Name: Columbia River, The
Brand: John A. Harrison
SKU: 9781467107686
Price: 23.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Columbia River, The

9781467107686

$23.99

The Columbia River is the dominant river system of the Northwest United States. It is a river of many uses--hydropower, fisheries, and irrigation--and was known by many names--Columbia's River, the Big River, and even River in the Chickadee Territory. It is the fourth-largest river by volume in North America, draining parts of seven states and the province of British Columbia. Because of its unique location close to the ocean, its tall mountain ranges, its steep drop from headwaters to the ocean, its deep and solid canyon, and its huge volume of clear, cold water, the Columbia River evolved as one of the great salmon and hydropower rivers of the world. And therein lies the chief paradox of the Columbia--the conflict of its natural history with its human history. Today, the river is an "organic machine," in the words of historian Richard White, part nature, part machine. This book briefly explores the natural and human histories of the river through photographs from historical archives, government agencies, and personal collections.

Banks Lake

9781467109444

$23.99

Every year, Banks Lake is visited by thousands of tourists from all over Washington State and beyond for recreation. People fish, boat, swim, hike, and camp around Banks Lake, a 27-mile equalizing reservoir created for the Grand Coulee Dam as part of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project. However, even before Banks Lake, the Upper Grand Coulee was a vibrant, inhabited land. Bits and pieces of the fragmented history often surface; there were orchards and seemingly endless fields of golden wheat. Filled with ranches and farms, cattle roamed freely. Stories of highways, railroads, and towns now under the waters of the equalizing reservoir are waiting to be discovered. This book pulls back the waves of Banks Lake and the layers of time to reveal the lost and forgotten history that was inundated with the waters of the Grand Coulee Dam.

Logging in Grays Harbor

9781467131896

$24.99

Grays Harbor reigned supreme as the Logging Capital of the World for 150 years. Homesteaders became loggers and hired local Indians, who had logged the area's massive trees since ancient times. Sailors, too, were hired to rig spar trees. They fearlessly plied lumber schooners across destructive waters and carried timber products to the East Coast, South America, and other foreign ports. Over time, power saws replaced crosscut saws, and logging methods evolved. Today, loggers in Grays Harbor have begun a new phase of producing timber products that is built on a heritage of strong families, good citizens, and hard work.

Cover image for Logging in Grays Harbor, isbn: 9781467131896

Seattle's 1962 World's Fair

9780738581255

$24.99

When the United States entered the 1960s, the nation was swept up in the Space Race as the United States and the Soviet Union competed for supremacy in rocket and satellite technologies. Cities across the country hoped to attract new aerospace companies, but the city leaders of Seattle launched the most ambitious campaign of all. They invited the whole world to visit for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, and more than nine million people took them up on the offer. A colorful collection of exhibits turned 74 acres of rundown buildings into a futuristic wonderland where dozens of countries and companies predicted life in the future. The entire city was transformed with the addition of the soaring Space Needle and the futuristic monorail. When the fair ended, the site became a complex of parks and museums that remains a vibrant part of Seattle city life today.

Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition

9780738571324

$24.99

The Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, held during the summer of 1909, was the first "world's fair" held in Seattle. Capitalizing on the popularity of the booming gold rush, the exposition was designed to showcase the riches of the Pacific Northwest and highlight trade with the Pacific Rim nations and beyond. Millions of visitors came to Seattle to experience the one-of-a-kind attractions, exhibits, and events held during the AYPE, which became the footprint for the modern University of Washington campus. Many of these visitors stayed to populate the growing metropolis. From the ornate European-style architecture to the fountains and gardens, the amusements of the Pay Streak, and the exotic Oriental exhibits, the AYPE entertained and educated while bringing needed business to Washington State.

Washington's Cranberry Coast

9781467129893

$23.99

For 100 miles along the western edge of Washington State, an unusual agricultural community hugs the Pacific shoreline. Bogs of bright cranberries stretch from the Long Beach Peninsula at the mouth of the Columbia River north to Grayland, Ocean Shores, and Copalis Crossing. Here, along this remote stretch of stormy seacoast, is a prime farming center for a fruit that grows in very few areas on earth. For countless centuries before pioneer settlement, indigenous peoples harvested the wild cranberries that thrived in boggy regions of the coast. When enterprising mid-19th-century settlers saw the possibilities for a vigorous cranberry farming venture, they faced many challenges before success could be achieved. Theirs is the story of hardworking, forward-thinking people who have become leaders in their field.

