Bear Creek Press Catolog
Homesteading Memoirs ~ Indian Wars ~ Oregon History ~ Oregon Trail ~ Oregon Travel
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The life of Oregon pioneer Winslow Powers (1821-1895) reads like the chapters in the history of the American West. After all, here was a man who at one time or another was an Oregon Trail emigrant, a gold miner, a homestead farmer, a sheep rancher, and a businessman, while along the way he managed to survive Indian wars, epidemics, and all the turmoil that hard labor, brutal winters, and primitive living could throw his way. Now a description of that life appears in this book -- yet it is far more than a pioneer's biography. Written by Powers' son, James W. Powers, and first published more than sixty years ago, this is a story of what it was like for some of the first families to venture east of the Cascades, building their homes so far from the nearest town in an area so rugged and isolated that its first white settlers didn't arrive until more than a decade after Oregon had become a state. As a result, the history contained within these pages captures a way of living that is all but forgotten now: how we once plowed fields and harvested grain, spun wool and sewed clothes, made soap and brewed coffee. But because life on the frontier also involved far more than domestic chores, this is also a story about quarrelsome neighbors, vigilante justice and, perhaps most of all, the fierce independence, tenacity, and resourcefulness that such a world demanded from those who lived in it. ISBN 1-930111-47-9, 75 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs. $11.00 cover price. |
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In the early 1870s, young James W. McAlister was lured to northeast Oregon's remote Wallowa Valley by its promise to be the adventure of a lifetime. His subsequent journey as an eighteen-year-old in the fall of 1872, however, also contained its share of misadventures -- wrecked wagons, angry bears, and wary companions who punished him for his unintentional encounters with the Nez Perce. Yet the valley's attraction proved so strong that McAlister stayed, and his recollections of those early days gives us a rare glimpse at an era when the land was still wild, and those who would tame it were first coming into the valley. ISBN 1-930111-37-1, 27 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs, appendix. $6.00 cover price. |
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At the age of seven, Morton Carroll Wolverton traveled with his mother and stepfather to their new homestead in northeast Oregon's Wallowa Valley, where they spent the winter of 1884-85 struggling to survive against cold, snow, and starvation. In this simple but rare account of those trying times, Mr. Wolverton captures the seemingly indomitable spirit that enabled early settlers to endure the hardships of what was anything but "the good old days." ISBN 1-930111-33-9, 22 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs, appendix. $5.00 cover price. |
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As It WasA Homesteader's Memories of the 1890sby Itol Lathrop Rucker Born on a 160-acre homestead in the sprawling wheatfields of northeast Oregon's Wallowa Valley, Itol Lathrop Rucker lived a life built from what labor could coax or wrestle from the land. In this world of butter churns, spinning wheels, and kerosene lamps, Itol and her family raised sheep for wool and hogs for meat in an age when fiddles provided the dancing music and midwives delivered the babies. Yet few who lived that life ever recorded their memories of it, which is the reason a memoir such as this is so valuable, giving us a glimpse into the way we lived more than a century ago. ISBN 1-930111-34-7, 18 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs. $5.00 cover price. |
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My Days in Northeast OregonA Memoir of Wagons Trains & Pack Strings in the 1890sby Henry C. Brown In the spring of 1891, Henry C. Brown and his family rounded up their cows, hitched up their wagons, and headed west in one of the last wagon trains to make the journey along the Oregon Trail. When they arrived in northeast Oregon five weary, dusty months later, Henry stepped into a world of pack strings, sheep camps, and bucking horses -- adventures that eventually grew into what he called "a sketch of my life from boyhood on, as near as I can remember it." Now part of that sketch has grown into My Days in Northeast Oregon: A Memoir of Wagon Trains and Pack Strings in the 1890s. Part diary, part narrative, and all storytelling, Henry Brown's recollections of those bygone years give new life to a now vanished time and a much changed place. Eventually, Henry C. Brown settled in California, married three times (the third wedding coming in 1959 at the age of 89), raised 12 children and one grandson, and lived to the age of 97. Yet of all that he may have accomplished during his long life, perhaps nothing has greater value to those wanting to catch a glimpse of the region's early years than the story of his days in northeast Oregon. ISBN 1-930111-18-5, 59 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photograph. $9.00 cover price. |
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Grandma's MemoriesRemembering the Homestead DaysFlora, Oregon 1900-1927by Edith Van Campbell Cattron & Thelma McCulloch "It's difficult now to imagine the everyday hardships of those years, but this memoir paints a vivid picture of life not so long ago -- a touching family story." East Oregonian Like a patchwork quilt made up of separate pieces of cloth, this book is composed of individual memories connected to a single fabric of time and place. The time was the turn of the twentieth century; the place, the farthest reaches of northeast Oregon, where homesteaders were staking their claims and building their homes in what some called "the north end wilderness." Living miles from either stores or doctors and connected to the nearest cities by wagons roads and horse trails, these people shared a fierce self-reliance and an optimistic view of the future. It was their hope as well as their belief that the harder they worked, the better would be the lives of their children. As a result, the homesteaders' experiences with making a living and getting married, giving birth and raising kids, overcoming loss and dealing with grief -- these are all part of this story, which recaptures some of the moments of life from a century ago. ISBN 1-930111-39-8, 55 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs, appendix. $9.00 cover price. |
