of discovery and exploration in the mandatory fourth grade class in Idaho
history. In much the same way I hoped to use the study of Lewis and Clark
to interest them in new approaches to the larger history of the Pacific
Northwest.

In the second edition of The Pacific Northwest I seek to take readers on
similar journeys of discovery. To that end I have rewritten and updated
many sections of the original book as well as added several new chapters on
topics previously mentioned only briefly or not at all. I have asked new
questions of the historical record and wrestled again with several old ones
that defy simple explanations. Numerous titles have been added to the
Suggestions for Further Reading.

I confess that I myself did not grow up studying Pacific Northwest his-
tory. Most of what I recall from grade school history classes back in Indiana
are the tales of pioneers hacking homesteads out of the woods and building
corduroy roads across a marshy landscape. In its own way it was fascinating
history. My introduction to Pacific Northwest history came only much
later, initially from the Lewis and Clark interpretive signs posted along the
roads of Montana and Idaho as I drove west in 1969 from Ann Arbor, Michi-
gan, to my new home near Walla Walla, Washington. That historic commu-
nity was an excellent place to initiate an ongoing love affair with the re-
gion's past.

Twenty-five years later, and after having lived also in Eugene, Seattle,
Victoria, and now Moscow, Idaho, I find myself still immersed in study of the
region's past; but also I am increasingly drawn to pondering its future in
terms of the profound economic and social changes that have recently over-
taken the Pacific Northwest or will almost certainly do so in the near future.
Thus the new edition of The Pacific Northwest seeks to look both ways, past
and future, as it appraises life in the Far Corner of North America.

In addition to the people who helped me earlier, I wish to thank several
individuals who contributed to this new edition: William S. Greever, Uni-
versity of Idaho; Julie Roy Jeffrey, Goucher College; Thomas McClintock,
Oregon State University; Larry J. Weathers, Pacific County Historical So-
ciety and Museum, South Bend; Barbara Johns, Tacoma Art Museum; Payton
Smith, Seattle attorney; Carol Zabilski, Pacific Northwest Quarterly; Rocky
Barker, Idaho Falls Post-Register and one of the most astute environmental
reporters of the entire region; Kenton Bird, graduate student in American
Studies at Washington State University; and Rob Mcintyre, graduate student
in music at the University of Idaho, and the students in my Pacific North-
west history classes. I am especially indebted to former president Elisabeth

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