NEW!

NEW!

Oregon's Greatest Natural Disasters

Here's the dramatic story of the floods, earthquakes, forest fires, eruptions, and tsunamis that have shaped Oregon and impacted people over the past 13,000 years. Recent events are included too: Do you remember the Columbus Day windstorm of 1962, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980, or the Flood of 1996 that nearly topped Portland's seawall? Although such disasters occur at irregular intervals, they are in fact part of natural cycles, so it's possible to prepare for their impact. Are we ready for what's coming? A final, fictional chapter jumps into the future to visualize what might happen when geologists' predictions come true, shaking our cities with a massive earthquake and scouring the coast with a deadly tsunami.

264 pages, 6"x9", 46 maps, 160 b/w photos, color foldout, ISBN 0981570100

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256 pages, 5-1/2"x8-1/2", 107 maps, 216 b/w photos, 80 color photos. Revised every year.

ISBN 978-09677830-70

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100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades: Third Edition

Updated with a dozen new hikes, this classic guide to Oregon's recreational heartland now includes 16 pages of color photos, campground & cabin rental information, a wildflower identification guide, and a guide to hot springs. Revised every year.

256 pages, 5-1/2"x8-1/2", 108 maps, 216 b/w photos, 90 color photos, ISBN 978-09677830-62

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Cabin Fever: Notes From a Part-Time Pioneer

Rich with humor and natural history, this memoir of building a log cabin in the wilds of Oregon's Coast Range takes readers to a warm world of kerosene lamplight, wood stoves, and ghost stories. Written by a finalist for the Oregon Book Award in creative nonfiction, Cabin Fever recounts 25 summers of back-to-the-earth adventure -- and also solves a murder mystery that had haunted the author's roadless homestead. Includes 35 pen-and-ink illustrations by Janell Sorensen.

280 pages, 6"x9", 1 map, 35 b/w illustrations, ISBN 978-096778305-84

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Oregon Trips & Trails

Lavishly illustrated with more than 800 full-color photographs and maps, this is the easiest to use and most visually compelling Oregon guide ever, featuring 100 star attractions worth a journey, the state's 65 most beautiful trails, and 250 places to stay -- campgrounds, bed & breakfasts, and quaint hotels.

288 pages, 5-1/4"x8-1/2", 100 maps, 700 color photos, ISBN 978-09677830-38

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240 pages, 5-1/2"x8-1/2", 107 maps, 216 b/w photos, ISBN 978-09677830-46

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256 pages, 5-1/2"x8-1/2", 122 maps, 188 b/w photos, 80 color photos, ISBN 978-09677830-2X

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320 pages, 6"x9", 116 b/w photos, 58 maps, ISBN 978-09618152-72

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The Case of Einstein's Violin

In this wacky mystery novel an Oregon woman inherits Albert Einstein's violin case, sells it on eBay, and suddenly finds herself dodging international spies. A tip that her long-dead father may be alive sends her racing through Europe to discover her family's past -- and a lost formula for quantum gravity. To learn more about the settings used in "The Case of Einstein's Violin," you can also check out the author's favorite places to go hiking in Europe.

322 pages, 5-1/2"x8-1/2", ISBN 978-09677830-89

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464 pages, 6"x9", 26 illustrations, 1 map

$26.95 (hardback) ISBN 978-09618152-99; Limited first edition - Order from powells.com or order from amazon.com

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Read Table of Contents or Introduction

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This map is temporarily out of stock while a completely revised second edition is being prepared. The new edition will be on waterproof paper with a full-color travel guide on the back. Price will be $9.95. Available: April 2008.

(old edition: 26.5"x38" flat size, 6.3"x8.8" folded. Shipped folded unless specified.)

(old edition: 11 b/w photos, ISBN 0966534506)

Read Travel Guide Sample

368 pages, 5-1/2"x8-1/2", 72 maps, 119 b/w photos, ISBN 978-08988679-32

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Chosen one of Oregon's "100 Books" by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Council.

256 pages, 6"x9", paperback, 1 map, 28 b/w photos, ISBN 978-08707152-67

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Samples of the Books

A Deeper Wild

Joaquin Miller in about 1872.

