Women’s Voices from the Oregon Trail, by Susan G. Butruille

In Women’s Voices from the Oregon Trail (276 pages), Susan Butruille artfully narrates the lives and struggles of the women who followed the 2,000-mile trail to Oregon 175 years ago. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition not only retraces the women’s journeys, but also brings their narratives to life in diary, song, history, poetry, quilts, and recipes. Beginning…

Read More

The Columbia, by Stewart Holbrook

The Columbia (346 pages) commemorates the disciplining and conversion of a wilderness river from a water passageway to a powerhouse and a source of irrigation. Here is the story of its explorers who came by boat and by foot: the bickering and battles between Hudson’s Bay Company and Astor’s fur trappers, the settlers that turned politicians…

Read More