Oregon

Name: Railroads of the Columbia River Gorge
Brand: D. C. Jesse Burkhardt
SKU: 9780738529165
Price: 18.74 USD
Availability: InStock

Discover the overlooked guideposts of Oregon history. Following the example of suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway, Portland women have been reimagining the world since the town was little more than a speck on a map. Newberg played a crucial role in the passage to statehood. And despite being thousands of miles from the front lines, an influx of Civil War veterans irrevocably altered the trajectory of the Beaver State. From Bend sawmills to Woodlawn streetcars to Eugene wineries, reconnoiter Oregon history with our Oregon history books. [View all Oregon books]

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Railroads of the Columbia River Gorge

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Columbia River Gorge Railroads

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Around Sisters

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Portland's Streetcar Lines

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Sumpter Valley Logging Railroads

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Portland's Interurban Railway

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Oregon & Northwestern Railroad

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The Oregonian Railway

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Sumpter Valley Railway

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Lost Oregon Streetcars

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Tragedy at Southern Oregon Tunnel 13

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Portland Terminal Railroad Company

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Prineville

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Railroads of Hillsboro

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Willamette Valley Railways

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Slabtown Streetcars

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Portland's Streetcars

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Gladstone

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Portland's Maritime History

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Railroads of the Columbia River Gorge

9780738529165

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Before the rails were up and running along the stunning Columbia River landscape of Oregon and Washington, 19th-century westward travelers faced treacherous conditions. Many emigrants perished before reaching Oregon Territory. Only recently have railways bridged the wide gap formed millions of years ago. Today the gorge remains the major commercial route through the Cascades, and the tracks are a shining example of human engineering and a mecca for rail enthusiasts. Mount Hood, Union Pacific, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains seem to connect in a magical way with the land, blasting out of raw, rock-faced tunnels, gliding under bridges, snaking along the edges of towns and along the big river, always rolling somewhere distant, symbolic of our national connectedness--and our restlessness.

Columbia River Gorge Railroads

9781467134828

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The Columbia River Gorge is a land of scenic wonder, revered by tourists for its beauty and by recreationalists for its fishing, windsurfing, hiking, and rafting. The region is also a major transportation corridor, home to two vital east-west railroad routes: Burlington Northern Santa Fe on the Washington side of the Columbia River and Union Pacific on the Oregon side. Every day, dozens of freight trains—as well as Amtrak passenger trains—snake along on opposite banks of the wide river, and rail operations have become an integral part of the heartbeat of the gorge. The colorful images in this work celebrate the art and magic of the trains that move goods and passengers through this striking, rugged landscape.

Around Sisters

9781467161305

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Sharon E. Karr uses rare vintage images from a variety of local sources to celebrate the rich history of Sisters, Oregon.

Located at the foot of the eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains is the charming town of Sisters, Oregon, named for the three majestic, snow-covered peaks, North, Middle, and South Sisters, known as Faith, Hope, and Charity. Sisters saw its beginning only a short time after the early central Oregon pioneers settled to the north at Camp Polk. Geographically, Sisters encompassed communities now long gone – Cloverdale, Gist, and Plainview. These small communities depended on Sisters for mail, supplies, groceries, and other services. The development of Black Butte Ranch and the Metolius recreation area contributed to today’s tourism hub. By stepping back in time, the reader can explore the past of ranching and irrigation and trace the logging, rodeo, and recreation history of those who came before today’s travelers and tourists. Sisters is more than just a place. What sets Sisters apart is the bond of friendship that permeates every facet of this small town. A feeling of community and unity that fosters an unyielding spirit of what is home and creates the extraordinary place it is today.

Sharon E. Karr is a retired technology writer and a graduate of the University of Oregon with a bachelor of arts in history and a master’s degree from Santa Clara University. She brings history alive with the help of longtime residents, research, and local historical societies.

Portland's Streetcar Lines

9780738581262

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Portland neighborhoods owe their location, alignment, and growth to a splendid, 19th-century innovation: the streetcar. This city still bears the imprint of the carlines that once wove their way out to suburbs in every direction, including Fulton, Portland Heights, Goose Hollow, Nob Hill, Slabtown, Willamette Heights, Albina, Saint Johns, Irvington, Rose City, Mount Tabor, Montavilla, Mount Scott, and Sellwood. As routes developed, people used them for more than just getting to work; they also discovered the recreational function of street railways while visiting friends, parks, and shopping areas farther from the center of town. The time of the trolley peaked during the 1910s. In 1927, the local street railway system entered a period of slow decline that ended in 1950, when Portland's last city streetcars gave way to buses. This is the history of those classic lines.

