Name: Logging Oregon's Coastal Forests
Brand: Mark Beach
SKU: 9781467160476
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Logging Oregon's Coastal Forests

9781467160476

$24.99

For the first 60 years of the 20th century, logging dominated the physical, economic, and social landscape of the Oregon coast. Millions of trees fell to axes and saws. Millions of dollars bought land and machines. Thousands of young men sweated in the forests and swaggered in the towns. Mills from Astoria to Brookings belched smoke and shipped lumber throughout the world. As the industry responded to its worldwide market, it went from boom to bust and back to boom. Every decade brought new technologies that meant fewer loggers could cut more trees and send them to mills faster than ever. This book, which includes historical images from museums, agencies, and personal collections, reveals the dangers and pride loggers experienced as part of their profession and captures the culture of logging as forests shrank and markets grew.

Manzanita, Nehalem, and Wheeler

9781467106399

$24.99

Professional historian Mark Beach tells the story of Manzanita, Nehalem, and Wheeler through well-research narrative alongside crystal-clear historic snapshots of shipwrecks, railroads, breathtaking coastal landscapes, and scenes from the everyday lives of the people who called these communities located on Oregon's Pacific Coast "home.'?

Manzanita, Nehalem, and Wheeler are three villages in Oregon that function as one community. Located in the Nehalem Bay area of Oregon's Pacific coast, they share many essential services while maintaining different personalities as cities. The Nehalem Bay area includes Oswald West and Nehalem Bay State Parks, Neahkahnie Mountain, and a large bay where the Nehalem River enters the ocean. A few hardy souls made this area--the last part of the coast to be settled--in north Tillamook County their home starting in the 1870s. The new residents used industries such as dairy, logging, and tourism to harness the natural resources of their picturesque surroundings and develop their communities. Organizations such as the Pine Grove Community Club, the North County Recreation District, and the Hoffman Center for the Arts are just a few of the reasons these three villages attract thousands of tourists and visitors every year. Author Mark Beach, a professional historian and longtime volunteer in the community, has collected historical photographs for the Nehalem Valley Historical Society since moving to the area in 1992. Hundreds of locals have enjoyed his presentations and exhibits about local history.

Oregon Moonshine

9781467153027

$23.99

Moonshining is deep-rooted in the history of Oregon. In 1844, when it was still Oregon Territory, one of the first moonshiners, James Conner, challenged a lawman to a duel for busting his illegal operation. The McKenzie River Bandits had better luck hiding from the law and produced bootleg booze for nearly five years before their arrest. It wouldn't be the last time they were caught. Over the years, outlaw moonshiners engaged in car chases, shootouts and even attempted an assassination to protect their hidden distilleries--and way of life. Join author Bruce Haney as he chronicles the intoxicating history of Oregon Moonshine.

Oregon Coast Highway

9781467103374

$24.99

By the time the final links in the Oregon Coast Highway were made in 1936, the highway stretched 394 miles from Astoria to the border of California. It had taken 12 years to complete the construction over stretches of rugged headlands and thick forests. Early travel along the coast was difficult; what roads existed were generally unimproved and often completely impassable during the rainy winter months. In many cases, the beaches themselves served as the only means of transporting freight and passengers. When Maj. Henry Bowlby, the first Oregon State Highway engineer, outlined a proposed system of state highways in 1914, he presented the vision of a coastal highway to the Oregon State Highway Commission. The eventual construction of this highway opened access to the Willamette Valley and beyond for many formerly isolated coastal communities. It also signaled an economic shift that included the promotion of tourism and the accommodation of the flood of visitors anxious to take advantage of the spectacular vistas along the Oregon coast.

Cover image for Oregon Coast Highway, isbn: 9781467103374

Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour

9781467161107

$24.99

Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlours was an iconic restaurant chain that originated in Portland, Oregon. Originally opened by Bob Farrell and Ken McCarthy in 1963, the family-friendly chain would become known for classic ice cream sundaes and birthday party celebrations. The restaurants were designed using a turn-of-the-20th-century theme with a marble-topped soda fountain, Tiffany lamps, and waiters dressed in colorful vests and skimmer hats. While continuing to open new stores in Portland, Farrell and McCarthy developed a franchise program to expand Farrell’s into other cities in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California.

Patrick J. Baker worked at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlours in Greendale, Wisconsin, from 1981 to 1985 and later became an investor in Farrell’s when the chain was revived from 2003 to 2019. Taken from numerous personal interviews and correspondence with Bob Farrell and Ken McCarthy, Baker shares the history of the chain up to the 1972 sale to the Marriott Corporation. This book uses photographs from the author’s extensive collection of images of the Farrell’s in Oregon, which were commissioned by Farrell and McCarthy in the 1960s.