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I RememberA Memoir of Homesteading Days in Oregon's Wallowa Valleyby Kate J. Goebel More than a memoir of an individual or family, I Remember captures a way of life that few remember and still fewer have ever recorded, describing in rare detail the way people lived and worked in the homesteading years of the early 20th century -- the days of midwives and washboards, livery stables and hitching racks, threshing crews and one-room schools. ISBN 1-930111-13-4, 75 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs. $10.00 cover price. |
Indian Wars
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Battle of the Grande RondeThe Story of a Long-ago Oregon Valley That Suffered the Pain and the Fury of WarDuring the 1856 Yakima Indian War, a company of mounted volunteers rode into the Grande Ronde Valley of northeast Oregon, looking for a fight against "hostile Indians." What they found was a battle in a strange land far from home, against a people struggling to protect their families and their lives. Part of the Northwest History Series. ISBN 1-930111-08-8, 50 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $8.00 cover price. |
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The Laws of WarA Story of the Modoc War of 1873They were the Modocs, a people whose mythology assured them, "Though you may be few, even if many and many people come against you, you will kill them." When that mythic promise took shape on the battlefields of the Modoc War in 1873, it generated one of the costliest conflicts of America's western frontier. The six month campaign to defeat some 50 Modoc warriors and their families found the army deploying more than 1,200 troops and suffering more than 160 civilian and military casualties. But then a fateful decision on the part of Modoc leader Captain Jack led him to his own execution and his people into exile -- all in accordance with "the laws of war." "I never realized what a horrible thing war is," said an army lieutenant who fought in the Modoc campaign, "until I came out on this trip." Part of the Northwest History Series. ISBN 1-930111-15-0, 47 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. $8.00 cover price. |
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The Soldiers' Side of the Modoc WarEyewitness Accounts of America's "Most Costly War""The battles waged along the Oregon-California border created a frontier horror that shattered lives and ruined careers." East Oregonian "The full story of this dark chapter in American history has yet to be told. But this well-designed and well-printed book takes a major step toward helping us understand what happened. This book is an invaluable record of one side of a terrible event." Statesman-Journal The odds were staggering, the desperate courage almost inconceivable -- but it happened anyway. For six months during the winter of 1872-73, approximately 50 Modoc warriors and their families fought some 1,200 U.S. Army troops to a standoff in what has been called "the most costly war in which the United States ever engaged, considering the number of opponents." The Modoc War, which was waged along the Oregon-California border, consisted of a six-month campaign in which careers were ruined, lives shattered, and history made in gruesome ways -- peace commissioners gunned down, Modoc leaders executed as criminals, and newspaper reporters and magazine illustrators capturing life on the battlefield in often sensational and distorted ways. Even though the complete story of the war, as well of the men who fought it, will probably never be told, the officers who recorded their battlefield memories of that cold and bloody winter have given us something vital to our understanding of this historic event -- a brief glimpse at the soldiers' side of the Modoc War. Part of the Northwest Classics Series. ISBN 1-930111-38-X, 79 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs. $11.00 cover price. |
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The Death of Wind BlowingThe Story of the 1876 Murder that Helped Trigger the Nez Perce WarIn June of 1876, two settlers from the Wallowa country of northeast Oregon rode into a Nez Perce hunting camp, searching for stolen horses. When they rode out, Wind Blowing, a Nez Perce warrior of the Wallowa band, lay dead. And the recoil from the rifle shot that killed him shaped the events that led to a war. Part of the Northwest History Series. ISBN 1-930111-02-9, 43 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography. $8.00 cover price. |
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Chief Joseph's Own StoryA Story of the Nez Perce: How They Lost Their Home, Why They Fought a WarIn 1877, the Nez Perce lost their home and their freedom in a tragic war they could neither escape nor win. First published in 1879, this book offers a timeless look at the desperate struggle between Indian and white that raged across the 19th century frontier of the Pacific Northwest. Part of the Northwest Classics Series. ISBN 1-930111-06-1, 38 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs, appendix. $8.00 cover price. |
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General Howard's Own StoryA Story of the Beginning of the Nez Perce Warby Major General Oliver Otis Howard A companion volume and personal rebuttal to Chief Joseph's Own Story, this book presents the viewpoint of General Howard, who led the U.S. Army's campaign against the Nez Perce in the war of 1877. "Chief Joseph's tale appeared to reflect unfavorably upon my official conduct," he wrote in 1879. "Now permit me to present a few simple facts which will show whether, in manner or matter, I have failed to meet the requirements of the situation." Part of the Northwest Classics Series. ISBN 1-930111-12-6, 27 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs. $7.00 cover price. |
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Behind the Nez Perce WarLetters and Reports Tracing the Beginning of the Epic 1877 ConflictAlthough this book was originally intended for historians and researchers as possibly the first bound collection of historical correspondences tracing the beginnings of the Nez Perce War, it soon became clear that these accounts from army officers, Indian agents, and government administrators are extremely readable, sometimes lively, and often entertaining. In these pages you'll find no ranting about "heathen savages" on the "warpath," no glowing accounts of pioneer heroism in the face of insurmountable odds--only the most "officially" reliable information of the day in the form of reports and letters from army officers, Indian agents, and government administrators-documents that not only describe the situation leading to that epic 1877 conflict, but also reveal some of the humanity and the drama behind the Nez Perce War. ISBN 978-1-930111-72-1, 93 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, historical photographs, maps. $17.00 cover price. |
