Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

Emma de Hullu and the Bralorne Pioneer Museum Society’s Bridge River Gold provides a firsthand social and industrial chronicle of the prolific lode gold mining camps situated along the Cadwallader Creek and Bridge River canyons. The narrative traces the discovery of high-grade quartz veins in the 1890s, detailing how remote mountain wilderness was transformed into the bustling, modern company mining communities of Bralorne, Pioneer Mine, Gold Bridge, and Brexton. De Hullu documents the physical hardships of packing heavy mill equipment over the treacherous Hurley River pass, the installation of high-pressure Pelton wheels, and the construction of underground mine shafts descending thousands of feet below sea level. Through personal memoirs, company records, and historic photographs, the work captures daily family life, union organization, and the rapid civic transformation of the Bridge River Valley during the 1930s mining boom.

160 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 23 cm

Few would dispute that these days Vancouver is a prime craft beer destination, with over 70 breweries in the greater Vancouver area and 35+ in Vancouver proper. Beer has shaped the city’s culture, and in turn, Vancouver’s idiosyncratic identity has also shaped its craft beer. But how did it all begin? In this rigorously researched deep dive into the history of craft beer in Vancouver, beer historian and enthusiast Noëlle Phillips follows independent brewing from the city’s inception in 1886 to the onset of prohibition in 1917 and, hopping over the “big beer” period of 1920–1980, delves into the explosion of micro, small-batch and craft breweries that dot the city’s neighbourhoods today. She traces the smaller, lesser-known breweries, brewers, and owners through archival materials, newspaper accounts, and personal interviews. Along the way she uncovers stories and details that have been largely unknown even to local beer writers and aficionados. Illustrated with photos, original newspaper clippings, and maps, with stops into basement archives and sunlit tap rooms, Brewmasters and Brewery Creek is an inviting and exciting addition to books on the city’s history that will appeal to beer-lovers and history buffs alike.

398 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

In 2003, a backhoe operator hired by the state of Washington to work on the Port Angeles waterfront discovered what a larger world would soon learn. The place chosen to dig a massive dry dock was atop one of the largest and oldest Indian village sites ever found in the region. Yet the state continued its project, disturbing hundreds of burials and unearthing more than 10,000 artifacts at Tse-whit-zen village, the heart of the long-buried homeland of the Klallam people. Excitement at the archaeological find of a generation gave way to anguish as tribal members working alongside state construction workers encountered more and more human remains, including many intact burials. Finally, tribal members said the words that stopped the project: "Enough is enough." Soon after, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe chairwoman Frances Charles asked the state to walk away from more than $70 million in public money already spent on the project and find a new site. The state, in an unprecedented and controversial decision that reverberated around the nation, agreed. In search of the story behind the story, Seattle Times reporter Lynda V. Mapes spent more than a year interviewing tribal members, archaeologists, historians, city and state officials, and local residents and business leaders. Her account begins with the history of Tse-whit-zen village, and the nineteenth- and twentieth-century impacts of contact, forced assimilation, and industrialization. She then engages all the voices involved in the dry dock controversy to explore how the site was chosen, and how the decisions were made first to proceed and then to abandon the project, as well as the aftermath and implications of those controversial choices. This beautifully crafted and compassionate account, illustrated with nearly 100 photographs, illuminates the collective amnesia that led to the choice of the Port Angeles construction site. "You have to know your past in order to build your future," Charles says, recounting the words of tribal elders. Breaking Ground takes that teaching to heart, demonstrating that the lessons of Tse-whit-zen are teachings from which we all may benefit.

1 volume : illustrations (colour)

When they were brought to Oregon in 1844, Missouri slaves Robin and Polly Holmes and their children were promised freedom in exchange for helping develop their owner’s Willamette Valley farm. However, slaveholder Nathaniel Ford, an influential settler and legislator, kept them in bondage until 1850, even then refusing to free their children. Holmes took his former master to court and, in the face of enormous odds, won the case in 1853. In Breaking Chains, R. Gregory Nokes tells the story of the only slavery case ever adjudicated in Oregon courts—Holmes v. Ford. Drawing on the court record of this landmark case, Nokes offers an intimate account of the relationship between a slave and his master from the slave’s point of view. He also explores the experiences of other slaves in early Oregon, examining attitudes toward race and revealing contradictions in the state’s history. Oregon was the only free state admitted to the union with a voter-approved constitutional clause banning African Americans and, despite the prohibition against slavery, many in Oregon tolerated it, and supported politicians who were pro-slavery, including Oregon’s first territorial governor. Told against the background of the national controversy over slavery, Breaking Chains sheds light on a somber part of Pacific Northwest history, bringing the story of slavery in Oregon to a broader audience.

xvi, 224 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

This book offers information for German Americans who know little about their own heritage and a vivid picture of northern Idaho farm life from the 1880s through the 1990s. Trace the progression of history through generations of Baumgartners, sharing family tragedies and joys.