Sumpter Valley Logging Railroads

9780738575421

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In 1889, David Eccles chartered the Oregon Lumber Company, an organization that produced many mills and railways and whose influence was felt from Salt Lake City to Northern California and Idaho. Through family connections, Eccles was also involved with many other logging enterprises, and he influenced the growth of the Inter-Mountain region as well as the Pacific Northwest. Sumpter Valley Logging Railroads is a pictorial history of the Oregon operations, focusing on the operations along the Sumpter Valley Railway. It explores the rails, mills, and people, as well as the logging practices of a bygone era.

Portland's Interurban Railway

9780738596174

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

At the end of the 19th century, Portland led the nation in the development of interurban electric railways. The city became the hub of an electric rail network that spread throughout the Willamette Valley. This is the story of the pioneering local railways that started it all as they built south along the Willamette River to Oregon City and east to Estacada and Bull Run in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. More than 200 historic images illustrate Portland's Interurban Railway from its rudimentary beginnings through the peak years, when passengers rode aboard the finest examples of the car builders' art, to the sudden end in 1958.

Oregon & Northwestern Railroad

9781467130479

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

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 from 1929 until 1984, its subsidiary Oregon & Northwestern Railroad made a living hauling logs, lumber, and occasional livestock between Burns and Seneca, Oregon.

The Oregonian Railway

9781467130318

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To those with an interest in railroad history in the United States, mention of the words "narrow gauge" may bring to mind the extensive three-foot-gauge railroads of Colorado and Utah or perhaps the famous two-foot-gauge lines in Maine. However, few would think first of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Nonetheless, between 1877 and 1893, an extensive narrow-gauge railroad developed in Oregon" one that had aspirations of crossing the Cascade Mountains and connecting with the Central Pacific Railroad, thus giving Oregon its first access to the transcontinental railroad system. It is this railroad system, from its inception in 1877 to the present day, that Ed Austin explores herein.

Sumpter Valley Railway

9780738571256

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

In July 1890, David Eccles and Charles Nibley chartered the Sumpter Valley Railway and changed the social and physical landscape of Eastern Oregon forever. The Sumpter Valley Railway and its parent company, the Oregon Lumber Company, became an economic engine that shaped the lives of generations of Eastern Oregonians. The rails stretched from Baker to Prairie City, Sumpter to Susanville, and laced ribbons of steel through the Powder River Valley and Elkhorns. This photographic history is a view into the life and times of a varied, interesting, and living railroad that was instrumental in the shaping of Eastern Oregon.

Lost Oregon Streetcars

9781467136853

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

The streetcars that plied Oregon's small-town streets were every bit as diverse as those in Portland and their history even more fascinating. Learn of the devastating 1922 fire that scorched Astoria's plank road railways and put a halt to its once-thriving streetcar network. Muse over the tale of a beloved white horse named Old Charlie that proved more efficient at powering Albany's streetcars than the alternative steam locomotive. Laugh at the spectacle of university students being carted back to their dormitories on the Eleventh Street Line's special midnight "drunk express" trains. Take pride in the tiny town of Cherry Grove, which became the first in the West to embrace new battery technology. Local historian Richard Thompson celebrates the lost trolley lines that transported Oregon's people across the state for decades.

Tragedy at Southern Oregon Tunnel 13

9781626193468

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The DeAutremont brothers were looking for a big score. They brought dynamite, guns and a getaway car. On October 11, 1923, at the summit of the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon, the three young men held up a passenger train, with disastrous consequences. Their rash actions resulted in the tragic deaths of three Southern Pacific trainmen and one U.S. Mail clerk, unleashing a public outcry that still rings through Oregon's history. In this riveting account, rail historian Scott Mangold draws on interviews, in-depth research and previously unpublished maps and photographs to document the events at Tunnel 13. Join Mangold as he chronicles the resulting four-year manhunt and eventual conviction of the DeAutremonts and provides insight into the lives derailed by the robbery's bitter legacy.

Portland Terminal Railroad Company

9781467115674

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The Portland Terminal Railroad Company (PTRC), formerly the Northern Pacific Terminal Company (NPTCo.), was created to be the heart of Henry Villard's Northwest rail empire. The NPTCo. survived the whims of the financial markets, two world wars, and numerous corporate mergers. It reached its zenith in the 1950s and changed its name to Portland Terminal Railroad Company in 1965. The company continues to operate as a successful business, serving the local freight needs of the parent railroads and Guild's Lake industrial district.

