Présentation de l'éditeur :
Today the Pacific Northwest possesses a distinctive character as one of several sections of our nation. This regions geography, people, and economy have an individuality which blends with and yet stands apart from the rest of the United States. Like other sections, the Pacific Northwest cannot escape its past. Long known as the Oregon country, it was once thought of as one of the most remote and inaccessible frontier areas in the Western world. The region first unfolded its secrets to explorers and fur traders in whose footsteps came in quick succession missionaries, adventurers, pioneer farmers, miners, and businessmen. To all these the Oregon country presented a serious logistic problem. High, rugged mountains, inland waters, deserts, forests, ocean, snow, ice, rain, mud, heat, and magnificent distances thwarted the normal growth of community life and contact with the outside world. The battle to overcome these imposing physical obstacles in order to exploit the rich natural resources of the Oregon country and to establish orderly methods of commerce and travel comprise the major themes of this book. It is a saga of man against Nature; it is a story of adventure, indomitable courage, endurance, and brilliant business ingenuity and enterprise. This book is in part the history of men and events that have given vigor, confidence, buoyancy, and a proud consciousness of the past to people who today make up Canadian and American civilization in British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, I daho, western Montana, and, to be precise, a bit of western Wyoming. To personal experiences in the region I owe my first and lasting interest in the subjects here discussed; to friendly help and co-operation of many persons and institutions I owe a debt of gratitude for placing materials at my disposal for the preparation of this book. The manuscripts and printed materials, which,
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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