Cover image for Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour, isbn: 9781467161107

Eugene

9780738593234

$24.99

Since its beginnings in the 1850s, Eugene has attracted independent thinkers. Its early leaders sited the town in a picturesque location along the Willamette River and were confident that agriculture and timber businesses would guide its growth. As Eugene transformed from a settlement to a city, its citizens took an active voice in the creation of its identity, like advocating for a main railroad line to run through town and determining how the commercial district would branch out from the central downtown core. Today, the population continues to express strong and diverse feelings about politics, personal rights, and the environment as it shares the common experience of living and working in a place of great natural beauty.

Cover image for Eugene, isbn: 9780738593234

Dallas

9780738596228

$24.99

The only people living along the banks of the LaCreole River before 1842 were Native Americans and a few itinerant French Canadian fur trappers who, according to local lore, bestowed its name. Wagon trains first arrived in 1843 with these pioneers settling along the LeCreole River's banks. The community of Cynthian grew on the north side of the LaCreole River, the area of north Dallas today. The LaCreole River evolved into the Rickreall, and Cynthian was renamed Dallas when it relocated to the south banks of the river. Dallas, the county seat of Polk County, is rich both in its history and its heritage, with many of the old buildings and early homes still in use. Numerous descendants of those original 1843 and 1844 pioneer families continue to call modern Dallas home.

The Oregon Shanghaiers: Columbia River Crimping from Astoria to Portland

9781626194304

$21.99

In the hardscrabble early days of Portland's seaport, shanghaiing" or "crimping" ran rampant. The proprietors of crooked saloons and sailors' boardinghouses coerced unwitting patrons to work on commercial ships. Shanghaiers like James Turk, Bunko Kelley and Billy Smith unashamedly forced men into service and stole the wages of their victims. By the 1890s, these shanghaiers had become powerful enough to influence the politics of Astoria and Portland, charging sea captains outrageous fees for unskilled laborers and shaping maritime trade around a merciless black market. For nearly a century, the exploits of these notorious crimpers have existed mainly in lore. Now historian Barney Blalock offers a lively and meticulously researched account of these colorful and corrupt men, revealing an authentic account of Oregon's malicious maritime legends."

The Oregon Shanghaiers: Columbia River Crimping from Astoria to Portland

Railroads of the Columbia River Gorge

9780738529165

$24.99

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

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.

Cascade Locks and Canal

9781467108164

$23.99

A stretch of tumbling white water five miles long, the Cascades of the Columbia River were the single greatest barrier to inland river trade and travel in the Pacific Northwest. One solution, the Cascade Locks and Canal, took nearly 18 painstaking years to construct. From 1878 to 1896, hundreds of laborers blasted, chipped, and hauled over 800,000 cubic yards of rock and debris from the riverbed, carved and laid masonry, and welded steel to create the locks. After their completion, thousands of trips, millions of dollars in freight, and hundreds of thousands of passengers made their way through the locks. Made redundant in 1938 by the completion of the Bonneville Dam, the remnants of the structure are still visible today in Cascade Locks, Oregon.

Bridges of the Oregon Coast

9780738548609

$24.99

In the 1920s and 1930s, Oregon's legendary bridge engineer Conde B. McCullough designed a first-rate collection of aesthetic bridges on the Oregon Coast Highway to enhance an already dramatic and beautiful landscape. The six largest of these, at Gold Beach, Newport, Waldport, Florence, Reedsport, and Coos Bay, eliminated the last ferries on the Oregon Coast Highway between the Columbia River and California. McCullough planned to build one bridge each year after completion of the Rogue River Bridge at Gold Beach in 1932, but the tightening grip of the Depression threatened his plans. In 1933, McCullough and his staff worked day and night to finish plans for the remaining five bridges, and in early 1934, the Public Works Administration funded simultaneous construction of them. The combined projects provided approximately 630 jobs, but at least six workers perished during construction. After the bridges were complete, Oregon coast tourism increased by a dramatic 72 percent in the first year.

Vanport

9781467134798

$24.99

Nestled in the floodplain between North Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, a housing project was built to help house World War II shipyard workers. Its very name, Vanport, is derived from Vancouver and Portland. When the United States entered the war, the demand for ships and for workers to build those ships became a huge priority. Workers were recruited from all corners of the United States. Portland had a serious lodging shortage, so much so that these workers lived in cars, tents, parks, and whatever shelter could be found. Vanport, built in a little over a year to house them, was a city that did not sleep. In its heyday, Vanport was the second-largest city in Oregon with a population of over 40,000 residents. It was a city with many firsts. It was a city that touched many lives in a very short period of time. And on May 30, 1948, it was a city that disappeared just as quickly as it came into existence, leaving a legacy that will not soon be forgotten.