Table of Contents - A Deeper Wild

Introduction 9

PART ONE: PAQUITA 11

Illustrations 187

PART TWO: MINNIE 197

Epilogue 453

Notes 455

Acknowledgments 461

Works by Joaquin Miller 462

Biographies of Joaquin Miller 463

About the Author 464

Introduction - A Deeper Wild

Joaquin Miller, the American West's first world-renowned writer, galloped to fame in the England of 1872 as the swashbuckling 'Poet of the Sierras.'

Miller set the London literary scene on its ear by appearing for poetry readings outfitted with a sombrero and spurs, howling like a coyote. He amazed Browning and Tennyson with tales of dusky Indian maidens and lassoed bears. He was introduced to Queen Victoria as the frontier's greatest writer of all time. His success set the stage for Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and others to try their literary luck abroad -- and inspired Buffalo Bill Cody to capitalize on the public's hunger for flamboyant frontiersmen.

The most astonishing thing about Miller is that he was not lying. He had in fact been an outlaw, pony express rider, gold miner, county judge, Indian fighter, Civil War pacifist, newspaper editor, and horse thief in the frontier West. And while this resume bedazzled audiences in Europe, the West itself was in an uproar over a more serious scandal: Miller had married a popular Oregon poet without admitting he already had an Indian wife and daughter in the California wilderness. When his white wife found out, she joined forces with legendary woman's rights activist Susan B. Anthony and denounced him from the stage -- becoming the first pioneer Oregon woman to lecture in public outside a church.

In writing this historical novel, I have followed the record as closely as possible. Where facts exist, the book is an accurate history. Where gaps in the record cry out for speculation, the book is a novel. The newspaper articles, legal documents, and poems quoted within the book are sometimes shortened, but are otherwise verbatim. Chapter-by-chapter notes in the appendix identify sources and separate historical fact from fiction.

My intent has been neither to write a vilification, as has been done by Miller's more vindictive biographers, nor to compose a glorification, as has been attempted by Miller's apologists. I offer instead the story of a fascinating man and the courageous women who molded his life.

Hiking Oregon's History

The Watchman fire lookout at Crater Lake National Park.

Table of Contents - Hiking Oregon's History

Chapter I: THE FIRST TRACKS

Chapter II: ANGRY SPIRITS

Chapter III: THE EXPLORERS

Chapter IV: THE SETTLERS

Chapter V: WAGON WHEELS

Chapter VI: GOLD!

Chapter VII: TRAILS OF TEARS

Chapter VIII: THE IRON HORSE

Chapter IX: BEACONS TO SEA

Chapter X: BOOM YEARS

Chapter XI: THE HORSELESS CARRIAGE

Chapter XII: THE FIRE LINE

Chapter XIII: RAGS AND RICHES

Chapter XIV: WAR!

Chapter XV: THE LEGACY

Sample Chapter - Hiking Oregon's History

Hike #10: Cape Disappointment

Far from being disappointed, Lewis and Clark celebrated when they first sighted the Pacific Ocean from Cape Disappointment, a dramatic headland on the Washington side of the Columbia River. Those stalwart explorers had trekked nearly 4000 miles across the continent. Today the trail up Cape Disappointment is still inspiring, but the hike is much shorter. It also features a number of additional historic attractions, including a lighthouse, an artillery bunker, and a museum.

Considering that the Columbia River is seven miles wide at its mouth, explorers to the Oregon Coast had failed to discover this "Great River of the West" for a surprisingly long time. Neither Drake nor Juan de Fuca noticed it on their voyages in the late 1500s. The second flurry of sea explorations in the late 1700s also had bad luck. Juan Perez piloted Spanish ships along the coast here in both 1774 and 1775. The second time, steering Bruno de Heceta's vessel, he reported a bay here that he thought might be a river. But the crew was sick with scurvy and there was no time to investigate. Three years later Cook sailed by without even reporting a bay.

By 1788, freelance fur trading ships were routinely plying the coast. British captain John Meares, sailing under a Portuguese flag of convenience, stumbled into a storm here and desperately sought a harbor. He fled toward the Columbia River opening "with every encouraging expectation" that it would be the great river of legend. But breakers on the river's shallow bar convinced him he must be mistaken. Angrily, he named the river mouth Deception Bay, and the nearby headland Cape Disappointment....