Logging in Mason County

9781467132923

$24.99

In 1946, the US Forest Service and Simpson Logging Company agreed to a sustained yield unit, cooperatively managing lands for 100 years for community stability. Championed by USFS chief William Greeley and dubbed the Sustained Steal by detractors, the Shelton Cooperative Sustained Yield Unit nonetheless provided jobs for returning World War II veterans. Simpson Logging built the largest logging camp in the continental United States, Camp Grisdale, which had a two-room school and a two-lane bowling alley. Shelton and McCleary were saved from becoming ghosts towns, and downtown Shelton was modernized with a shopping center, parks, and schools. Mason County's Forest Festival was a weekend celebration for 30,000 visitors that included a parade and logging shows. As the only cooperative unit established in the United States, it attracted national attention, including TV personality Arthur Godfrey. In 1961, the movie Ring of Fire was filmed above Camp Grisdale. As World War II memories faded, logging practices were challenged by notions of wilderness and recreation. Improved equipment reduced the jobs, and when Simpson withdrew from the sustained yield agreement, employees were disenfranchised.

Bridges of Spokane

9780738596358

$24.99

Spokane's history begins with the arrival of explorer David Thompson, who established the trading post Spokane House in 1810. From that period forward, the area teemed with Euro-American settlers who often mingled with the Native American population. Spokan Falls, officially incorporated in 1881, and by 1891 known simply as Spokane, became ground zero for the extractive industries of mining and logging and later a vast hub for the railroads. These factors led to the greatest boom in the city's history between the years 1900 and 1915. Spokane's growth came on the heels of an increase in the built environment that included the creation of parks, subdivisions, an expanded downtown business district, and an almost feverish movement to create some of Washington's most beautifully designed bridges. Because of this, Spokane has often been referred to as the City of Bridges.

Cover image for Bridges of Spokane, isbn: 9780738596358

Bridges of Seattle

9781467104388

$23.99

Seattle is situated in a region of outstanding scenic beauty, but the forested hills and numerous bodies of water that characterize the city were formidable obstacles to connecting its communities as it grew out from the historic center. Between 1896 and 1930, the city undertook massive landscape regrades, landfills, and waterway cuts to ease movement by land and water. The completion of these efforts allowed for the construction of Seattle's first permanent steel bridges beginning in 1910. Nine bridges included in this book are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. They include Washington's oldest steel arch bridge, the 1911 Twelfth Avenue South Bridge; the 1913 Ravenna Park Bridge; all four of the Lake Washington Ship Canal bascules, constructed between 1917 and 1924; and the Depression-era Aurora, Cowen Park, and Schmitz Park bridges. Bridges of Seattle explores the history of the spans that are a quintessential part of the Seattle experience.

Seattle Mystic Alfred M. Hubbard

9781467148061

$21.99

Seattle has a long tradition of being at the forefront of technological innovation. In 1919, an eager young inventor named Alfred M. Hubbard made his first newspaper appearance with the announcement of a perpetual motion machine that harnessed energy from Earth's atmosphere. From there, Hubbard transformed himself into a charlatan, bootlegger, radio pioneer, top-secret spy, millionaire and uranium entrepreneur. In 1953, after discovering the transformative effects of a little-known hallucinogenic compound, Hubbard would go on to become the "Johnny Appleseed of LSD," introducing the psychedelic to many of the era's vanguards and an entire generation. Join author and historian Brad Holden as he chronicles the fascinating life of one of Seattle's legendary figures.

Spokane's Expo '74

9781467125550

$7.99

Spokane's Expo ‘74 boasts a rich history. In this collection of fifteen vintage-photograph postcards, Bill Cotter explores the fair's past.

Spokane's Expo '74

9781467124638

$24.99

In the late 1960s, Spokane's civic leaders were desperately looking for a way to revitalize a large section of downtown, especially a motley collection of little-used railroad lines and polluted industrial sites along the Spokane River. Their solution was to use the area for Expo '74, which was billed as the first ecologically themed world's fair. Critics predicted the project was sure to fail, as Spokane was the smallest city to ever host a world's fair, but history proved them wrong. From the minute the gates opened on May 4, 1974, the crowds loved the fair. Hosting 5.4 million visitors, with participation from several major companies and countries, Expo '74 was a success. As planned, it launched a rebirth along the river that left a permanent legacy, the popular Riverfront Park.