Trail guides now available!
Portland Forest Hikes and Hiking from Portland to the Coast now available at Powell's, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, and other major book retailers.
Author readings scheduled at Powell's (SE Hawthorne) on March 9th at 7:30 PM. Also at Annie Bloom Books in Hillsdale on March 17th at 7 PM.-
Recent Posts
- It takes a Forest. Part 2
- It takes a forest. Part 1
- What’s in a name?
- The chaos at the end of Belding Road.
- North Fork of the Salmonberry – alternative access to the Salmonberry River
- Excerpt from coming book on NW Oregon: What was Illahee?
- The river that connects us; the river that divides us.
- Tales from the Salmonberry River
- Moonshining along the Lower Columbia River.
- Kerfuffle in the St. Helens Schoolyard.
- Be careful what you ask for.
- The Grange movement – the Internet of its day.
- “Animals to Avoid”
- The Wreck of the 104
- 32 Indian and Pioneer Trails in the North Coast range – compiled by R. L. Benson
- Shoot-out at the Sophie Mozee homestead!
- How to avoid becoming a statistic in the Oregon Forests
- Hindu gems hidden in the hills above Scappoose.
- What the Indians really smoked in their peace pipes.
- My “deliverance” hike on Cronin Creek
- Close encounters with an Alder
- Kamaiakin and the Klickitat Wars of 1855-56
- Following the Golden Rule
- Timber Legacies 4: The Timber Wars
- The first big environmental battle in Oregon’s brewing timber wars.
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Setting up and maintaining the information behind this site is a huge undertaking, and any contribution that you can make to cover expenses would be most gratefully accepted. Happy Trails, Jim Thayer
Author Archives: Jim
Close encounters with an Alder
Sometimes it pays to know your trees: The view from the 6,000 foot summit of Mt. Pearkes was stupendous. Across the peak we watched a family of mountain goats pick their way down a stoney ridge. We also watched warily … Continue reading
Posted in Indian lore, Plant lore
1 Comment
Kamaiakin and the Klickitat Wars of 1855-56
(excerpt from draft of The Last 100 Miles) Kamaiakin and the Klickitat Wars of 1855-56 One of the more interesting characters from this era was the Klickitat leader, Kamaiakun who resided with his bands in the proximity of Mt. Rainier. … Continue reading
Posted in Indian lore, Pioneer Lore, Uncategorized
3 Comments
Following the Golden Rule
The early 1800’s were a time rife with social experimentation. Today, it’s hard to see that idealism in the faded daguerreotypes and the stern visages that stare out at us from that far edge of modernity. This was the period … Continue reading
Posted in Indian lore, Pioneer Lore
4 Comments
Timber Legacies 4: The Timber Wars
In 1938, Oregon became the largest supplier of timber in the country. By that time demand for timber was once again on the rise, fueled by the wartime demand for construction materials. In the boom and bust cycles that so … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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The first big environmental battle in Oregon’s brewing timber wars.
If you rummage around the Internet like so many of us do, you might stumble across the website for the Alsea Clinic, a modest community health care provider for a remote logging community deep in the Oregon Coastal Forests. Listed … Continue reading
Posted in Logging history, Uncategorized
3 Comments
Two Spirit Woman: the Kootenai Doomsday Prophetess
Two-spirit Woman: the Kootenai Doomsday Prophetess The arrival of fur traders into the remote western valleys of the Canadian Rockies was the catalyst for the transformation of a big boned gangly Kootenai Indian girl, Ququnok Patke (One-Standing-Lodge-Pole-Woman), into the most famous and influential … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
The Chinook Canoe
The Chinook Canoe was a craft of extraordinary beauty and was as much their home as it was the outward expression of their graceful relationship with the life-force that sustained them, the Columbia River. These canoes came in all sizes … Continue reading
Posted in Indian lore, Uncategorized
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Of dogs, children and economy
The Indians of the Lower Columbia had little use for horses, as the forests were far too dense to traverse with the cumbersome horse, and besides their highways were the rivers and streams of the coastal range where narrow footpaths … Continue reading
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What the mushrooms think about “being late”.
The Indians claim that time flows differently on the reservation, for me it’s true when I’m off the reservation. So this is a short piece on what the mushrooms think about “being late”: And I’m stamping through the Douglas fir … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Chief Cowaniah and the Klickitat Raiders
The Klickitats: The story of Klickitats’ ascendency during the European penetration into the Pacific Northwest is one of the most vivid examples of how outsiders could take advantage of the social turmoil amongst the Indians and turn it to their … Continue reading