159 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Like many Pacific Northwest sheepherders, Sebastian Etulain emigrated from Europe's Basque country. He arrived in Yakima, Washington, in May 1921, convinced that hard work could overcome a lack of formal education and other obstacles. That became his doctrine, and he advanced to ranch owner before marrying Mary Gillard Foster in 1936. The Etulain sheep ranch lay among the rock ridges, coulees, hills, and grasslands twenty miles east of Ritzville in eastern Washington. Isolated and sprawling across nearly ten thousand acres, it included a sturdy ranch house surrounded by hay barns, a water pump house, corrals, and pens for sheep, goats, dogs, and pigs. The spread also had a milking parlor and creamery as well as a blacksmith shop. The Etulains adopted seasonal rhythms: for part of the year, their pasture grasses provided sufficient fodder, and in the summer, they herded most of their animals up to mountains near St. Maries, Idaho. But in winter, the sheep and cattle needed purchased feed, and plenty of it. Sebastian's three sons reveled in a magical upbringing on the ranch-despite the demanding work. In Boyhood Among the Woolies, his youngest son, Richard, reveals the family's story, a rare look at life on an early eastern Washington sheep ranch. He recounts endless chores, lambing season, sheep shearing, efforts to keep animals safe, and fighting one of the greatest dangers-grass fires. He also describes family activities, relationships with hired staff, favorite dogs, brotherly pranks and shenanigans, schooling and church in Ritzville, Basque history, and more.

xii, 151 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

"An award-winning historian and mariner takes readers on an engrossing international journey of self-discovery that explores timely themes of human conflict, ethics, and reconciliation. A member of the so-called Silent Generation, Michael Hadley has a great deal to say in his twilight years. Opening with his Depression-era childhood on a lonely lighthouse on the west coast of Vancouver Island, this remarkably nuanced memoir spans decades, countries, and oceans. Hadley's reflections move through his years growing up in wartime Vancouver in the 1940s, his concert tours on the British vaudeville stage in the 1950s, and his early teaching career in Manitoba in the 1960s. He shares his naval service on both coasts and on the Great Lakes, and his professional experience in Germany, where unexpected friendships with former submariners trigger an interest in how countries deal with difficult wartime pasts. Human conflict, ethics, and multi-faith engagement in criminal justice reform and Restorative Justice shape Hadley's understandings of reconciliation, taking him on prison visits across Canada, the UK, and Uganda. Whether examining ancient historical sites and battlegrounds, navigating at sea, or riding camels in the desert, he seeks universal patterns of human experience. At once a deeply personal chronicle of a fascinating life and a measured, mature reflection on some of the most cataclysmic events of the past century, Boxing the Compass is an unforgettable journey that will leave readers reflecting on the experiences that affect us all."-- Provided by publisher

306 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm

39 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

BC writer Irene Howard has woven together years of correspondence, historical records, anecdotes, and interview material to create this textual account of Bowen Island history. The book covers the lives of the early settlers, the days of the steamships, significant events, and notable islanders who have shaped the Bowen Island we now know.

190 pages, 10 unnumbered leaves of plates illustrations, maps, portraits 24 cm

xiii, 219 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 21 cm

280 pages, 20 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Inspired by Chicago's successful 1893 World Columbian Exposition, the cities of Portland, Seattle, San Diego, and San Francisco all held fairs between 1905 and 1915. From the start of the Lewis and Clark Exposition to the close of the Panama-California Exposition a decade later, millions of Americans visited exhibits, watched live demonstrations and performances, and wandered amusement zones. Millions more thumbed through brochures or read news articles. Fair publicity directors embraced the emerging science of consumer marketing. Conceived to attract new citizens, showcase communities, and highlight farming and industrial opportunities, the four expositions' promotional campaigns and vendor and exhibit choices offer a unique opportunity to examine western leaders' perceptions of their city and region, as well as their future goals and how they both fed and tried to mitigate misconceptions of a wild, wooly West. They also expose biased attitudes toward Native Americans, Mexican Americans, Filipinos, and others. "Boosting a New West" explores the fairs' cultural and social meaning by focusing on and comparing the promotions that surrounded them. It details their origins and describes why each city chose to host, conveying the expected economic, social, and cultural benefits. It also shows how organizers articulated their significance to urban, regional, and national audiences, and how they attempted to shape a new western identity.

