Oregon Books

Another book I purchased as my professor wouldn't let this book leave the laboratory. Any book with Bruce McCune listed as author is an investment. This quality book is great for the field; not heavy and just the right size for a backpack. The photographs are very representative of in-field specimens in the NW - making it nice to ID a lichen without having to take it back to the lab. Having a degree in plant ID is not required for this book. The book also has a great glossary complete with illustratons.

I received this book after attending Rick Schafer's workshop a few years back and have learned so much from it. The illustrations are so beautiful and really show how wonderful the Oregon Coast is. I have returned many times to photograph it myself since the book is inspiring. Rick has a trained eye that matches no other. If you want to see Oregon's beauty or just want a coffee table book that takes you away this is the one to buy!

Excerpt from book's back cover:

"Main Street, Northeastern Oregon details the early development of a fascinating variety of communities in one o this country's most remote and spectacular regions. Collectively and through case studies, the author follows their growth, adaptation to changing economies and social patterns, and frequently, their failure - out of 52 towns founded between 1862 and 1915, only 23 have survived to the 1980s.

Northeastern Oregon's earliest towns grew up along the Oregon Trail and stage routes, others soon appearing along newly built railroads and adjacent to rivers, in mining districts, agricultural valleys and timbered areas. Founded for a variety of reasons - to make their founders money, to serve passing traffic, or to supply surrounding districts - they developed at different rates, and each took on a unique character. As the economic and social hub of these towns, and their architectural showpiece, northeastern Oregon's main streets exhibit a wide, through not unpredictable, range of personalities.

Barbara Ruth Bailey demonstrated that the degree of each main street's physical development is a direct response to regional economics, the nature and number of the town's service population, and the confidence of local entrepreneurs in the town's future. As such, development follows a definite sequence, which Ms. Bailey, incorporating several years of personal observations and painstaking research, has described in this study, Main Street, Northeastern Oregon examines the history of a little-known region, based on colorful, sensitive and scholarly documentation of small-town main street evolution."

I'm amazed this book is out of print. The book is a carefully documented, exhaustive history of the Rocky Mountain fur trappers from the beginnings to the end. It's interestingly written, captivating and informative. A beautiful piece of work.

I recommend some enterprising publisher put this tome back in print and that every library in the US have a copy available for researchers and interested readers. Failing that, I'd suggest the original publisher make it available on a book by book basis as is being done on so many, lesser titles.

As a home winemaker, I've had the pleasure in the past to make wine from grapes grown by the author. Prior to reading the book, Lars had impressed me as an inquisitive, well-read and knowledgeable individual who cared very much about people and all living things in nature. His open & honest narration was truly a pleasure to read. In some respects, it's almost like a diary.

Excellent book discussing the size, coloring, range and habitat of all species found in WA, Oregon, Idaho, and B.C. Yes its from 1975 but the information is still pretty accurate for anyone trying to identify an animal and makes a useful reference for research. A must own for any field zoologist in the northwest.

I used this publication in a recent dendrology class that I took as part of my forestry curriculum. The book contains an accurate key to almost all conifers, hardwoods and woody shrubs that are found in Northern California, Oregon, and southern Washington. Along with the key is an introduction that describes the basics of dendrology and plant identification. The drawings included in the intro are accurate and help to provide me with a visual reference to use while keying. This book does not fit into the genre of the "Field Guide", and is therefore not recommended to someone interested in simply finding a tree's name. For this purpose, I would recommend the National Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Trees (ISBN 0-394-50761-4)or the Pacific Coast Tree Finder (ISBN 0-912550-06-6) I would, however, highly recommend it to anyone either enrolled in a dendrology or plant taxonomy class in Oregon, So. Washington or No. Cal., or a person who has a heightened interest of the vegetation in this region.

Dr. Peck's Manual of the higher Plants of Oregon is the the result of Professor Peck's life long study of Oregon Plants.
While a Professor at Willamette University he collected, identified and described every higher native plant in Oregon that he could find. Moss and 'little plants' are excluded. This publication are the results of his research and includes a scientific description of each plant that he documented.

Short,but lively and descriptive account of a curtailed journey to Oregon in 1832. John Wyeth joined his cousin Nathaniel Wyeth and several other New Englanders to travel to Oregon to seek the riches and fortunes which that land had to offer. Although the author quit the expedition at Pierre's Hole in Idaho, he did write a first-hand narrative which is of historical significance. He described the many hardships and sufferings which they encountered along the way; being ridiculed for Nathaniel's original mode of travel when departing from New England in so called "amphibiums' (a cross betweeen a "wagon and a gondola") which were given up in St. Louis; an account of the famous Battle of Pierre's Hole; and on the way home to Boston via New Orleans, a very detailed and grotesque description of the cholera epidemic in that city. Wyeth speaks most admirably of their veteran guide Bill Sublette, who escorted them from Independence to Pierre's Hole, and at the same time belittles, demeans and humiliates his cousin Nathaniel for his leadership abilities throughout the expedition. I believe the author, and being only nineteen at the time, was simply too thunderstruck and bewildered by the hardships and sacrifices one must withstand to acccomplish such a feat. Simply put, he was spoiled from the comforts and conveniences of life in Boston and should not have undertaken such a mammoth adventure. An excellent little book (only 87 pages) but with an abundance of historical importance.

After strugling through a snow storm with white out conditions on Mount Hood I found myself in between the pages of this intriging book. Formed of local town, "ZigZag",news articles it covers history from The Explorer's who were held in awe of the "white mountain", The Pioneer's who suffered grotesque hardships going around it, to Mt. Hood's heros and victims of the early twentieth century showing genius of surviving the brutal weather, tons of snow and ice, during climbs, rescues, and building on the mountain. The exciting history documented in this book continues today with Mount Hood, even now, writing her next chapter. The ground is shaking. The locals say she could be our next volcano. Fascinating reading.