100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades

South Sister from the Green Lakes.

Table of Contents - 100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades

SANTIAM FOOTHILLS

MOUNT JEFFERSON

BEND AREA

THE THREE SISTERS

MCKENZIE FOOTHILLS

WILLAMETTE FOOTHILLS

WILLAMETTE PASS

All-Accessible Hikes in the Area

100 More Hikes in the Area

Sample Chapter - 100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades

Hike #4: Opal Creek

Opal Creek's ancient forest, on the edge of the Bull of the Woods Wilderness, was thrust to fame in the 1980s by controversy over Forest Service logging proposals. National television crews and thousands of visitors hiked to Jawbone Flats' rustic mining camp and scrambled over a rugged "bear trail" to view the endangered old-growth groves towering above this creek's green pools. By the time Opal Creek finally won Wilderness protection in 1996 an improved path had been built to make the area more hiker-friendly. The new trail shortcuts from the Little North Santiam River to Opal Creek, bypassing Jawbone Flats.

Start by driving east from Salem on North Santiam Highway 22 for 23 miles to Mehama's second flashing yellow light....

100 Hikes in Southern Oregon

Lemolo Falls on the North Umpqua River.

Table of Contents - 100 Hikes in Southern Oregon

UPPER UMPQUA RIVER

DIAMOND AND CRATER LAKES

UPPER ROGUE RIVER

SOUTHERN CASCADES

EASTERN SISKIYOUS

WESTERN SISKIYOUS

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

All-Accessible Trails in S Oregon

100 More Hikes in S Oregon

Sample Chapter - 100 Hikes in Southern Oregon

Hike #80: Illinois River Falls

After crossing spectacular suspension footbridge 100 feet above the green-pooled Illinois River, this hike follows a bedrock riverbank to a roaring waterfall. Although this area was near the center of the massive Biscuit Fire of 2002, nearly all of the large trees here survived -- with their lower limbs neatly pruned as if by a maintenance crew. The flames mostly crept along the forest floor, cleaning out brush, poison oak, small trees, and moss.

To find the trailhead from Grants Pass...

100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Oregon Coast & Coast Range

Neahkahnie Mountain from Os West State Park.

Table of Contents - 100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Oregon Coast & Coast Range

NORTH COAST & Coast Range

Long Beach, Astoria, Seaside, Tillamook, Neskowin

CENTRAL COAST & Coast Range

Lincoln City, Newport, Waldport, Yachats, Florence, Reedsport

SOUTH COAST & Klamaths

Coos Bay, Bandon, Port Orford, Gold Beach, Brookings, Crescent City, Redwoods

All-Accessible Trails

More Hikes

Sample Chapter -- 100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Oregon Coast & Coast Range

Hike #7: Tillamook Head

Tillamook Head rises 1000 feet from the ocean, with jagged capes and rocky islands. The Lewis and Clark expedition crossed this formidable headland in 1806 to buy the blubber of a stranded whale from Indians at Cannon Beach. At a viewpoint along the way Clark marveled, "I behold the grandest and most pleasing prospect which my eyes ever surveyed."

The headland itself is a tilted remnant of a massive, 15-million-year-old Columbia River basalt flow. Incredibly, the lava welled up near Idaho, flooded down the Columbia Gorge, and spread along the seashore to this point. A mile to sea is Tillamook Rock, a bleak island with a lighthouse that operated from 1881 to 1957. Nicknamed "Terrible Tilly," the light was repeatedly overswept by winter storms that dashed water, rocks, and fish into the lantern room 150 feet above normal sea level. The island was finally bought by funereal entrepreneurs who bring in urns of cremated remains by helicopter.

From Highway 101, take the north exit for Cannon Beach and....

100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon

Mt. Hood from the Timberline Trail at Elk Cove.

