaweeds and more, The New Beachcomber's Guide to the Pacific Northwest is a portable and easy-to-use reference for searching out and identifying any of the hundreds of species of seashore life found on the beaches of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Covering the Pacific Northwest's most common shoreline-dwelling flora and fauna, each entry contains a detailed description of appearance and habitat accompanied by colour photos for easy identification of any creature you might encounter as you explore your local beach. This guide also provides simple but essential information on tides and the various habitats within the intertidal zones, to assist beachcombers in exploring safely with minimal ecological impact. The Beachcomber's Guide even contains up-to-date descriptions of the best beachcombing sites and when to visit them--you may even find your new favourite exploration grounds! Thoroughly updated and packed with handy and accessible information, this guide belongs in the beach bag or backpack of any avid naturalist, amateur beachcomber or adventurous family."-- Provided by publisher

410 pages : color illustrations ; 23 cm

"An intimate portrait of privilege and struggle, scandal and accolade, from the Old World to the new colonies of Vancouver's Island and British Columbia. At the age of 33, Sarah Crease left behind her home in England to travel with her young family to a farflung outpost of the British Empire on the Pacific coast of North America. The detailed journals, letters and artwork she would create over the next half-century as she and her husband, Henry, established themselves in the New World, offer a rich window into the private life and views of an English colonist in British Columbia. In a world where history is still primarily told by men, Henry and Self is a woman's story told in her own words. But it is also a story of the times she lived in, and the ways in which her class, social standing and role as a settler shaped her relationships with the world around her. Henry & Self is the personal story of a remarkable woman who lived through nearly a century of British colonial history, but also a unique first-person perspective on the beliefs and motivations that shaped that history."-- Provided by publisher

234 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

"This is the story of the Willamette River from its birth to the 21st century. Confined in the Willamette Basin, the river has been a way of life for valley inhabitants. From early Native Americans to modern man the river has been a vital source of nourishment, floods, steamboats, agriculture, pollution, conservation, and recreation. In the mid-20th century pollution reigned. Governors McCall and Straub fought for a clean river, and the Willamette Greenway-a strip of land 150 feet wide on both banks of the Willamette from Eugene to Portland. Farmers fought that plan which resulted in a 1970s compromise. That solution still exists today."--Back cover

167 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Silver Rush tells the story of British Columbia’s “Silvery Slocan.” In the 1890s, mining camps like Sandon, Three Forks, Whitewater and their neighbours; New Denver, Silverton, Slocan City, Kaslo and Nakusp, thrived. Once the most productive mining region in British Columbia, prospectors and miners came from Idaho, Montana and other mining centres to reap the silver harvest. Capitalists flooded in from Spokane, Seattle, Vancouver, and investment centres across North America and the world. Plummeting silver prices, labour troubles and the Klondike gold rush eventually put an end to the silver rush but the legacy of that rush endures to this day.

vi, 642 pages : illustrations (some colour), maps ; 28 cm

"A dynamic retelling of the deadly 1906 sinking of the SS Valencia off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, one of the worst maritime disasters in Canadian history. There are few places on earth that have such a high record of marine casualties as the short yet treacherous stretch of coastline known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the fifty-six kilometres between Port Renfrew and Cape Beale off Vancouver Island saw dozens of shipwrecks and claimed hundreds of lives. On a blustery night in late January 1906, the steamship SS Valencia, heading from San Francisco to Seattle and Victoria, met its tragic fate on the rocks near Pachena Point. With over one hundred passengers and sixty-five crew members on board, only thirty-seven people survived the wreck. All of the women and children perished. With journalistic precision, compassion for the victims, and condemnation for those who neglected to prevent the tragedy, author Michael C. Neitzel recounts the Valencia's ill-fated final voyage, drawing heavily on first-hand accounts of the survivors and witnesses. The Final Voyage of the Valencia is a must-read for anyone interested in the maritime history of Canada's west coast."-- Provided by publisher

139 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm

"In 1942, the Canadian government forced more than 21,000 Japanese Canadians from their homes in British Columbia. They were told to bring only one suitcase each and officials vowed to protect the rest. Instead, Japanese Canadians were dispossessed, all their belongings either stolen or sold. The definitive statement of a major national research partnership, Landscapes of Injustice reinterprets the internment of Japanese Canadians by focusing on the deliberate and permanent destruction of home through the act of dispossession. All forms of property were taken. Families lost heirlooms and everyday possessions. They lost decades of investment and labour. They lost opportunities, neighbourhoods, and communities; they lost retirements, livelihoods, and educations. When Japanese Canadians were finally released from internment in 1949, they had no homes to return to. Asking why and how these events came to pass and charting Japanese Canadians' diverse responses, this book details the implications and legacies of injustice perpetrated under the cover of national security. In Landscapes of Injustice the diverse descendants of dispossession work together to understand what happened. They find that dispossession is not a chapter that closes or a period that neatly ends. It leaves enduring legacies of benefit and harm, shame and silence, and resilience and activism."-- Provided by publisher

ix, 501 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Women in Blue is a comprehensive history of women in the VPD from 1904 (as it turns out) through 1975. For decades, VPD history noted that the first females were hired in 1912, but it turns out four matrons were hired between 1904 and 1912. The matrons performed many of the same duties as the police women who were hired in 1912.