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The Pursuit & Capture of Chief JosephA Story of the End of the Nez Perce War"C.E.S. Wood writes in a clear and surprisingly modern style that helps to illuminate the tragedy of cultures on a collision course, in spite of the best intentions of some of the participants, and the worst intentions of others." The Observer In 1877, the Nez Perce Indians of the Pacific Northwest fled for their lives and their freedom along a 1,200-mile trail that led them instead to death, exile, and imprisonment. When they reached the end of that tragic journey at the Bear Paw battlefield in Montana Territory, Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood was there to watch Chief Joseph surrender his rifle and to hear him promise that "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." This, then, is Wood's account of that surrender as well as a revealing chapter in the story of what has been called "the most extraordinary of Indian wars." Part of the Northwest Classics Series. ISBN 1-930111-22-3, 39 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs, illustrations. $8.00 cover price. |
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The Soldiers' Side of the Nez Perce WarEyewitness Accounts of "The Most Extraordinary of Indian Wars""Another distinguished volume in the enterprising Northwest Classics Series." East Oregonian It endures as one of the epic journeys of American history -- the 1877 flight of 750 Nez Perce Indians along a trail that led them, after four months and 1,200 miles, to the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana. There on a freezing October battlefield -- outnumbered, outgunned, and pinned down for more than five days in a relentless barrage of rifle- and artillery-fire -- the Nez Perce at last surrendered to U.S. Army troops. "The close of the war in October," wrote Major W.R. Parnell, "ended one of the most memorable campaigns in the history of Indian warfare." Fortunately for history, Parnell and others who fought in the Nez Perce War recorded their memories of it, their recollections of the battles as well as of the soldiers and warriors who fought them. Now these eyewitness accounts of people in conflict and men in combat are preserved in The Soldiers' Side of the Nez Perce War. First published almost a century ago, these eyewitness accounts involve soldiers far from home who found themselves in combat because of duty or circumstances, and who suffered and died on the battlefields of what General William T. Sherman called "the most extraordinary of Indian wars." The result is compelling and often moving reading, a testament to courage and sacrifice that comes together, at least in part, as the soldiers' side of the story. Part of the Northwest Classics Series. ISBN 1-930111-27-4, 119 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, historical photographs, $14.00 cover price. |
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From Where the Sun Now StandsThe Story of Chief Joseph's Surrender SpeechBased on the Letters of Charles Erskine Scott Wood"Here is a wonderful little book...If you have an interest in American history or Native American facts, this book will find a prominent place in your library." Statesman-Journal "There's just enough here to whet the appetite for a more complete and scholarly history of the Nez Perce War, one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the Northwest." East Oregonian "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." This sentence marks the conclusion of one of the most dramatic chapters -- as well as one of the most famous speeches -- in the history of the American West. Spoken by Chief Joseph during his surrender on the Bear Paw battlefield of Montana, the event that ended the Nez Perce War of 1877, the words have endured because standing near the Nez Perce chief that day was Charles Erskine Scott Wood, a U.S. Army lieutenant. Wood not only recorded Joseph's speech, but also described later in a series of letters the circumstances of the battle and the surrender, as well as of the speech and its fate after the war. Now some of those letters are presented here to recapture that time and place in history that Chief Joseph knew as "From where the sun now stands." ISBN 1-930-111-51-7, 31 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs, illustrations. $7.00 cover price. |
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Chief Joseph as a CommanderThe Story of the Nez Perce -- A Military Exploit of the First Magnitudeby Lt. Albert Gallatin Forse Lieutenant Albert Gallatin Forse of the First U.S. Cavalry lived his life as a warrior and mistakenly believed that Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce did, too. But Forse certainly was not alone in his belief. In fact, of all the mythologies that have sprung from the history of the Indian wars along the Western frontier, perhaps none has lived longer than the notion that during the Nez Perce War of 1877, Chief Joseph served as the commander-in-chief and military strategist who devised a battle campaign so ingenious that West Point cadets still study his tactics. None of it is true. Yet after spending four months chasing approximately eight hundred Indians (including women, children, and elderly) across fourteen hundred miles during a campaign that often saw the Nez Perce outmaneuver, outfight, and even embarrass the pursuing soldiers, army officers could have found it convenient to blame their showing on a "Red Napoleon." Now Lieutenant Forse's descriptions of the war's major battles as well as its most enduring figure give us a rare glimpse into an extraordinary historic event -- and into a time when the general public believed that the Nez Perce success in its tragic flight was the result of the genius of Joseph as a commander. Part of the Northwest Classics Series. ISBN 1-930-111-63-0, 39 pages, 7.5x8 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs, index. $8.00 cover price. |
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Nez Perce ExileThe Struggle for Freedom, 1877-1885"In this small volume, Larry O'Neal shines a bright light into a dark and little-known corner of one of the most significant episodes in the history of the American West. Through years of quiet, diligent research, O'Neal has uncovered materials that will completely reshape our understanding of what the Nez Perce people suffered during their long and tragic exile in Indian Territory. This book is a gift to historians and readers who care about the true stories of what befell the Indian people during our nation's relentless conquest of lands the Native people once held as their own." Kent Nerburn, author of Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy Although the Nez Perce War of 1877 ended with Chief Joseph's surrender at Montana's Bear Paw battlefield, the desperate struggle of Joseph's people was just beginning. For the next eight years they would experience hunger, sickness, and death during their exile in Indian Territory, a time in which Joseph continued to fight for his people's return to their Northwest home. Until Larry D. O'Neal's Nez Perce Exile, however, those years have often been an overlooked chapter in the history of the war and the people it affected the most. Part of the Northwest History Series. ISBN 1-930-111-64-9, 51 pages, 7.5x8 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs, index. $9.00 cover price. |
Oregon History
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Till Broad DaylightA History of Early Settlement in Oregon's Tillamook Countyby Warren N. Vaughn "Till Broad Daylight is a delightful book, with humor, history, and interesting facts." The Dayton Tribune Wedged between the Coast Range and the Pacific Ocean, the Tillamook country of Oregon's north coast was once days away by either boat or foot from the nearest settlement, a land of isolation and ruggedness in which families faced a life of hardship on the edge of a wilderness. Here there formed a community of stouthearted farmers and tradesmen who refused to let circumstances control their lives. For example, when no ships were available to bring in supplies or carry out crops, they built their own -- the Morning Star of Tillamook. In this book written by Warren N. Vaughn, one of Tillamook's first settlers, the area's history unfolds as a tale of people struggling to make a life for themselves along a frontier that few could reach and even fewer endure. In this way, it's a story of courage and survival, of tenacity and ingenuity. But mostly it's a story of people who faced the adversity in their lives by pulling out the fiddles, pushing back the tables and chairs, and then throwing themselves a dance that lasted "till broad daylight." ISBN 1-930111-41-X, 99 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, maps, historical photographs, appendix, index, $17.00 cover price. |
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Untamed LandThe Death of Pete French & the End of the Old WestIn the summer of 1872 when he finally reined in his horse at the end of five hundred dusty miles, twenty-three-year-old Pete French found himself on the edge of a land untamed, unclaimed, and open to any man with enough grit to fight for it -- a fight he would spend the next quarter-century trying to win before dying with his boots on, shot from the saddle and launched into legend as the target of a homesteader's quick trigger finger. In that relentless twenty-five-year quest to build a cattle empire, French found himself battling the land, the laws, and the people living at a crossroads of history that marked the end of one era and the beginning of another: the fall of the cattle king and the rise of the homesteader in the American West. In this way, the story of Pete French is not so much the biography of a man as it is a history of his era, a world of Indians, buckaroos, and homesteaders in a day when big ranchers seemed as large as the land they tried to conquer, until the arrival of determined people searching for better lives eventually overwhelmed them. ISBN 1-930111-59-2, 137 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, 84 photographs, 37 maps, 8 illustrations, bibliography and index. $23.00 cover price. |
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Frontier CavalrymanLt. William Carey Brown's Letters from Fort Klamath, Oregon, 1878-1880Transcribed & Edited by Cath Clark Introduction by Richard W. Helbock "Frontier Cavalryman is a fascinating journey into times past." Herald and News Soon after graduating from West Point in 1877 and receiving his assignment to one of the far-flung corners of the West at Oregon's Fort Klamath, Second Lieutenant William Carey Brown began a lifetime of adventure and service in the U.S. Army. "This roving life suits me quite well just now," he wrote in an 1879 letter to his family. "I am seeing plenty of new country, people, and having plenty of 'experience' -- enough that if I were a writer I think I could get up an interesting book." Even though Lt. Brown never wrote that book, the numerous letters he left behind-more than fifty appear in this volume-serve much the same purpose, giving us a glimpse into what seems today to have been a long-ago time and a faraway land, a personal view of what it was to serve as a soldier on the Western frontier. While stationed at Fort Klamath from 1878-1880, a period that saw the end of the Indian wars in the Pacific Northwest, Lt. Brown wrote frequently to his mother, father, and sisters living in Denver, Colorado. Taken as a whole, this collection opens a door into the life and times of a man who devoted himself to the service of his country in a career that spanned four decades, stretching from the Indian campaigns through World War I. Yet even more important, those letters also give us a human connection to a chapter in Northwest history as they convey a sense of what life was like for a frontier cavalryman. ISBN 1-930-111-65-7, 63 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, maps, historical photographs, bibliography, index. $14.00 cover price. |
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The Murder of John HawkIndians, Stockmen, Vigilantes and the Settling of the Northwest Frontierby Jon M. & Donna McDaniel Skovlin "A vibrant tale with exceptionally good prose." Pendleton Record "Bear Creek Press has released an impressive line of Oregon history books, and this is one of the best." Statesman Journal "Jon and Donna Skovlin have done it again. Here, in a mere 103 pages, is one of the most delightful little books on the West this reviewer has had the pleasure to read in some time." WOLA Journal "Jon and Donna Skovlin are establishing themselves as the authorities on Northwestern frontier history." NOLA Quarterly Late on a moonlit night in the winter of 1881, a dozen armed men sneaked into the riverside camp of cattleman John Hawk and opened fire. The ambush and murder, devised and carried out by a group of northeast Oregon vigilantes, serves as the central episode in this dramatic case study of life on the nineteenth-century Northwest frontier. It's the history of a time that saw the Nez Perce leave and the homesteaders arrive, the stockmen competing for the open range and the vigilantes taking the law into their own hands. And the clash among these three cultures so prevalent in the Old West -- Indians, stockmen, and vigilantes -- eventually leads to the tragic murder of John Hawk. ISBN 1-930111-58-4, 103 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, numerous maps, historical and contemporary photographs, artwork, bibliography and index. $13.00 cover price. |
