Oregon Historical Quarterly Summer 2003

Beavers, Firs, Salmon, and Falling Water: Pacific Northwest Regionalism and the Environment, by William L. Lang
In this essay, historian Bill Lang delves into the definition of “region” and how the concept is altered by human perception and the meanings people assign to it in relation to time and place. Citing a “profound connection between geography and history,” Lang explores how people who live in the Pacific Northwest have, over significant periods of time, maintained continued connections with regional icons of beavers, firs, salmon, and falling water. Despite the dramatically different geographies that have existed in the region from 1850 to 1950, Lang suggests that a significant component of “regional identity in the Pacific Northwest is its consistent environmental content, regardless of the era.”

“Ruining” the Rivers in the Snake Country: The Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fur Desert Policy, by Jennifer Ott

Honorable Mention, 2003 Joel Palmer Award (download the article pdf)

The history of the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest continues to engage scholars as they assess the impact of that enterprise on the people and the environment of the region. Jennifer Ott explores the environmental implications of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur desert policy, carried out between 1823 and 1841, which virtually eliminated beaver from the Snake River Basin. The policy, which netted approximately thirty-five thousand beaver pelts, was accomplished with a series of annual expeditions covering vast geographical areas that were led by a succession of HBC chief traders: Alexander Ross, Peter Skene Ogden, and John Work. Ott examines the complex ecosystem that the beaver were a part of and the environmental consequences of their wholesale removal.

Replacing Salmon: Columbia River Indian Fishing Rights and the Geography of Fisheries Mitigation, by Cain Allen
Honorable Mention, 2003 Joel Palmer Award (download the article pdf)

In the forty-two years between the completion of the Bonneville Dam (1938) and the passage of the Northwest Power Planning Act (1980), numerous programs were conceived and carried out to mitigate the impact of federal dam construction on Columbia River fisheries. Passage of the Mitchell Act by the U.S. Congress in 1938 laid the philosophical and environmental foundation on which all subsequent mitigation practices would be based. Focusing on the mid-Columbia River — the area between the mouth of the Snake River and Bonneville Dam — historian Cain Allen evaluates the history of mitigation strategies that were carried out under the auspices of the Columbia River Fisheries Development Program, including the creation of fish hatcheries and the barging of juvenile salmon around dams. Allen portrays the limited effect that these practices have had in stemming the catastrophic decline of salmon in the upper stretches of the river and considers how such declines have adversely affected traditional Indian fisheries that are located in that stretch of the Columbia River.

“The School Is Under My Direction:” The Politics of Education at Fort Vancouver, 1836-1838, by Stephen Woolworth
A diversity of viewpoints about how to educate young people and the rancorous relationships that can result are nothing new. Author Stephen Woolworth looks back on two tumultuous years at the school at Fort Vancouver and the struggle for control of the institution that ensued between the fort’s chief factor, Dr. John McLoughlin, and the Reverend Herbert Beaver, its first chaplain and supposed schoolteacher. Their differences resulted in the departure of Beaver after two years, and the effects of the two men’s dispute rippled out through the missionary community of the territory. Through careful analysis, Woolworth depicts the complex mixture of philosophical, religious, and professional authority that each man vigorously believed was vested in his particular office and explains the fundamental clash of cultures and personalities that underlay the conflict.

Oregon Places
Oaks Amusement Park, by Brian Aalberg
The Oaks Amusement Park, near the Sellwood Bridge in Southeast Portland, is one of the oldest continuously operated amusement parks in the United States. Since its opening in 1905, the park has played a role in the lives of generations of Oregonians, who have come to ride the rides, attend concerts or shows, enjoy picnics, or visit the roller-skating rink. Brian Aalberg relates the rich history of The Oaks, including a variety of photographs of the park over time.

Affiliate Spotlight
Jacksonville Woodlands Association

Gail Dubrow with Donna Graves, Sento at Sixth and Main: Preserving Landmarks of Japanese American Heritage, reviewed by Eiichiro Azuma

Char Miller, editor, Fluid Arguments: Five Centuries of Western Water Conflict, reviewed by William L. Lang

Carol Kammen, On Doing Local History, second edition, reviewed by Kevin Britz

David Grover, The Unforgiving Coast: Maritime Disasters of the Pacific Northwest, reviewed by Harvey Steele

Richard S. Hobbs, The Cayton Legacy: An African American Family, reviewed by Patricia A. Schechter

David E. Wilkins and K. Tsianina Lomawaima, Uneven Ground: American Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law, reviwed by John Shurts

Theodore Binnema, Common and Contested Ground: A Human and Environmental History of the Northwestern Plains, reviewed by Ken Coates

George Rollie Adams, General William S. Harney: Prince of Dragoons, reviewed by Robert Carriker

Rosemary Gudmundson Palmer, Children’s Voices from the Trail: Narratives of the Platte River Road, reviewed by Susan Badger Doyle

Mary C. Wright, editor, More Voices, New Stories: King County, Washington’s First 150 Years, reviewed by Steve Anderson

Susan Starbuck, Hazel Wolf: Fighting the Establishment, reviewed by Sandy Polishuk

Yoon K. Pak, Wherever I Go, I Will Always Be a Loyal American: Schooling Seattle’s Japanese Americans during World War II, reviewed by Robert C. Sims