Oregon's Highway 99

9781467115346

$24.99

From the Columbia River to the Siskiyou Mountains, Highway 99 traverses 300 miles of western Oregon. Big cities and small towns, the level Willamette Valley and steep hills, rich agricultural lands and tall evergreen forests, and rushing rivers all lie along its path. Arising from an early network of emigrant trails, stagecoach routes, and farm-to-market roads, the highway had developed into Oregon's major transportation corridor by the end of the 19th century. The dawn of the automobile age saw an exponential increase in traffic, creating a greater demand for improved roads; these better roads, in turn, created yet more traffic for both business and recreation. Roadside businesses, such as auto courts, restaurants, and service stations, sprang up along the highway to cater to a new type of motorist--the tourist. Today, much of Highway 99 and its predecessor, the Pacific Highway, remain in daily use.

Astoria

9781467109581

$23.99 $12.00 Save 50%

Established in 1811, Astoria, Oregon, holds claim to being the oldest US settlement west of the Rockies. After surviving devastating fires and severe economic downturns, modern Astoria--with its well-preserved historic homes and bustling downtown--is a beacon on the scenic Columbia River. Celebrating this multilayered history, author Dr. Chelsea K. Vaughn is a native of the Pacific Northwest who has called Astoria home for the past nine years. She now works as the curator for the Clatsop County Historical Society.

Lost Oregon Treasure

9781467155519

$24.99

Tales of Oregon's lost wealth isn't all gold mines and prospectors, it's also stories of crime, greed; and occasionally murder. From the Lost Blue Bucket Mine to a hidden cave in the Owyhee Breaks, rumors of treasures just waiting to be found span the state. A generous miner from Yreka, California, known only as Set em Up spurred a decades long search for gold in Southern Oregon and the discovery of Crater Lake. Six sacks of gold buried and lost by Benjamin Harrison added to the fervor. There have been lucky finds, too, like Samuel L. Simpson's discovery of the Lost Cabin Vault. Join author Arthur H. Redman as he maps out tales of buried treasure across the great state of Oregon.

Cover image for Lost Oregon Treasure, isbn: 9781467155519

Bend

9780738571843

$24.99

Bend, astride the Deschutes River at the eastern foot of the Cascade Range, got its name from a place on the river that runs through it. Pioneer travelers called the place Farewell Bend because it was where they had their last view of the double bend in the river that afforded a good place to camp and to ford the waterway, otherwise flowing through deep canyons. When the U.S. Post Office Department approved a name for a post office established there in 1886, it settled on a shorter version-Bend-because there already was a Farewell Bend on the Snake River in eastern Oregon. Arrival of a railroad in 1911 connected Bend with a market for Central Oregon's vast timber resources. Large sawmills began operations in 1916 and Bend grew tenfold in 10 years. And it kept on growing into a favored place to live. By its centennial in 2005, some 75,000 people called Bend home.

North Clackamas

9781467107228

$23.99 $12.00 Save 50%

The communities of North Clackamas, a region spanning the northern area of Clackamas County, Oregon, have been linked together since at least the early 20th century, when residents considered seceding from the rest of the county. Since then, newspapers, organizations, districts, and attractions have all incorporated the "North Clackamas" name. Images of America: North Clackamas introduces a history of this region through imagery with a main focus on the areas served by the North Clackamas School District. Among the cities and communities featured are Milwaukie, Happy Valley, Clackamas, Oak Grove, Jennings Lodge, Carver, Damascus, and more.

Fire Lookouts of Oregon

9781467134866

$24.99

The first lookouts were rustic camps on mountaintops, where men and women were stationed to keep an eye out for wildfires. As the importance of fire prevention grew, a lookout construction boom resulted in hundreds of cabins and towers being built on Oregon's high points. When aircraft and cameras became more cost-effective and efficient methods of fire detection, many old lookouts were abandoned or removed. Of the many hundreds of lookouts built in Oregon over the past 100 years, less than 175 remain, and only about half of these are still manned. However, some lookouts are being repurposed as rental cabins, and volunteers are constantly working to save endangered lookouts. This book tells the story of Oregon's fire lookouts, from their heyday to their decline, and of the effort to save the ones that are left.