266 pages : illustrations (some colour), portraits ; 28 cm

"Before the Second World War, the states of Washington and Oregon were thinly populated economic backwaters of the United States. Even the major cities of Portland and Seattle were dependent on agricultural industries, especially timber, for their economic health. That all changed during World War II and the Cold War. By the dawn of the twenty-first century, the Pacific Northwest boasted a more diversified economy. Beer, tourism, and high tech moved in alongside timber and wheat as the region's mainstay industries. In Washington, especially, a Cold War-driven military and national security state set up shop as an economic behemoth even as debates over the costs and consequences of the new Atomic Age raged. Facing the World highlights these changes, as well as the politicians, business leaders, and ordinary people who helped bring them about. At the center of the story, Senators Henry Jackson, Wayne Morse, Slade Gorton, and Mark Hatfield; Congressman Tom Foley; and Governor Vic Atiyeh worked diligently for a generation to transform the region from insular and backward to cosmopolitan and forward-looking. Aligning the region with national security and international trade policies, these politicians made the Pacific Northwest economy what it is today. Through extensive research in congressional and federal archives, historian Christopher P. Foss vividly brings to life the discussions, conflicts, and controversies that shaped this political era. Though it wasn't perfect, its fading legacy of leadership is a lesson for our own time. Facing the World will prove a valuable resource to historians, political scientists, and civic-minded residents of the Pacific Northwest"-- Provided by publisher

x, 338 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

"The mighty salmon runs that worked their way through Puget Sound each season on their way to British Columbia's Fraser River provided a way of life for fishermen in the Pacific Northwest for more than a century. Commercial gillnetters and purse seiners pursued millions of Sockeye salmon each season hoping to harvest a portion of the massive schools of fish that migrated through the region each season. It was demanding, and often dangerous work, but the knowledgeable captain and crew could hit it big by being in the right place at the right time to capitalize on this natural bonanza. In 1958, when captain Nick Foreigner Barhanovich hired greenhorn Ray Fadich to work as a skiffman on Barhanovich's purse seiner, The Emancipator, Fadich had little clue of what that fishing season would hold for him. As the newest member of the Emancipator's crew Fadich had to deal with a steep learning curve, days of backbreaking physical labor, and the practical jokes and daily initiation into the brotherhood of the commercial fisherman that came with the territory."--Amazon

iii, 89 pages : illustrations, map ; 28 cm

"Polly Bemis, the mistakenly named 'Lalu Nathoy' of books and film, was forcibly brought to the United States, and to Idaho Territory, in 1872 when she was just eighteen. In 1894 she married a Euroamerican man, Charlie Bemis, and they moved to a mining claim on the remote Salmon River; Charlie died in 1922 and Polly died in 1933. Since her death, Polly Bemis's life has been greatly romanticized. Supposedly, she was a prostitute, 'Hong King' was her Chinese owner, and Charlie Bemis 'won her in a poker game.' Not one of these statements is true. Polly's life was genuinely fascinating, and it is time to both celebrate the known facts about her and allow the stereotypical, undocumented legends to die out"--Provided by publisher

xxvi, 529 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.

"To discover the unworldly geologic novelties of the Gem State, all that is required is a good map, a sense of adventure, and Idaho Rocks!, a guide to 60 of the most compelling geologic sites in Idaho. The well-chosen destinations span the state's geologic history from the 2.6-billion-year-old gneiss in the Panhandle to 2,000-year-old lava at Craters of the Moon, and from gold and silver deposits hidden in Idaho's mountains to visible scars from recent earthquakes and landslides. With its beautiful photographs and informative figures and maps, this guidebook will get you up to speed on every aspect of Idaho's diverse geology"-- Provided by publisher

v, 153 pages : color illustrations, color maps ; 22 cm.

"The true story behind a labor leader reputed to be a serial killer. Aaron Goings offers a vivid biography of Billy Gohl (1873-1927), a prominent union official in Grays Harbor, Washington who came to be known for killing dozens of people, maybe even more than one hundred. In a cruel twist, many victims were his union members. "These anonymous dead men, culled from the hordes of migrant laborers who had flocked to Grays Harbor to cut trees, came to be known as the floater fleet. Billy Gohl was credited with launching most of them," Murray Morgan wrote in The Last Wilderness: A History of the Olympic Peninsula. "If he was responsible for even half of the floaters found in the harbor during his day, Gohl was America's most prolific murderer. Over a ten-year period the fleet numbered 124." A union leader turned serial killer? As a labor historian, author Aaron Goings felt compelled to get to the bottom of the story. So he dug into the archives. In this popular biography, Goings uses Gohl's life to illuminate the brutal nature of everyday life in that era: the Yukon gold rush, the brutally dehumanizing lives of sailors and loggers, and the heated clashes between pro- and anti-union forces in Grays Harbor, the world's busiest lumber shipyard, where millions of dollars were at stake. Goings carefully examines court records and other archival sources to sort through the lore and legends surrounding Gohl, painting the story of a violent man in a violent time who did kill someone-maybe even more than one-but comes almost comically short of his storied reputation. Why did people believe such outrageous things about Gohl, then and now? And where did all those dead bodies come from? Goings shows how powerful economic players help build the myth of "Gohl the Ghoul" to undercut the credibility of union advocates. By pinning all these deaths on one man and building up the story of an extreme pathology, no one had to confront the structural violence of capitalism. The resulting book is not a grisly true crime tale; but an equally intriguing mystery about the creation of myth and the cost in human bodies in the making of the Pacific Northwest"-- Provided by publisher

xiv, 277 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

As more and more pioneers braved the harsh, unforgiving conditions of moving West, prostitution grew and flourished within the mining camps, small towns, and cities of the nineteenth-century Pacific Northwest. Oregon, Alaska, and Washington State had their share of working girls and madams like Nellie Curtis and Klondike Kate who remain notorious celebrities in the annals of history, but Collins also includes the stories of lesser-known women whose roles in this illicit trade help shape our understanding of the American West

xiv, 257 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm