Whitewater boating guidebook for the Snake River in Hells Canyon and the lower Salmon River with topographic maps and mile-by-mile descriptions

During the depression days of the early 1930s the Jordan family-Len Jordan (later governor of Idaho and a United States senator), his wife Grace, and their three small children-moved to an Idaho sheep ranch in the Snake River gorge just below Hell's Canyon, deepest scratch on the face of North America. "Cut off from the world for months at a time, the Jordans became virtually self-sufficient. Short of cash but long on courage, they raised and preserved their food, made their own soap, and educated their children."-Sterling North, New York World-Telegram "Home Below Hell's Canyon is valuable because it writes a little-known way of life into the national chronicle. We are put in touch with the kind of people who set the country on its feet and in the generations since have kept it there. . . . Primarily it is a book of courage and effort tempered by the warmth of those who trust in goodness and practice it."-Christian Science Monitor "The thrilling story of a modern pioneer family. . . . An intensely human account filled with fun, courage and rich family life."-Seattle Post Intelligencer

Provides an account of the massacre of over thirty Chinese gold miners on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon, a crime that has remained unsolved since 1887, and provides evidence that indicates the killers were a gang of seven rustlers and schoolboys who were never prosecuted for the murders.

This is one helluva narrative about one helluva woman who believed that Hells Canyon was her heaven. You'll be captivated by Violet Wilson Shirley's stories about ranch life in the deepest part of Hells Canyon. The Pete and Ethel Wilson family lived exemplary lives. Could we survive and scratch out a productive life in this rugged terrain with rattlesnakes, fickle weather, steep slopes, and animal predators constantly challenging our bodies and minds? Could we successfully raise eight children? After she retired, Violet returned to the canyon as a U.S. Forest Service volunteer at the Kirkwood visitor center. She contributed time almost every year between 1986 and 2004. Violet's spirit is chiseled into the cliffs and slopes of Hells Canyon and floats above the rapids of Snake River as it plunges through that spectacular gorge. - Tracy Vallier