Battle for the Columbia River

9781467154086

$23.99

A war over riches on the Columbia River.
While the Civil War raged, a group of captains, merchants, bankers and gamblers in the Pacific Northwest formed the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The first capitalistic enterprise in the new state, they aimed to develop the richest and most powerful transportation operation in the region, dominating hundreds of miles of river traffic from the Pacific Coast to Montana. Achieving such status was anything but easy. They battled competitors, lawyers, the river herself, and defectors within their management team. In the unregulated business environment of the nineteenth century, men like John Ainsworth made their own rules, often deploying frontier justice against their enemies.
Join author Mychal Ostler as he recounts the battle for power that shaped an industry.

Sunriver

9781467129930

$23.99 $12.00 Save 50%

The idyllic community of Sunriver sits at the crossroads of Central Oregon. The region was inhabited as early as 11,500 years ago by native tribes. The first non-native explorers filtered through the area in the early 19th century, and homesteaders began farming the region in the late 1800s. During World War II, large tracts of land in the area became a training center for the US Army Corps of Engineers called Camp Abbot. In 1965, developer John Gray and attorney Don McCallum announced plans to build a residential and resort community on the former Army site. Named for the area's two main features, sunshine and recreational waters, Sunriver is a dynamic community. Today, permanent residents and vacationing visitors take advantage of Central Oregon's recreational opportunities, including golfing, fishing, hiking, biking, skiing, and snowboarding.

Oregon Running Legend Steve Prefontaine

9781467151733

$23.99

In the Footsteps of Oregon’s beloved U.S. Olympic Athlete, Activist, and Icon

Born in the small town of Coos Bay, Oregon, Steve “Pre” Prefontaine’s meteoric rise to cross-country and track superstardom included national recognition in high school followed by state, national, and world records. From the University of Oregon track to a fourth-place finish in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, he never stopped striving to make his mark on the world. Even today, his name conjures up images of athleticism, activism, and charisma. While his life tragically ended in a car accident at the youthful age of 24 – at which time he owned every American record from 2,000 to 10,000 meters and two to six miles – his legacy lives on.

Join author and runner Paul C. Clerici as he brings you this legendary Oregon athlete.

Cover image for Oregon Running Legend Steve Prefontaine, isbn: 9781467151733

Tigard

9780738596952

$24.99

Tigard, Oregon, began as an elegant farming community on the Tualatin Plains in the Northern Willamette Valley and became an upscale metropolitan residential community. The Native American Atfalati Kalapuyas interacted with early trappers, traders, missionaries, and pioneer settlers. Pioneers arrived in the 1850s to take up donation land claims. Tigard was originally called East Butte, and numerous nationalities and religions populated the settlement. A grange was formed to aid farmers' causes, and churches were established to build a sense of neighborliness. East Butte became Tigardville when Charles Fremont Tigard opened a post office in his general merchandise store in 1886 and named the postal station after his parents. Tigardville became Tigard when the Oregon Electric Railway came through in 1908, and residents distinguished Tigard from Wilsonville. The Oregon Electric shipped Tigard's farm produce north to Portland and south to Salem. Tigard was incorporated as a city on September 11, 1961, and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011.

Crater Lake National Park

9781467130943

$24.99

For more than half a million years, volcano Mount Mazama towered over southern Oregon. From time to time, it erupted, spreading pumice, ash, and cinders for miles around. Then, approximately 7,700 years ago, Mount Mazama erupted with such force that the volcano could no longer support itself and it collapsed, leaving a large caldera. Eventually, the volcanic action subsided and all was calm. Over the next centuries, water and snow accumulated in the caldera. In 1902, Crater Lake became a national park.

Astoria

9780738575278

$24.99

Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. It began in 1811 as a small but ambitious fur trading venture of New York entrepreneur John Jacob Astor and his Pacific Fur Company. The town has seen the development of commerce and trade ebb and flow like the tide throughout its history. Bounded on three sides by water and much of it originally built over the river, Astoria is a town that is deeply rooted in maritime history and traditions. This proud community of 10,000 is ready to share its heritage with the rest of the world.

Oregon's Covered Bridges

9780738558189

$24.99

Rugged individuals armed with hand tools, sweat, and ambition began building covered bridges in Oregon during the mid-1850s. These bridge builders often camped out at remote sites, living off the land or contracting with local farmers for food. Early owners of covered bridges financed construction by charging tolls--3¢ for a sheep, 5¢ for a horse and rider, and 10¢ for a team of horses and wagon. In the early 20th century, the state provided standard bridge and truss designs to each county, and most of the resulting structures incorporated the Howe truss. With the abundance of Douglas fir and the shortage of steel during the world wars, the construction of wooden covered bridges continued well into the 1950s, mainly in the Willamette Valley. During the 1920s, Oregon boasted more than 350 covered bridges.