Table of Contents - 100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon

PORTLAND AREA

SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON

COLUMBIA GORGE

MOUNT HOOD -- WEST

MOUNT HOOD -- EAST

CLACKAMAS FOOTHILLS

Barrier-Free Trails in NW Oregon

107 More Hikes in NW Oregon

Sample Chapter - 100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon

Hike #67: Mazama Trail

A diamond in the rough, this spectacular new trail loops around Cape Horn, a landmark bluff towering above the Columbia River on the Washington side of the Gorge. The path visits waterfalls, woodland wildflowers, clifftop viewpoints, and even a train tunnel. The Columbia Land Trust, a local non-profit group, bought land and secured rights-of-way to make this public trail possible. Volunteers built the tread, so forgive them if it's a little narrow in spots. Wear boots and long pants.

To drive here from Vancouver take Highway 14 east...

Oregon Trips & Trails

Mt. Hood from Timberline Lodge.

Table of Contents - Oregon Trips & Trails

INTRODUCTION

How to Use This Book

Oregon's Climate & Geography

Oregon's History

PORTLAND

COLUMBIA GORGE

MOUNT HOOD

NORTH COAST

SOUTH COAST

VALLEY & FOOTHILLS

CENTRAL OREGON

SOUTHERN OREGON

NORTHEAST OREGON

SOUTHEAST OREGON

Sample Chapter - Oregon Trips & Trails

Introduction

They called it "Polyanna," an "earthly Paradise," and "the land at Eden’s gate." In the 1840s, the fabulous tales that filtered out of the nearly mythical land of Oregon inspired thousands of Americans each year to abandon their old lives and set off in covered wagons on the Oregon Trail—risking everything they had on a two-thousand-mile trek across the wilderness.

For every believer who followed the Oregon dream, a thousand skeptics stayed behind. The doubters scoffed that no land could be as beautiful as the reports of Oregon claimed.

Those who live in Oregon know that the skeptics were wrong. To this day, a tour across Oregon is a journey through unparalleled scenery. The diversity of this beauty makes it all the more inspiring.

To the west, rainforest canyons descend to a wild coast of wave-smashed headlands and hidden beaches. In the Willamette Valley, daffodils and shade oaks surround white clapboard farmhouses amid rolling croplands. In the Cascade Range, glaciers writhe down 10,000-foot volcanoes toward turquoise lakes. And in the cliff-lined canyons of Southeast Oregon’s high desert, forgotten rivers curve past hot springs and ancient petroglyphs.

Let this book be your guide as you chart your own Oregon Trail, exploring the fabled beauty that still inspires Oregonians to love, cherish, and protect their paradise...

Oregon Road Map & Travel Guide

Hells Canyon.

Sample - Travel Guide for the Oregon Map

Astoria (B-1) clings like a barnacle to the Oregon shore of the Columbia River. On the town's waterfront, the Columbia River Maritime Museum features a visitable lightship. Also worth a visit are the 4-mile-long, toll-free Astoria-Megler Bridge and the 125-foot Astor Column (painted with scenes of Astoria's history).

Explorers Lewis and Clark spent the rainy winter of 1805-06 in a log stockade at Fort Clatsop (B-1), now a national memorial with exhibits, 7 miles south of Astoria. From the Civil War to World War II, artillery guarded the Columbia's mouth from Fort Stevens (A, B-1), now a state park with a 605-site campground, a military museum, abandoned artillery bunkers, and a beach with the rusting remains of a 1906 shipwreck....

Exploring Oregon's Wild Areas

Backcountry skiing in the Three Sisters Wilderness. Skier: Talbot Bielefeldt.

Table of Contents: Exploring Oregon's Wild Areas

NORTHWEST OREGON

Columbia Gorge, Mount Hood, Silver Falls, Mount Jefferson, Smith Rock, and more

SOUTHWEST OREGON

Three Sisters, Crater Lake, Kalmiopsis, Wild Rogue, Oregon Dunes, and more

NORTHEAST OREGON

John Day River, Strawberry Mountain, North Fork John Day, Hells Canyon, Eagle Cap and more

SOUTHEAST OREGON

Newberry Crater, Fort Rock, Hart Mountain, Steens Mountain, Owyhee River, and more

Sample Chapter: Exploring Oregon's Wild Areas

Area 1: Columbia Gorge

Several worlds collide in the Columbia Gorge. In the west, moss-covered rain forests cling to misty green cliffs. A few miles east, only scrub oaks dot a semi-arid scabland. And in between, a colonnade of more than 20 major waterfalls separates the alpine meadows of the Cascade Range from the mudflats of the Columbia River, nearly at sea level.