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Snake River MassacreThe Story of the 1887 Murders They Called "The Crime of the Century"In May of 1887, seven outlaws ambushed the Snake River camp of some Chinese gold miners in what has been called "one of the bloodiest and most spectacular mass murders in American history." This is the story of those murders. Part of the Northwest History Series. ISBN 1-930111-11-8, 46 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $8.00 cover price. |
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Stagecoach DaysRecollections of Rugged Roads & Runaway Horsesby Grover C. Meeker Before trains linked the frontier towns of the Northwest, travel by stagecoach involved a combination of arduous journey and spirited adventure, an odyssey in which grizzled drivers steered their four- and six-horse teams into some of the most remote corners of the American West. Now Stagecoach Day glances back at those times through the recollections of Henry McElroy, a northeast Oregon liveryman who worked in the world of stagecoaches and whose memories help bring that world back to life. ISBN 1-930111-35-5, 27 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs. $6.00 cover price. |
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300 Miles AwheelThe Story of an 1898 Bicycle Trip Across a Corner of the Northwestby Homer Clark On a summer day in 1898, Homer Clark felt "desirous to take an outing through Wallowa county in order to see the country." And so he and a friend hopped on their bicycles and began a 300 mile journey that would take them through the canyons and over the mountains of some of the wildest land in the Pacific Northwest. This is the story of their adventure as well as a glimpse at the region more than a century ago. ISBN 1-930111-07-X, 27 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, photographs, illustrations. $6.00 cover price. |
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Days of SorrowThe Story of the Heppner Flood of 1903: Oregon's Most Deadly Natural DisasterFor more than a thousand people living in the town of Heppner, Oregon, in the year 1903, the end of the world began with a gathering of clouds in the southern sky. Soon the rain poured, the creeks rose, and a torrent of water roared toward town. "Days of Sorrow in Heppner," proclaimed the headline of the Heppner Gazette, which carried the story of the flood that tore through the community on a summer evening. "Without a second's warning, a leaping, foaming wall of water, 40 feet in height, struck Heppner at about 5 o'clock Sunday afternoon, sweeping everything before it and leaving only death and destruction in its wake." When it was over, the flood had swept away the lives of more than 200 people as well as 140 homes and 30 businesses. Yet even though the story of the flood is a tale of death and loss and heartbreak, it's also one of courage, as two men raced their horses against the water, galloping downstream to warn other towns; of compassion, as people from around the Northwest donated food, medicine, and labor to the rescue; and of endurance, as the survivors buried their dead, restored their town, and rebuilt their lives. ISBN 1-930111-21-5, 108 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs, appendix, bibliography. $22.00 cover price. |
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A Wild Night RideTwo Men's Heroic Race Against the Heppner Flood of 1903by Leslie L. Matlock and O.M. Yeager When a June cloudburst unleashed a wall of water and debris that almost destroyed Heppner, Oregon, in 1903, a tale of heroism seemed to rise from the rubble the flood left behind. That story involved two men, Bruce Kelley and Leslie Matlock, who saddled their horses and raced the floodwaters down the Willow Creek Valley to warn the ranchers and townspeople who stood in its path. It was an event that made nationwide news and almost immediately took the shape of a legend. Now three different versions of that episode make up A Wild Night Ride, the story of one of the most deadly natural disasters ever to strike the region and of the two men who rode into Northwest history. Part of the Northwest Classics Series. ISBN 1-930111-23-1, 43 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs, appendix. $8.00 cover price. |
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The Elk KillersThe Near Destruction & Ultimate Rescue of Elk in the American West"The words and deeds of frontier hunters take root in Highberger's story and grow into a living history tale, transporting us as good literature does, enabling us to feel as if we're living those times." Bugle magazine Beginning in the mid-19th century, three waves of killers rode across the plains and mountains of the American West -- the hide hunters, who killed game for the skins; the pot hunters, who killed for the meat; and the tusk hunters, who killed for the teeth. Together they carried out the systematic slaughter of millions of animals. Now The Elk Killers tells the story of those days when the West's buffalo and elk were hunted almost to extinction. By 1900, for instance, only 500 buffalo were left from herds that once numbered as many as 300 million animals, and less than one-half of one percent of America's original 10 million elk, which once roamed from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to Mexico, survived in a handful of Western states. Yet the story has a happy ending when conservationists restore elk to their former homes in parts of the West. In fact, some of the first elk transplanted from Wyoming's Jackson Hole came by train to northeast Oregon's Wallowa County in 1912, and the herds that resulted soon grew strong enough to provide elk for other parts of the Northwest. ISBN 1-930111-19-3, 59 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs, illustrations, bibliography, index. $9.00 cover price. |
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Homesteading the Oregon DesertBy the hundreds they came, in horse-drawn wagons and Model T Fords, following a dream that today seems doomed from the start -- to build their farms and their futures in Oregon's high desert. Even though the land was free, this new wave of pioneers who arrived in the first years of the twentieth century found they paid a dear price for their homesteads. "It usually took five years for a man to arrive," said one of the homesteaders, "build a house, fence some land, break it, put in a crop, wait in vain to harvest it, lose his money, get tired of jackrabbit stew, and leave." Yet in spite of their failures -- no matter where they staked their claims across the high desert of the country's last frontier -- these desert homesteaders became part of the story, as well as the spirit, of the American West. ISBN 978-1-930-111-47-7, 116 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, numerous maps, historical photographs, bibliography, index. $19.00 cover price. |
