Text and photographs detailing the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest and the pioneering spirit of the early lumbermen of that place.

Winner of the 2022 Philip Taft Labor History Book Prize Often cast as villains in the Northwest's environmental battles, timber workers in fact have a connection to the forest that goes far beyond jobs and economic issues. Steven C. Beda explores the complex true story of how and why timber-working communities have concerned themselves with the health and future of the woods surrounding them. Life experiences like hunting, fishing, foraging, and hiking imbued timber country with meanings and values that nurtured a deep sense of place in workers, their families, and their communities. This sense of place in turn shaped ideas about protection that sometimes clashed with the views of environmentalists--or the desires of employers. Beda's sympathetic, in-depth look at the human beings whose lives are embedded in the woods helps us understand that timber communities fought not just to protect their livelihood, but because they saw the forest as a vital part of themselves.

Over 330 clear color photos display the wide array of equipment once used to log high timber that are now eminently collectible, including axes, saws, filing tools, springboards, oil bottles, undercutters, wedges, marlin spikes, drag saws, and venerable chainsaws. Historical photos display towering giants of old growth forests where loggers toiled decades ago. An informative text provides useful information on cleaning and preserving the antique logging tools, descriptions of them, values, and a bibliography. This book will be treasured by all who share a fascination for logging as it was done by the lumberjack, bucker, and high climber.

Account of the realities of Gold Rush life in the mining communities of the American West, featuring artefacts, records & tools from the time.

American railroad history is filled with accounts of misadventure. Steam boilers blew up. Bridges collapsed under the weight of heavy engines. Locomotives crashed head-on because of signal failures. Passenger cars derailed, often with dire results. Lightly built wooden coaches splintered on impact, and the debris often ignited from the coals in the iron stoves used for heating. In the mid-nineteenth century American railroading was burgeoning -- a growth too fast for safe operations. Despite the grim statistics of 19th and early 20th century train wrecks that resulted, one cannot help but find the photographs and public prints of the day interesting. When you pick up this wondrous book, you will have a hard time putting it down.