Sumpter Valley Logging Railroads

9780738575421

$24.99

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.

Cover image for Sumpter Valley Logging Railroads, isbn: 9780738575421

Coos Bay

9780738589176

$24.99

Originally called Marshfield, the city of Coos Bay has transitioned from a pioneer and frontier boomtown that was developed by coalminers, shipbuilders, timber men, and entrepreneurs. The rich, pioneer history of Coos Bay is predated by the Coos Indians, who maintained many villages along the bay and survived in peaceful harmony with nature until forcibly removed by white settlers in the 1860s. After merging with nearby Eastside and Empire, the city is now the largest municipality in Coos County and on the entire coastline of the state of Oregon.

Redmond

9780738570891

$24.99

In the desert, water is king. Prior to the arrival of irrigation canals in 1906, the Central Oregon region that would become Redmond was little more than a collection of determined settlers, many living in tents, bent on proving up their Carey Act homesteads. By 1910, the Redmond Spokesman, one of two newspapers publishing in the newly incorporated town, was bragging, "Redmond is situated in the heart of the best irrigated farming section in Central Oregon, where abundant crops are grown by an intelligent and progressive class of farmers and ranchers." By 1911, Redmond cemented its reputation as the hub of Central Oregon when the Oregon Trunk Railroad line arrived, boosting Redmond commerce by taking it out of the horse-and-wagon movement of goods and people. After World War II , the City of Redmond purchased an army airbase for $1 and built it into Oregon's largest regional airport east of the Cascade Mountains.

The Oregonian Railway

9781467130318

$24.99

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.

Beaverton

9780738593302

$24.99

From the first land claim in 1847 to the growing technology industry of the 21st century, the city of Beaverton, Oregon, has had an impressive history. The earliest inhabitants were the Atfalati, a Native American tribe who dubbed the area Chakeipi, or the "Place of the Beaver." When modern settlers began to arrive in the mid-1800s, they continued to refer to the area as "Beaverdam," often draining the dams to aid their farming of the rich soil that remained. Beaverton has been home to many interesting and lucrative businesses since its incorporation in 1893, including a silent film studio in the 1920s, an airplane manufacturing site in the 1930s, and a busy airport in the 1940s. Since the 1950s, a growing number of high-tech companies have operated here, earning Beaverton a spot on the roster of places that comprise Washington County's Silicon Forest.

Warrenton-Hammond

9780738571607

$24.99

Located near the mouth of the Columbia River, Warrenton, incorporated in February 1899, is a city comprised of many earlier towns and villages. Hammond, although still having a separate post office and zip code, was merged with Warrenton in 1991. Fort Stevens, now an Oregon State Park, is located near Hammond. Lexington was the first county seat for Clatsop County until the county seat was vacated on December 4, 1879, and moved to Astoria. Skipanon, located near the same site as Lexington, was also annexed by Warrenton. Flavel, along the Columbia River between Warrenton and Hammond, was an active port for the Great Northern Steamship Company. It was annexed by Warrenton in 1918. Warrenton-Hammond documents each of these towns as they grew and became the present city of Warrenton.

Portland's Interurban Railway

9780738596174

$24.99

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.

Lost Portland, Oregon

9781467139533

$21.99

As Portland has grown and changed, so has its architectural landscape. Once prominent landmarks have disappeared--the Marquam Building collapsed during 1912 renovations, the massive chamber of commerce building became a parking lot and the Corbett Building became a shopping mall. The city skyline was shaped by architects like Justus F. Krumbein and David L. Williams, only to drastically change in the face of urban renewal and the desire for modernization. Discover the stories behind some of Portland's most iconic buildings, including the Beth Israel Synagogue and the first East Side High School, both lost to fire. Join historian Val C. Ballestrem as he explores the city's architectural heritage from the 1890s to the present, as well as the creative forces behind it.

An Environmental History of the Willamette Valley

9781467141468

$24.99

Western Oregon's Willamette Basin, once a vast wilderness, became a thriving community almost overnight. When Oregon territory was opened for homesteading in the early 1800s, most of the intrepid pioneers settled in the valley, spurring rapid changes in the landscape. Heralded as fertile with a mild climate and an abundance of natural resources, the valley enticed farmers, miners and loggers, who were quickly followed by the construction of rail lines and roads. Dams were built to harness the once free-flowing Willamette River and provide power to the growing population. As cities rose, people like Portland architect Edward Bennett and conservationist governor Tom McCall worked to contain urban sprawl. Authors Elizabeth and William Orr bring to life the changes that sculpted Oregon's beloved Willamette Valley.