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The Backwoods TeacherLife in the Days of the One-Room Schoolhouseby Edna Justin Renfrow Teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in the rural West was one of the toughest, loneliest, and most disagreeable jobs of its day. The hours were long and the pay low, while textbooks were scarce and discipline problems severe. Teachers boarded with local families, toiled in schoolhouses that were teeth-chattering cold in winter and sweltering in spring, and tackled a work load that would exhaust a mule. Now Edna Renfrow Justice presents a sketch of what life was like at school as well as at home in the days of the one-room schoolhouse in Oregon, a time when "the backwoods teacher had to be unsinkable to survive." ISBN 1-930111-56-8, 23 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs. $6.00 cover price. |
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The Town That Was MaxvilleThe Story of a Vanished Oregon Logging Town and the People Who Called It HomeIn the early 20th century, logging camps and communities seemed to grow from the forests of Eastern Oregon. It was a time when men's muscle cut the timber, steam donkeys gathered it, and trains hauled it to the sawmills of the region. Since those days, the years have erased the towns, and all that's left are the memories of the places that many people once called home. This is the story of one of those towns. ISBN 1-930111-05-3, 35 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs, notes. $7.00 cover price. |
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Road of DifficultiesBuilding the Lower Columbia River Highway"Fascinating but little-known history, terrific historic photos, a book that's great for armchair travelers and people wanting to explore a forgotten highway." Herald and News "The road is mostly gone now, but, thanks to Taylor, it's not forgotten." The Bulletin "Thoroughly researched, well organized...It will likely remain the key source of information about building the Lower Columbia River Highway for future researchers. For Oregon travelers, the book is simply a good read." Oregon Historical Quarterly Nominated for the Oregon Book Award in General Nonfiction, 2008From Portland to the Pacific once ran a road that climbed mountains and crossed rivers, an engineering marvel and a scenic wonder that carried travelers across some of the most rugged land in the Northwest. But as the age of the Model T slipped away, so did the highway, until it was erased from the landscape and soon forgotten -- until now. In spite of its short life, the story of the Lower Columbia River Highway -- the twin of the famous upper route that winds through the Columbia Gorge -- is one of determination and conflict, of technological genius and artistic vision that came together to create a seemingly impossible road to the sea. ISBN 978-1-930111-70-7, 100 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, numerous historical and contemporary photographs, maps, bibliography, index. $19.00 cover price. |
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The Gift of a HorseThe Story of a Nez Perce Chief, an Army Officer, and the Gift That Took a Century to ArriveIn 1893, fourteen-year-old Erskine Wood made a mistake that would haunt him for the rest of his life: When his father, former U.S. Army officer C.E.S. Wood, tried to repay Chief Joseph for letting Erskine live with the Nez Perce leader's family through parts of two years, the young boy failed to convey Joseph's request for "a good stallion to improve the breed of his pony herd." As a result, more than a century would pass before Wood's descendants discovered the misunderstanding -- but then they set out to deliver the overdue gift. It was to be a quest that brought together two cultures, and that proved "A man's word is still good after 105 years." ISBN 1-930111-32-0, 31 pages, 5.5x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs, drawings. $6.00 cover price. |
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Somewhere in OregonGems of State History"Pat Wilkins is a fine storyteller. This is a collection of his best, and I envy you if you're about to experience Pat's stories for the first time." Paul Linnman, author of The Exploding Whale: And Other Remarkable Stories from the Evening News "The stories are delightful for both newcomers and fifth-generation Northwesterners." The Chronicle "A good book! Interesting, compelling." West Side Newspaper "Offers fascinating peeks at odd tales and leaves readers craving for more. Much more." Herald and News "Wilkins has a way with a tale. The collection is a pleasant stroll through the myths, history and people of the Northwest." East Oregonian "Wilkins' stories are informative, often fascinating, and sometimes infused with the touch of the poet." Statesman Journal Through four decades, Pat Wilkins was a familiar face and voice to thousands of Northwest television viewers who tuned in his newscasts, yet Wilkins' true calling lay outside the studio and along the less-traveled roads of Oregon. Here, far beyond the usual range of TV cameras and crews, Wilkins searched for the people, places, and events that shaped what a colleague calls "his first love, feature reporting." In following this love, Wilkins spent twenty years of his working life on the road, roaming the countryside in search of stories that capture the history and heart of the region. "Kind of like Charles Kuralt," he says, "but with a smaller territory." Contained within these pages are thirty of Wilkins' favorite stories, gems of state history, that he discovered while traveling somewhere in Oregon. ISBN 978-1-930111-55-4, 82 pages, trade paper, maps, historical and contemporary photographs, drawings. $16.00 cover price. |
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Looking Back at the Oregon CoastA Photographic JourneyThe sea may be timeless, but those things that stand beside it -- rocks, dunes, roads, towns, and so much more -- sometimes seem to change almost as rapidly as the tides themselves. What the Oregon coast looked like, say, 120 years ago is uncertain, save for scattered descriptions mined from mariners' logs, explorers' journals, and settlers' diaries. Move ahead a bit toward the end of the nineteenth century, however, and you find professional photographers lugging hundreds of pounds of cameras, chemicals, and glass plates to numerous beaches to capture thousands of, well, Kodak moments, which didn't actually come along until 1888, when the first Kodak camera hit the market along with the slogan, "You press the button -- we do the rest." It was the birth of the snapshot and a big reason -- along with one-cent picture postcards-that we now have more than a century-old photographic record of our beloved coast, from seashore waders to main streets, river tours to train depots, resort hotels to campgrounds. Such rare images (this book contains more than 140 of them) comprise a photographic journey across both time and space, dating back more than 100 years -- the earliest photo is from the 1860s and the latest from the 1930s, with the majority coming from the time of Model T's and one-piece bathing suits -- and stretching across approximately 400 miles from Astoria on the Columbia River to Brookings near the California line, with a few side trips in between. ISBN 978-1-930111-66-0, 81 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, 145 historical photographs, 10 maps, index. $18.00 cover price. |