Prineville

9781467161213

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Settled in 1868, Prineville was the first community in Central Oregon. Primarily focused on the livestock industry, the area experienced a period of vigilante action in the 1880s and sheep-and-cattle wars just after the turn of the 20th century. Prineville remained the predominant community in the region until about 1915, when major railroads arrived and passed over it. This book showcases key images of Prineville, beginning with its first-known photograph in 1881 up until the early 2000s. /Steve Lent has authored several books on local history and provides historical perspectives to both the past and present photographs.

Railroads of Hillsboro

9781467132367

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Hillsboro, Oregon, always seemed destined to be an important railroad town. When the first trains arrived in Hillsboro in 1871 under the banner of the Oregon & California Railroad, the town began to develop into a key railroad junction point. Hillsboro was strategically located just 20 miles from the booming Portland metropolis, a regional center of manufacturing and trade, and by 1911, Hillsboro was where several rail lines branched off. One line headed west toward Tillamook, where the railroad tapped rich timber resources along the Oregon coast. Another line cut south into the fertile Willamette Valley, accessing prime agricultural lands that produced a bounty of wheat and other commodities. A third route carried passengers and goods to and from Portland and the neighboring communities of Cornelius and Forest Grove. As these routes developed, heavy volumes of freight began rolling into Hillsboro. At the same time, travelers moved through Hillsboro on passenger trains, including the Southern Pacific Railroad's famed "Red Electrics" and the Oregon Electric Railway's interurbans, which advertised passenger service with "no soot and no cinders."

Willamette Valley Railways

9780738556017

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Willamette Valley Railways tells the story of the electric interurban railways that ran through Oregon's Willamette Valley and of the streetcars that operated in the towns they served. Long before modern light rail vehicles, electric trains were providing Portland and the Willamette Valley with reliable, elegant transportation that was second to none. Between 1908 and 1915, two large systems, the Oregon Electric Railway and the Southern Pacific Red Electrics, joined smaller competitors constructing railways throughout the region. Portland became the hub of an impressive interurban network in a frenzy of electric railway building. Yet all too soon, this brief but glorious interurban era was over. Highway improvement and the growth of automobile ownership made electric passenger trains unprofitable in the sparsely populated valley. By the early 1930s, the company that had launched the nation's first true interurban was the only one still offering passenger service here.

Slabtown Streetcars

9781467133555

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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.

Portland's Streetcars

9780738531151

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Street railways arrived early in Portland and made lasting social and economic contributions that are still apparent in the layout and character of the city's neighborhoods today. During the 1890s, streetcar lines spread rapidly into the West Hills and across the Willamette River. The technological prowess of the growing "Rose City" was reflected in the largest horsecar in the Northwest, the second steepest cable car grade in the nation, the first true interurban railway, and an annual illuminated trolley parade. By the dawn of the 20th century, Portland could boast of the largest electric railway system in the West, as well as its first eight-wheeled streetcar. The streetcars lasted into the late 1950s here, and then, after a hiatus of nearly 30 years, were rediscovered by a new generation of urban planners.

Gladstone

9781467103022

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Gladstone, Oregon, is located at the confluence of the Clackamas and Willamette Rivers and was once the northern half of the historic town of Oregon City. Gladstone came to prominence as the site of the first Oregon State Fair, the first Clackamas County Fair, the first railroad bridge in Oregon, and the first river crossing of the first interurban trolley west of the Rocky Mountains. In 1869, Gladstone witnessed Ben Holladay, of Pony Express-Overland Stage fame, challenge both his competitors and the Clackamas River in the great north-south railroad race. From 1894 to 1927, Gladstone became known as the "Mother Chautauqua of the West," where orators such as William Jennings Bryan and Rev. Billy Sunday held thousands of attendees spellbound in Gladstone Park. Founded by Judge Harvey E. Cross, Gladstone incorporated in 1911 and steadily grew because of its scenic setting, cultural offerings, and ease of transportation to employment at the Oregon City Mills. The excitement of first events and famous visitors may be over, but Gladstone remains, today, a thriving, family-oriented community proud of its past.

Portland's Maritime History

9781467130844

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Portland is not only the site of numerous marine terminals along the Willamette and Columbia Rivers but also home to much of our American maritime history. Portland shipbuilding started in 1840 with construction of the schooner Star of Oregon. Over 100 years later, three Portland shipyards would build 621 ships for the war effort. Both before and after World War II, several steel and iron companies used the harbors in Portland for their manufacturing. Aside from production, Portland ships over 13 million tons of cargo every year and is the biggest shipper of wheat in the United States. The city displays this maritime history along its beautiful rivers.