1 online resource (pages cm)

Booming and panicking on Puget Sound examines the frenetic real estate speculation, rapid civic expansion, and devastating economic collapses situated along the deep-water, heavily timbered littoral margins of Washington's inland sea. Bacon details how the region's formidable macro-geography—specifically the labyrinthine maritime corridors of Puget Sound, the vast, highly lucrative old-growth coastal forests, and the imposing, nearly impassable volcanic barrier of the Cascade Range—strictly dictated the margins of intense terminus rivalry, precarious capital investment, and aggressive resource extraction. By mapping the explosive, speculative growth of these isolated coastal enclaves, which feverishly leveraged their localized deep-water anchorages in a desperate competition to secure vital trans-mountain railroad lines and bridge the severe geographical divide between continental markets and Pacific maritime trade, the narrative highlights how this specific archipelagic geography anchored a profoundly volatile, boom-and-bust frontier economy. Ultimately, this economic and civic record serves as a localized spatial history, demonstrating how the immense topographic barricades, critical navigable waterways, and rich botanical wealth of this Pacific Northwest landscape fundamentally shaped the highly speculative, fiercely competitive character of early Puget Sound urbanization.

[78] pages (pages [61-78] advertisements) illustrations, portrait 22 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

Branwen C. Patenaude’s Bolters and Coolers: The Bullion Pit and Other Cariboo Gold Mining Days provides an industrial and social chronicle centered on the world’s largest hydraulic placer gold mine, the Bullion Pit near Likely. Patenaude documents the ambitious engineering projects directed by mining engineer John B. Hobson, who constructed miles of canals, storage dams, and massive steel flumes across the Cariboo Mountains to redirect millions of gallons of water through high-pressure hydraulic monitors. The volume details how this industrial operation carved a gargantuan artificial chasm into the gravel benches above the Quesnel River, altering the local watershed and landscape. Patenaude highlights the diverse labor force that staffed the mine, tracking the social and economic relationships linking Likely to adjacent mining camps at Hydraulic, Quesnel Forks, Horsefly, and Keithley Creek.

144 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 22 cm

Published in 1934 by Idaho educator and regional historian Annie Laurie Bird, Boise, the Peace Valley is a localized civic history charting the evolution of the Boise River basin from a prominent fur-trade waypoint into the urban and agricultural epicenter of the state. Drawing upon early explorer journals, pioneer diaries, and territorial records, Bird chronicles the expeditions of Wilson Price Hunt, the establishment of the original Hudson's Bay Company Fort Boise, the massive migrations along the Oregon Trail, and the eventual 1862 gold rush that catalyzed permanent American settlement. The narrative leans heavily into the romantic motif of the valley as an idyllic, timbered sanctuary—an essential oasis of respite for weary overland emigrants navigating the punishing, arid expanses of the Snake River Plain. Operating as a classic regional monument, the book is designed to immortalize the pioneer endurance and capitalist enterprise that transformed an untamed geographic resting stop into a prosperous, irrigated metropolis.

A keen insight drawn from the work is how the strategic branding of the region as a "peace valley" functions to fundamentally depoliticize a fiercely contested landscape. By defining the basin primarily as an innate, natural sanctuary destined by geography to nurture and shelter Anglo-American travelers, Bird’s narrative effectively recharacterizes a vital Indigenous homeland—traditionally managed and defended by the Shoshone, Bannock, and Northern Paiute peoples—as a passive, welcoming haven awaiting colonial occupancy. This historiographical maneuver subtly sanitizes the violent realities of the era, notably the 1863 establishment of a United States military fort specifically designed to crush Native resistance and enforce territorial enclosure. By framing the landscape as inherently cooperative to pioneer settlement, the text allows readers to view the subsequent systemic displacement of Indigenous populations not as a hostile military invasion, but as the peaceful, inevitable inheritance of a valley practically begging for American cultivation.