In the midst of these colliding ecosystems is the remarkable Hatfield Wilderness. Although it lies a mere half-hour freeway drive from Portland and overlooks a busy transportation corridor along the Columbia, it remains delightfully wild, protected by a ribbon of breath-taking 3000-foot cliffs....

Listening for Coyote

William L. Sullivan at Smith Rock State Park.

Sample Chapter - Listening for Coyote

August 18, near Oregon's westernmost point at Cape Blanco.

I awake at first light. The drizzly fog has left everything damp. While my little butane burner boils a teapot of water for oatmeal I stuff my wet tent. By 6:30, all is ready. It takes two tries to swing my huge backpack into place - I must rest it on my knee to do it at all. Then I walk out through the sleeping campground and follow the road east.

On the silent road, doubts loom up through the fog. Suddenly it seems like someone else - someone very naive - drew the 1,300-mile route in red ink across my maps. That red line blithely wanders cross-country through canyons and mountains I've never seen - perhaps over cliffs or into impossible brush. Hundreds of unanticipated problems could keep me from ever reaching the nine checkpoints laid out for me across Oregon. What if I break my leg, or get shot by a drunken hunter? And I'd told everyone weather would not change my schedule - but, but, but! Maybe I started too late in the year. I had wanted to spend most of the summer with my family, and now as a result, my schedule crowds perilously close to winter. On October 29 my route climbs six thousand feet out of Hells Canyon - past an ominous label Freezeout Saddle - to its finish atop Hat Point.

Last week my father insisted on buying a $100,000 life insurance policy for me, with my wife as beneficiary. At seventeen dollars a month, he said it was a deal he couldn't pass up.

A white picket fence appears out of the fog, with a sign: CAPE BLANCO PIONEER CEMETERY. My shoulders are already so sore, I set down my pack to rest. Only five or six thin white tombstones stand crooked in the grass. The first one reads: WILLIAM O'SULLIVAN, BORN IRELAND, DIED 1900, AGE 86."

For a moment I just stare at my name chiseled in the marble. I have found my own tombstone.

Then I smile: At least I lived to old age.

Then I laugh out loud. Suddenly all my doubts and fears seem ridiculous. My only real obstacle has been myself!

I breathe deep the cool, fresh air of the Pacific. Ahead lies some of the most glorious wild country in the world. And by God, I'm going to charge into it whistling "The Happy Wanderer."

Cabin Fever: Notes From a Part-Time Pioneer

William L. Sullivan's log cabin in the Coast Range.

WHAT THE REVIEWERS SAY:

"From bear sightings to finding a beaver in the refrigerator and even solving a local mystery, Sullivan's stories are humorous and heartfelt" -- Beverly Close, The Oregonian

"Using only hand tools, Sullivan and his wife, Janell, built a rough-hewn cabin near the Sahalie River one log at a time. Even if you'll never live this particular dream, Sullivan's book is hard to resist.... Sullivan writes eloquently of the place he would build his modest castle.... Along with the vivid descriptions and the story of the hands-on adventure, Cabin Fever tells the tale of a murder mystery." -- Jim Witty, the Bend, Oregon Bulletin

"From the minute the reader is allowed in on a conversation between William L. Sullivan and his wife about building a log cabin along a wilderness river in Oregon, the unique memoir Cabin Fever is a rich tale in which the reader will feel part of the adventure." -- Bill Duncan, the Roseburg, Oregon News-Review