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Oregon TimesA Chronology of State HistoryThrough the pages of Oregon history step those who have shaped its land, its laws, and its destiny -- Native people and distant mariners, trappers and settlers, miners and loggers, cowboys and soldiers, and many others. From the coming of the horse to the celebration of the state’s centennial, their stories are told here through a chronology that covers more than 400 years, and that illuminates some of the details that make up Oregon Times (a companion volume to Oregon Life, below). ISBN 978-1-930111-76-9, 89 pages, trade paper, historical photographs, maps, and illustrations. $18.00 cover price. |
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Oregon LifeMemories of the State's PastThis is a book of thoughtful recollections from folks who lived through their share of Oregon history. Their stories -- which date to as early as the covered-wagon days -- are the result of the Federal Writers Project, a government program begun during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when a group of writers were sent across the United States to track down people who might know something first-hand about what it was like to live in an older America. Those who visited Oregon talked with people who had many different experiences during their long lifetimes. Unfortunately, these interviews were never published—until now. his collection -- first published in the year of Oregon’s 150th birthday and 70 years after the last Oregon interview took place -- offers readers a compelling, human view of the struggles and joys and labors that once made up Oregon Life (a companion volume to Oregon Times, above). ISBN 978-1-930111-77-6, 103 pages, trade paper, index. $18.00 cover price. |
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Looking Back at the Columbia GorgeA Photographic Journey"This album of photos from the early 1900s is a fascinating journey through time and space." East Oregonian For thousands of years after ice age floods had gouged it into a land of plunging waterfalls and thundering rapids, the Columbia River Gorge remained a wilderness crossed only by foot paths and horse trails. And then along came Samuel C. Lancaster. Beginning in the second decade of the twentieth century, Lancaster set out to do what many believed could not be done -- build a highway through the Columbia Gorge. A "broad thoroughfare," he called it, "a frame to the beautiful picture which God created." When the Columbia River Highway was finished -- all 73.8 miles, 18 bridges, 7 viaducts, 3 tunnels, and 2 footbridges combined into the first major paved road in the Pacific Northwest -- Lancaster had created a masterpiece that many considered a work of art as well as an engineering marvel. "The best of all great highways in the world, glorified!" exclaimed the Illustrated London News. "It is the king of roads!" To recapture those days of almost a century ago, this book takes you on a journey from west to east along the old highway in a time when the Columbia River still ran free, the means of travel was the Model T, and the Gorge and its road were treasures worth keeping forever. ISBN 1-930111-52-5, 97 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs. $19.00 cover price. |
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Looking Back at Main Street Eastern OregonA Visit to More Than 100 Towns Across More Than 100 Years"This book is a true treasure." Statesman-Journal Through the decades it has gone by many names and has shown many faces. But whether it's called Wall Street in Bend or Adams Avenue in La Grande, Broadway in Burns or Highway 82 in Lostine, Main Street once was, and in many cases still is, the heart of virtually every community located east of Oregon's Cascade Range. After all, it was here that people gathered to fill the larder, hop the stage, grab a beer, get a haircut, shoe a horse, court a beau, or just spend some time in the company of long-distance neighbors who helped make tolerable the life of toil and seclusion waiting back home on the farm or ranch. Yet Main Street in Eastern Oregon was sometimes not a street all. In fact, in the earliest days of settlement it often consisted of nothing more than a store or saloon, a stagestop or hotel. And when these were gone, so was the town. As a result, some of the photographs in this book are of places that survive only in memory or history or as names on a map (though some have even vanished from maps), while others have grown into small cities. But whether the 101 towns shown in these pages are gone or thriving or situated somewhere in between, all of them have for a moment opened a door to their past and invited us in for a visit, for some time spent Looking Back at Main Street Eastern Oregon. ISBN 1-930111-53-3, 109 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, 126 historical photographs, 101 maps. $20.00 cover price. |
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Neah-Kah-Nie MountainA 1909 Journey to the Oregon CoastPhotographs by Benjamin Gifford"Another treasure from Bear Creek Press...a historical gem. It is a must-have for all lovers of Oregon history and an indispensable addition to the library of Oregon coast aficionados...a wonderful treat." Statesman Journal In the summer of 1909, Benjamin Gifford, one of Oregon's best known and most accomplished photographers at the turn of the twentieth century, accompanied writer Lewis M. Head on a journey to Neahkahnie Mountain on Oregon's north coast. The visual record of that adventure-the beaches and forests, the meadows and capes and slopes of the 1,600-foot mountain-was first published as a real estate agency's advertisement in 1910, when the only overland route through the area was a footpath eighteen inches wide. Now reproduced as it first appeared almost a hundred years ago, now NEAH-KAH-NIE MOUNTAIN gives us a glimpse of the area as it was in the early years of the last century. ISBN 1-930111-50-9, 33 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs. $12.00 cover price. |
Volume I1550-1865 |
Volume II1866-1950 |
