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No area of Portland, Oregon, played a more important role in street railway history than Northwest Portland and the neighborhood known as Slabtown. In 1872, the city's first streetcars passed close to Slabtown as they headed for a terminus in the North End. Slabtown was also home to the first streetcar manufacturing factory on the West Coast. In fact, until locally built streetcars began to be replaced by trolleys from large national builders in the 1910s, more than half of all rolling stock was manufactured in shops located at opposite ends of Northwest Twenty-third Avenue. All streetcars operating on the west side of the Willamette River, including those used on the seven lines that served Northwest Portland, were stored in Slabtown. When the end finally came in 1950, Slabtown residents were riding two of the last three city lines.

In Portland's first decades, the northwest side remained dense forests. Native Americans camped and Chinese immigrants farmed around Guild's Lake. In the 1870s, Slabtown acquired its unusual name when a lumber mill opened on Northrup Street. The mill's discarded log edges were a cheap source of heating and cooking fuel. This slabwood was stacked in front of working-class homes of employees of a pottery, the docks, icehouses, slaughterhouses, and lumber mills. Development concentrated along streetcar lines. The early 20th century brought the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, manufacturing, shipbuilding, Montgomery Ward, and the Vaughn Street Ballpark. Today, Slabtown is a densely populated residential neighborhood, with many small shops and restaurants and an industrial area on its northern border. Tourists still arrive by streetcar to the charming Thurman, NW Twenty-first, and Twenty-third Avenues. Famous residents include author Ursula Le Guin, baseball greats Johnny Pesky and Mickey Lolich, NBA player Swede Halbrook, and Portland mayors Bud Clark and Vera Katz.

Oregon has its share of playmakers, dramatic finishes and legendary coaches. With humor and insight, Oregon native and longtime sportswriter Bob Robinson relates highlights from six decades of coverage throughout the state. Blazermania overruns the Rose City as the Trail Blazers take down the favored Philadelphia 76ers in 1977. Oregon State's Orange Express, coached by Ralph Miller, captivates the state in 1981 before a shocking stumble in the NCAA playoffs. University of Oregon's Bill Dellinger kickstarts the school's distance-running tradition with a stunning win in 1954. In the 1970s, Mouse Davis performs coaching magic at Portland State with his Run and Shoot football offense. In these twenty essays, Robinson offers a unique, behind-the-scenes account of some of Oregon's greatest sports moments and game-changing personalities.

Douglas County, Oregon, stretches west from Crater Lake and the forested peaks of the Cascades until it reaches the shores of the Pacific in a tumult of rolling sand dunes. In this account, author R.J. Guyer recalls the frontier spirit and creative industry that shaped this land of one hundred valleys. Enjoy stories of Lookingglass's two-horse parking meter and Boswell Springs' cure-all mineral waters. Celebrate Reedsport's Olympic gold medalist and Oakland's one-time claim as turkey capital of the world. Remember the devastation of the Roseburg blast and the triumph of the Drain Black Sox's win in the National Baseball Conference World Series. From the establishment of the county to the preservation of historic landmarks, Guyer shares the rich heritage of Douglas County's communities.

By way of introduction the writer desires to state that Seattle and the Orient is published to act as an opening wedge into a country up to this time very little known to people residing upon Puget Sound. It is for the purpose of introducing ourselves to the people doing business in Siberia, China, Japan, the China Archipelago, the Philippines and Hawaii, and to eventually open a way by which closer trade relations may be promoted, that this book has been published. The subjects treated are in no instance overdrawn, but are secured by direct contact with the people interested, and are plain matter of fact statements of affairs as they exist in Seattle and in Western Washington. The illustrations shown are the best procurable, and will afford the reader a fair idea of what can be found in the metropolis of America's great Mediterranean. Such a showing as the following pages make cannot help but impress even the most casual observer that Seattle has a future before it of very great magnitude. Unquestionably it is destined to become the largest city upon the Pacific Coast. It has every material advantage to make it so; it has almost every imaginable resource upon which to draw for support; it is the center of one of the greatest lumbering sections in the world; it 'has inexhaustible coal mines; it is the central point from which the gold fields of Alaska and the British Northwest Territory are reached; it is practically the center of all the mineral wealth of the Northwest; and it is moreover the natural geographical entrepot for the great Oriental markets, a fact which in time will make it the greatest shipping port in the United States. An attempt has been made to enumerate its varied resources in succeeding pages, and a story has been told which will prove both interesting and instructive. It has been the aim of the writer to take up the industrial side of Seattle and portray a condition as near the actual as possible.

The beaches, forests and wildlife of Washington's Camano Island offer a treasure-trove of natural beauty and endless recreational possibilities. English Boom Historical Park was once a bustling center for logging and is now a peaceful spot with its uplands, salt marsh, shoreline and tidelands. Davis Slough is named after Reuben Davis, who lived on Camano Island before 1880 and was the oldest settler in the area. The island has historically been used by Native Americans, loggers, farmers and fishermen alike but today is enjoyed by Camano Islanders, who have worked hard to protect and preserve the island's cherished nature sites. Discover Camano Island with author Val Schroeder as she takes readers on a trek around the location's best-preserved features while uncovering the unique history behind them.

When civic benefactor Clinton P. Ferry donated a graceful, elliptically shaped plot of land in 1883 for the first park in Tacoma, he hoped his adopted hometown would do him proud and become a veritable city of parks. The young community did not disappoint. Landmarks such as Wright Park, Lincoln Park, and Point Defiance Park graced the landscape by 1900, a testament to Tacoma's appreciation for beauty, conservation, and recreation, which continues to this day. In 1907, residents voted to establish the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma, Washington's first independent parks municipality, to act as steward of these civic treasures. A century later, Metro Parks Tacoma embraces some 57 parks covering 2,700 acres, as well as swimming pools, sports complexes, community centers, and recreational programs for all ages.