I liked all the info I got out of this book. It was a interesting book

I like to collect books about space people have customized in an eclectic and eccentric way. This is one of the best.

Good Smilee Fisherman

You had to swing your cannonballs into the cliff at Stuart Island on 33 fathoms of steel line,and bounce a #7 silver and bronze Pal Diamond Lance off the knoll. The water moves at 3 or 4 knots as you ferry across the eddy onto the spot, no more than 75 feet from the wall. All the big ones lay under a shelf just below the 33 fathom mark, waiting for the tide to wash in herring. You could fish at 32 fathoms for a week and not catch a cold, but just another 6 or seven feet and you could hook into the biggest slab of salmon in the world, salmon that would blow your mind, salmon that grew over 100 pounds, salmon so strong they could snap 150 lb test or straighten a #7 Stainless Mustad hook beyond recognition. The biggest fish I ever caught was 50 pounds, dressed, on a hand line. The biggest I ever heard of was a 12 year old kid, in a skiff, with a rod...117 pound Bute Inlet white salmon...three hours and several miles later. I spent 15 years trying to figure it all out. I eventually did...I stopped fishing.

I love this book...it's a story of courage, misguided and untamed, hardship and backbreaking boneheadedness, love, family, feeling, blood sweat and tears, isolation, forlorn hopes and dreams, unchecked struggle...all the things it takes to make something out of nothing in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of nobodies...and it's everything to me...Arnt Arntzen was my Grandfather.

Many American literature textbooks cover the topic of Transcendentalism with selections from just Emerson and Thoreau. Why they don't include some of the essays of Margaret Fuller is a mystery, especially in our current age of political correctness and emphasis on diversity. She provides a woman's opinion of life in general and of the landscape and people of the Midwest in particular in this, her first published book.


_Summer on the Lakes, in 1843_ is first and foremost a travelogue of Fuller's tour of the Midwest, and we follow her to Chicago and Milwaukee and into rural Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Her trip not only predates her friends' visits to the same area (Emerson first came through by stagecoach in 1850, and Thoreau took the train in 1861) but it also offers more observations about the people and the living conditions out on the prairie. Fuller had more time to spend roaming and adventuring, and she seems to have been more interested in the local culture than the men later were. (Or perhaps Emerson and Thoreau figured that Margaret Fuller had already provided the world with descriptions of the region, so they need not bother.) Midwestern readers should particularly enjoy the historic look at familiar landscapes, written at a time when white settlements were just beginning to congeal and take hold.


Secondarily, Fuller focuses much of her writing on the plight of American Indians and also of women in general. She had read a great deal about the native people and seems disappointed to find that most of the Black Hawk War survivors had already moved west by the time of her visit. She also points a critical eye to the fate of the members of her gender who were helping to eke out a living on the prairie: "The great drawback upon the lives of these settlers, at present, is the unfitness of the women for their new lot." ... All domestic labor "must often be performed, sick or well, by the mother and daughters, to whom a city education has imparted neither the strength nor skill now demanded." (p. 38) And yet, many of the people she meets seem to be happy; and while life is hard and without most amenities, entertainment (even the occasional piano!) and merriment can abound.


The narrative tends to languish when Fuller digresses into long-winded stories of the plights of specific women she either knew personally or heard about second- or even thirdhand. While these plot interruptions get tedious to the casual reader, they are further glimpses of feminine life in the early 19th century. Seen in that light, they can provide interesting diversions to the travelogue.


Original illustrations by Fuller's traveling companion, Sarah Ann Clarke (sister of James Freeman Clarke) augment the text. This edition's introduction by Susan Belasco Smith helps to bring perspective to the trip and the writing. Recommended especially for residents of northern Illinois and to anyone interested in Midwestern history, transcendentalism, or women's studies. [This reviewer was an Illinois resident when these comments were written.]

At the time this book was originally written (1830), the Northwest was the upper Missisippi Valley. I originally read this book because the author had lived among the Native American Indians and knew their culture. This was before the true nature of the European White man had become evident to the Indians and the Indians treated the White man as equals. But, in his introduction, even though he blasts other authors for their shallow representation of the Indian, he automatically assumes the Indians are not as good as White people and treats them as such in the book. Frequently though, the Indian looks more honorable than the White man in the ten stories. Despite the author's bias, a picture of the Indian's culture does come through. A good read for Indian and White culture at the time

For anyone interested in Bay Area Indian history, this book is a must-read. It's the only book I've found on the subject that looks comprehensively at the various tribelets in the Bay Area at the time of contact through the middle of the Mission period - very satisfying in its completeness. The one drawback is that the author's argument is not used to analyze a lot of the evidence. Most of the book is simply presented as facts, with only a few passages of analysis at the end of the chapters that tell you what the author makes of all the evidence. Otherwise it is a great read. I wish there more books like this one!

This well organized mile by mile guide to a wonderful historic highway is well worth its small cost. The writer has done a fine job of researching and presenting brief, but very interesting, highlights of the important events and sites along the old road.

If you plan to drive the historic Columbia River Highway, be sure you take this book along.

Captain Ron's book begins with the early French explorers and hardy fur trappers. He covers the history of the paddle-wheel steamboats from the first one on the Mississippi River in 1811, the "NEW ORLEANS", to the founding and growth of the paddle-wheel steamboat companies on the upper Mississippi River, from passenger and freight steamboats to excursion paddle-wheel steamboats fo today. Added to all this history are stories and tales from river pilots about the names and landmarks along the upper Mississippi River. Reading this book is like riding in the pilot house listing to Captain Ron telling his river stories.

I have the condensed version for field work but to really get seriously involved in the identification of Pacific Northwest Plants, the five volume set is a must have. The abbreviations used in the condensed version are gone and there are much more detailed illustrations in the larger set. The books are not for amateurs and the dichotomous keys are very time consuming and somewhat difficult to master. The books currently are in need of an update, but this does not distract too much from their value in a Botanist's library. There have been a few species changes that are not included. Any serious student of Northwest plants should have all five.

This is the story of the confrontation between the pre-Civil War United States and the leading power of the day, Great Britain. What momentous event almost caused these two nations to fight a war? The death of a pig. Known as "The Pig War" in Washington state, this almost war is little known in the rest of the states. One of the more interesting side issues of the Pig War is the fact that it was the last military assignment for George Pickett before he resigned his commission to join the Confederacy. Pickett would later become famous for leading the charge on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

This book is a good introduction for beginners to the history of not only the Pig War, but also the history of the San Juan Islands (where the confrontation took place) and Washington state. For scholars, however, the book's style and lack of depth will be a distinct drawback.