Oregon Historical MapsTwo-Volume Set(Each volume sold separately)Four hundred years of Oregon maps stretching across five centuries and presented in two 8.5x11-inch volumes, each containing 50 color maps. Each volume is sold separately. To our knowledge, the 100 maps in this two-volume set is the most extensive collection of Oregon historical maps ever printed. The first printing of each volume will be limited to 150 copies to commemorate Oregon's 150th birthday in 2009. ISBN 978-1-930111-73-8 (Volume I) and 978-1-930111-74-5 (Volume II), 65 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, gloss cover, 50 color maps, historical photographs and illustrations, chronologies, introduction, notes, sources, index, $30 cover price (each). |
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The Last Wagon TrainAn Emigrant's Story of Death & Survival on the Oregon TrailBy Emeline L. Fuller "We are fortunate to have this account -- It is a terrifying and heartwrenching tale." McKenzie River Reflections "A worthy addition to the Northwest Classics Series." East Oregonian When the last wagon train of 1860 left Idaho Territory's Fort Hall and resumed its westward journey on the Oregon Trail, it soon found itself ensnared in a deadly battle that evolved into one of the most gruesome chapters in the history of the American West. The tragedy began on a September day when a group of Bannock Indians attacked the wagons, and it ended 49 days later when cavalry troops rescued the survivors from their struggle against murder, starvation, and cannibalism. Of the 44 emigrants in the wagon train, only 12 survived, one of them 13-year-old Emeline Trimble, who lost the other 11 members of her family during the seven-week ordeal. It is because of Emeline that this first-hand account of the tragedy exists, a remarkable tale of courage, endurance, and survival on the old Oregon Trail. Part of the Northwest Classics Series. ISBN 1-930111-36-3, 39 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, maps, photographs, illustrations. $8.00 cover price. |
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Ezra Meeker's Oregon TrailOne Man's Historic Journey to Save the Oregon TrailAfter traveling by covered wagon to the Northwest in 1852, Ezra Meeker found himself 54 years later, at the age of 76, following the same route backwards, east to his boyhood home in Indiana. It was a long journey with a serious purpose -- to save the Oregon Trail. At the time, the Trail had almost vanished. Cut by plows, eroded by weather, and covered with highways and towns, the route the pioneers had used in what was perhaps the largest human migration in world history had been reduced to a dim memory, a situation Ezra was determined to change. And so traveling in a covered wagon pulled by two oxen, Ezra stopped along the way to make speeches, raise money, and erect more than twenty monuments that marked the path of the old pioneers and kept alive the old Oregon Trail. Part of the Northwest History Series. ISBN 1-930111-30-4, 51 pages, 7x8.5 inches, trade paper, map, historical photographs. $9.00 cover price. |
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Oregon's TrailFollowing the Path of the Pioneers from the Snake River to the Willamette Valley"This is a superior guide book, a nice easy read and a good source of facts. A must for anyone who wants to maintain a complete Oregon history library." Statesman-Journal Oregon. It was more than a name -- it was a promise of free land and fresh opportunities that lured hundreds of thousands of people across two thousand miles of plains, mountains, and deserts to the far edge of the continent. And now for those who want either to see the trail for themselves or to capture a modern version of this historical experience, Oregon's Trail serves as a guide to the path of the pioneers from the Snake River to the Willamette Valley. ISBN 1-930111-57-6, 111 pages, 8.5x11 inches, high-quality trade paper, numerous maps, historical and contemporary photographs, artwork, index. $20.00 cover price. |
Oregon Travel
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The Long Road to LonesomevilleA Guide to Small Town Eastern Oregon"It's a great book that's too short." East Oregonian For travelers who want to explore the quieter places and simpler times found in eastern Oregon's small towns, for those who want to visit communities that stand alone and sometimes lonesome along the region's backroads and blue highways, The Long Road to Lonesomeville has arrived to serve as a guide. Yet the road to any Lonesomeville is long only in terms of the time it holds. Here the tick of a clock, the arc of the sun, and the flow of the seasons seem to slow down and wait for you. Sometimes they even nudge you back a bit, for all the stories in this book are about towns secluded but not empty, remote but not abandoned. And those who take the journey will find places that show us what we once were, not long ago, in the morning of our lives. ISBN 1-930111-29-0, 90 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, historical and contemporary photographs. $16.00 cover price. |
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Steens CountryAn Explorer's Guide to Oregon's Steens Mountain Area"The book will leave you hungry to know more." East Oregonian Standing almost 10,000 feet high and more than 30 miles long, Steens Mountain serves as the snow-white center of a far-reaching, breathtaking land in Oregon's southeast corner -- and Steens Country is a guide for those who want to explore the main routes, back roads, and natural wonders of this remarkable region. Built from the upheaval of natural forces dating back millions of years and shaped by a parade of human history stretching through 100 centuries, Steens Country is home to what many believe are some of the most awe-inspiring spans of landscape on the continent. ISBN 1-930111-26-6, 79 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, contemporary and historical photographs and maps, index. $16.00 cover price. |
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Exploring Northeast OregonA Traveler's GuideA journey across northeast Oregon means leaving behind the traffic and following the backroads through a countryside of furrowed fields and small towns, of blue mountains with sky-high summits and steep-walled canyons. In this land formed from ancient seas and fiery volcanoes, you'll find yourself traveling through a world that still remembers a frontier Oregon. This is the first book in the Exploring Oregon series. ISBN 978-1-930111-71-4, 109 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, contemporary and historical photographs, maps, index. $19.00 cover price. |
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Exploring Southeast OregonA Traveler's GuideTake a journey through a land of space and sky, of sprawling distances and solitary roads in this second book in the Exploring Oregon series. ISBN 978-1-930111-75-2, 95 pages, 8.5x11 inches, trade paper, contemporary and historical photographs, maps, index. $19.00 cover price. |