408 pages illustrations 20 cm

MacGregor's study of Boise begins with the removal of the Northern Shoshoni and follows the progress of government, infrastructure, business, and social institutions in the area. Along the way, MacGregor (history, Boise State) describes Boise's architecture, arts, culture and changing demographics. She creates in all its details the peculiar history of this unusually prosperous and progressive city. The text includes photographs and maps of the evolving city. Annotation ©2006 Book

xiv, 306 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Here are stories about some of the great players and fascinating characters, as well as many yarns that Arthur A. Hart has collected through years of research and interviews with former players and those closely connected with the game.

109 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

207 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 29 cm

G.W. Thompson and the Powell River Heritage Research Association’s Boats, bucksaws, and blisters: pioneer tales of the Powell River area chronicles the grueling physical labor and community resilience required to settle the rugged northern stretches of British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. Set against a demanding maritime landscape defined by dense old-growth timber, deep coastal inlets, and isolated bays, the collection reveals how early logging families and maritime workers adapted their daily lives to survive in remote, water-access-only extraction camps. Through personal pioneer accounts, the narrative illustrates how these initially fragmented groups of laborers forged tight-knit kinship networks and cooperative support systems to transition from raw frontier survival toward establishing permanent coastal homesteads. Ultimately, these gathered local histories document how shared endurance and neighborly bonds laid the foundational civic and cultural roots of the modern Powell River community amidst a formidable wilderness.

410 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

The Bloomington Historical Committee’s Bloomington, Idaho: A History of the Town and Its People records the founding, spatial arrangement, and family histories of one of the earliest Mormon settlements in the Bear Lake Valley. Settled in the spring of 1864 along Bloomington Creek, the text documents the communal surveying of farm plots, the construction of log meetinghouses, and the establishment of water rights that supported grain cultivation and cattle husbandry. The narrative chronicles the operation of early shingle mills and limestone quarries in Bloomington Canyon, recording community cultural activities, brass bands, and cooperative livestock herds. Comprehensive genealogical sections and property registers preserve the social and economic fabric linking Bloomington to its neighboring settlements in Paris and St. Charles.

vi, 242 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 28 cm

This is a recollection of an important historical event, the Canadian Pacific Railway construction which employed thousands of Chinese labourers to build the transcontinental railway linking this country from coast to coast. In her writing, Chow reveals the reasons for constructing the railway, why and how the Chinese labourers were recruited and transported from Guangdong to various construction sites in British Columbia. She illustrates the difficult and dangerous tasks that the Chinese labourers had to perform bearing testimonies to the challenges, hardships, struggles, and endurance of these workers. Despite the hard labour, these men displayed excellent work ethic, and were diligent and dependable people. Included are some poems and verses by a several Chinese labourers and their family members to show their anguish, anxiety, and longing - human feelings and emotions that had been repressed. This book is a testament to remarkable endeavour, generous spirit, sacrifices and contributions of the Chinese labourers that helped build the CPR.

xvii, 116 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits, charts ; 23 cm.

The bestselling Blisters and Bliss has been the trekker’s guide to the West Coast Trail since 1989. The 75-kilometre trail on Vancouver Island is rated as one of the world’s greatest hikes. This revised 8th edition once again provides a practical and easy-to-use resource for the thousands of hikers who visit the West Coast Trail every year. Combining current and accurate trail information with hundreds of safety and planning tips, this is the ideal guide for novices and experienced trekkers alike.

143 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

A determined group of American pioneers set out to move their families on wheeled vehicles from the settled frontier in Missouri to the far Pacific shore. Their incentive was simple enough. Times were tough in 1843, and they had heard of a lush new land existing in a place called Oregon, a land ready to be settled by hard-working farmers. Although a new life seemed to await them just over the horizon, none of them suspected how formidable that horizon really was

vii, 192 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Published in 1958, Percival Robert Jeffcott's book is a biographical account of William Robert "Blanket Bill" Jarman, recognized as the first white pioneer to settle in Washington's Whatcom and Skagit counties. The work seeks to untangle the factual history of Jarman's frontier life from the dense web of myths, legends, and tall tales that had grown around him over the decades. By meticulously cross-referencing interviews and local lore with documentary evidence—such as Hudson's Bay Company records—Jeffcott systematically investigates and debunks several exaggerated stories, including a famous tale about Jarman being ransomed. Ultimately, the text serves as both a detailed character study of an elusive regional figure and a rigorous examination of early Pacific Northwest pioneer folklore.

xii, 202 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.