A lyrical natural history of the Olympic Peninsula's intricate watersheds, forests, and coasts, as well as its cultural significance (Publisher's Description)
With the gray whale off the endangered list, the Makah Indians decide to resurrect the skills of their ancestors and return to the hunt amidst tribal infighting and animal rights activists. (Publisher's Description)
One day a couple of months ago, Robert Sullivan stood at the counter of the bookstore wearing the expression of a man who was trying to remember the title of a book that was just escaping him. We get that a lot.
In fact he was trying to sort out what was different and what was the same about the bookstore since the time when he wrote A Whale Hunt, when he lived for long stretches on the Olympic Peninsula over the course of two years, sometimes in a tent, sometimes in a structure he describes as a "shanty", ocassionally in a motel. This is now fully two decades ago, so the mental effort of putting it all back together is entirely understandable.
I'd seen the book in "Outdoor" section, but I didn't realize how much detail about the Neah Bay, the lives of the personnages of the famous whale hunt, and about the Makah tribe itself the book contained. I found it absolutely fascinating.
I loved the nuanced and contextualized perspective on the events that resulted in Sullivan embedding himself in the place while the slow-to-occur whale hunt takes place. He's generous and honest. He's also a bit of an odd duck. There's an essay about Moby Dick spread out in the footnotes of the book. It's literally the only thing he uses footnotes for. It's supurfluous and a gag.
In 1889 Washington's then governor, Elisha Ferry, called on men of adventure to cross the Olympic Mountains, a range shrouded in mystery. The Seattle Press, the state's primary newspaper, stepped up to the challenge, sponsoring the Press Expedition. And soon departed a band of men into the mountains during one of the worst winters in recorded history... (Publisher's Description)
I regret how many times I looked at The Final Forest sitting on the shelf and thought I could hold off on another book about trees. This book is decidedly about people and the evolving ideas about and conflicting attitudes towards humans' relationship to the natural world, and it knocked my boots off. To contextualize the context of the effect of efforts to protect old-growth forests on the exemplary community devoted to logging them, the town of Forks, Washington, William Dietrich allows gives voice to so many actual peoples' voices the seemingly polarized political debate becomes a patchwork of real human experience. An incredible document, this helped me understand the stakes and the contours of the changing pacific northwest, and the Olympic Peninsula in particular.
William Dietrich has gone to the heart of the greatest forest left in North America and returned with a clear and compelling story of why so many people are fighting over it. Like the towering firs of the Olympic Peninsula, this book will stand the test of time. - Timothy Egan, author of The Big Burn (Publisher's Description)
This magisterial text gave me everything I wanted to know about the geology, ecology and natural history of the peninsula. But while there is a brief guide to visiting the park, this is not a guidebook. Organized into four broad but thorough sections (The Mountains, The Forest, The Coast, Humans and the Landscape), this is a comprehensive survey of the place. McNulty is a poet who has lived and worked here for many years, and his lyricism and personal perspective make this book distinctive. It reads as though it is written by someone who loves being in the outdoors, and these spaces in particular, who is gifted at bringing those experiences to the page. Here is a book that I would give to anyone who wanted to know why I am excited by this place.
Renowned for its old-growth rain forest, wilderness coast, and glaciated peaks, Olympic National Park is a living laboratory for ecological renewal, especially as the historic Elwha River basin regenerates in the wake of dam removal. In this classic guide to the park, Tim McNulty invites us into the natural and human history of these nearly million acres, from remote headwaters to roadside waterfalls, from shipwreck sites to Native American historical settlements and contemporary resource stewardship, along the way detailing the park's unique plant and animal life. McNulty reminds us that though "the mountains and rivers remain 'timeless, ' our understanding of the lifeforms that inhabit them--and the effects our actions have on their future--is an ongoing, ever deepening story." Color photographs Practical advice on how to make the most of your visit Handy flora and fauna species checklists Inspiring descriptions of endangered species recovery Detailed look at Elwha River restoration after dam removal (Publisher's Description)
Every geographically-unique region should be so lucky as to have a writer like Murray Morgan to capture it forever in prose. The Last Wilderness is so evocative, hilarious, informative and I can't imagine it ever losing its place as the definitive introduction to the Olympic Peninsula. Researched with obvious care and undoubtedly benefits from conversations with old sourdoughs and lifers of all stripes from a place that he clearly loved. There are stories of the first peoples here and some forays into the natural wonders of this jungle of giant firs and cedars, glacier-clad mountains towering straight up from the sea, and rivers teeming with salmon, but this is first and foremost an account of the loggers and prospectors, the confidence men and utopian cultists, the wobblies and conservationists and all the other colorful characters that have peopled this wildest corner of the continental U.S. This is one of the books I've gotten at Port Book and News in Port Angeles to help acquaint myself with the Olympic Peninsula and I read through it a second time to whet my appetite for the place before moving here. I loved its first sentence so much, I suggested to to Madison Books for the "First Lines that Last" feature in their newsletter last year.
"First published by The Viking Press and The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited, 1955"--Title page verso. (Publisher's Description)
Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are introduces readers to nine tribes: the Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S'Klallam, Port Gamble S'Klallam, Skokomish, Squaxin Island, Quinault, Hoh, Quileute, and Makah. Written by members of the Olympic Peninsula Intertribal Cultural Advisory Committee, edited by anthropologist Jacilee Wray, and enhanced by photographs and maps, the book is divided into sections focusing on each of the tribes. Each section relates the tribe's history, its current cultural and political issues, and its tribal heritage programs. Each section also includes information about places to visit and offers suggestions for further reading. (from Google Books)
Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are introduces readers to nine tribes: the Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S'Klallam, Port Gamble S'Klallam, Skokomish, Squaxin Island, Quinault, Hoh, Quileute, and Makah. Written by members of the Olympic Peninsula Intertribal Cultural Advisory Committee, edited by anthropologist Jacilee Wray, and enhanced by photographs and maps, the book is divided into sections focusing on each of the tribes. Each section relates the tribe's history, its current cultural and political issues, and its tribal heritage programs. Each section also includes information about places to visit and offers suggestions for further reading. (Publisher's Description)
In 2011, a Montana contractor removed the first pieces from two concrete dams on the Elwha River which cuts through the Olympic range. It was the beginning of the largest dam removal project ever undertaken in North America--one dam was 200 feet tall--and the start of an unprecedented attempt to restore an entire ecosystem. More than 70 miles of the Elwha and its tributaries course from the mountain headwaters to clamming beaches on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Through interviews, field work, archival and historical research, and photojournalism, The Seattle Times has explored and reported on the dam removal, the Elwha ecosystem, its industrialization, and now its renewal. Elwha: A River Reborn is based on these features. Richly illustrated with stunning photographs, as well as historic images, graphics, and a map, Elwha tells the interwoven stories of this region. (from Google Books)
In 2011, a Montana contractor removed the first pieces from two concrete dams on the Elwha River which cuts through the Olympic range. It was the beginning of the largest dam removal project ever undertaken in North America--one dam was 200 feet tall--and the start of an unprecedented attempt to restore an entire ecosystem. More than 70 miles of the Elwha and its tributaries course from the mountain headwaters to clamming beaches on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Through interviews, field work, archival and historical research, and photojournalism, The Seattle Times has explored and reported on the dam removal, the Elwha ecosystem, its industrialization, and now its renewal. Elwha: A River Reborn is based on these features. Richly illustrated with stunning photographs, as well as historic images, graphics, and a map, Elwha tells the interwoven stories of this region. (Publisher's Description)
A guide to the mountain environment, plants, and animals of the Cascade Range and Olympic Mountains. (from Google Books)
A guide to the mountain environment, plants, and animals of the Cascade Range and Olympic Mountains. (Publisher's Description)
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Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of the region's ecological complexities. Focusing on the area south of Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around the Sound. In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish, and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the mosquito fleet, and today's ferry system. The book also takes an unflinching look at how the Sound's ecosystems have suffered from human behavior, including pollution, habitat destruction, and the effects of climate change. Witty, graceful, and deeply informed, Homewaters weaves history and science into a fascinating and hopeful narrative, one that will introduce newcomers to the astonishing life that inhabits the Sound and offers longtime residents new insight into and appreciation of the waters they call home. A Michael J. Repass Book (from Google Books)
Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of the region's ecological complexities. Focusing on the area south of Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around the Sound. In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish, and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the mosquito fleet, and today's ferry system. The book also takes an unflinching look at how the Sound's ecosystems have suffered from human behavior, including pollution, habitat destruction, and the effects of climate change. Witty, graceful, and deeply informed, Homewaters weaves history and science into a fascinating and hopeful narrative, one that will introduce newcomers to the astonishing life that inhabits the Sound and offers longtime residents new insight into and appreciation of the waters they call home. A Michael J. Repass Book (Publisher's Description)
After I finished The Last Wilderness, I returned to Alan at Port Book and News, who had recommended it to me for learning about the Peninsula, and asked him what should be next for learning about the area around Port Angeles. Without even a second of hesitation he walked to the shelf, plucked off a copy of Breaking Ground and put it into in my hands. I am so glad he pointed me to this amazing account of a gripping local story that helped to reframe my perspective on this specific part of the world. In 2003, routine work at the site of the largest construction projects in the state of Washington turned up the first archeological evidence of what eventually was discovered to be the largest pre-European contact village site ever excavated. Stopping work on an enormous project was controversial, but it was the story of how the memory of the site had been ignored and erased which was the most profound revelation. This story encapsulates so much about European settlers' attitudes towards native peoples' cultures, and the hurt this has caused for generations. There are hopeful notes about changing attitudes, and it is certainly noteworthy that the project with so much money and so many interested parties and agencies was indeed stopped. This is a closely-reported story, and certainly feels definitive. Mapes clearly interviewed a lot of people and the eyewitness accounts yield interesting results, such as an incredibly thorough depiction of a burning ceremony (where a feast table, clothing and other objects were burned for the ancestors). I learned so much from this book.
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 Timesreporter 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 Groundtakes that teaching to heart, demonstrating that the lessons of Tse-whit-zen are teachings from which we all may benefit. Lynda V. Mapesis an award-winning journalist with a twenty-year career in newspaper reporting, much of it with theSeattle Times. She is the author ofWashington: The Spirit of the Land. "Compelling, moving, inspirational, and profound. This is a captivating human interest story brought to life by a fascinating historical subplot, juxtaposed with a modern tragedy." - CHiXapkaid (Michael Pavel), Skokomish, Traditional Bearer of Southern Puget Salish cultures "A wonderful project . . . both because of the author's passion and accessible style and her attention to critical issues of ethics and relationship-building. A significant contribution to the region and to scholarship more broadly." - Coll Thrush, author ofNative Seattle (Publisher's Description)