Table of Contents - Cabin Fever

1. A Castle in the Air (June 1977)

2. A Visit to the Niemis (June 1977)

3. Setting Out in Earnest (June 1977)

4. The Butcher (July 1977)

5. The First Log (July 1977)

6. An Ax Waiting to Happen (July 1977)

7. The Bear Trees (August 1977)

8. The Rains Come (September 1977)

9. The Dreadnaught (June 1978)

10. The Spiral Bird (July 1978)

11. The Husicka (August 1978)

12. Raise High the Roof Beam (Sept 1978)

13. The Volcano Blows (May 1980)

14. Baby On Board (July 1981)

15. The Niemi Spruces (August 1981)

16. Great, Grand Parenting (July 1984)

17. A Bird of a Different Feather (August 1984)

18. The Assessor (August 1984)

19. The Wileys (June 1985)

20. The Ghost Story (June 1985)

21. A Different Cabin (July 1985)

22. The Break-In (June 1987)

23. The Mouse Babies (July 1987)

24. Beaver in the Refrigerator (August 1987)

25. To Elsie With Love (June 1991)

26. The Sahalie Spirit (June 1994)

27. Brain-Dead Poker (July 1995)

28. The Flood (February 1996)

29. Open House (August 2002)

30. A Meander Tour (August 2002)

Trilliums by Janell E. Sorensen

Sample (from the middle of the first chapter) - Cabin Fever

Our first task was to tangle with the building permit bureaucracy in Seaview, a sleepy coastal burg that serves as the seat of Taylor County. As we drove into town, fog was rolling in from the gray void of the Pacific Ocean, burying the town’s abandoned lighthouse and piling up behind the airy arch of the Harbor Bridge. The edge of the fog hovered over Highway 101, dappling with sun breaks the rust-streaked motel signs and roadside crab stands. We found our way to the courthouse’s cement block basement. A weary-looking woman at an old wooden desk was stamping a stack of papers that read, “Mobile Home Application.” Finally two young men in ill-fitting suits emerged from an office to see what Janell and I might want.

I laid my drawings on a table and explained, “We’d like to build this log cabin on my parent’s property, and we need a permit.”

The men studied my sketch, frowning. “What kind of property?” one asked.

“Half timberland and half pasture.” I pointed it out on a wall map. “Fifty-three acres on the Sahalie River.”

The other man examined the location on the map. “Isn’t that the place where the old man was murdered?”

Janell glared at me. “You told me that was just a rumor.”

“I thought it was. I heard it from one of the farmer’s boys. He made it sound like the homesteader died ages ago.”

The first planner shrugged. “It’s probably been ten or fifteen years. And I think they finally ruled it a suicide, anyway.”

Janell did not look entirely reassured. I wished the incident had been a hundred years in the past, but I wasn’t about to back out now. “What about our log cabin?”

“Well, what you’ve drawn here looks like an accessory building,” the second man said.

“No, the old homestead that used to be there rotted away.”

“Then we’re talking about a new main dwelling.”

“I suppose.” I looked to Janell for help.

“There’s no road or electricity,” she put in. “It’s really just a place to camp in the summer.”

“Yes, while we take care of the place,” I added.

“Ah, a forest or agricultural shed,” the first planner announced.

The other shook his head. “But this drawing shows a stovepipe. It’s clearly a dwelling. That means we’ll need running water, electricity, and a road for emergency vehicle access. What’s the square footage here?”

“It would be just one room, 280 by 380 centimeters inside,” I said, pointing out the dimension on the drawing.

“Centimeters?” The man pronounced the word slowly, as if he were repeating it from a learn-to-speak Swahili tape.

“Well yes, I drew it up in metric. It’s based on a traditional Norwegian design.”

The planners looked at each other. One scratched his head.

“That’s about ten by twelve feet,” I offered.

The second planner humphed. “A hundred and twenty square feet? Minimum size for a dwelling is five hundred.”

I groaned. “You mean it has to be four times larger or we can’t build it at all?”

He wrinkled his brow. “That does sound a bit stringent. But it’s not our job to make the rules.”

I shook my head. “I think you’d have thrown out Lewis and Clark for substandard housing.”

“Probably,” the first planner said. “The pioneers of yesterday are the shiftless hippies of today.”

Janell crossed her arms at this barb. “College students on summer vacation are not shiftless hippies.”

The forcefulness of her response seemed to set the man back. “No?”

“No. We’re—“ she groped for the right word—“We’re part-time pioneers.”

”I see.” He pursed his lips. “Well, hang on and maybe we can find something in the code books that will work.” He pulled several weighty tomes from a shelf and began leafing through them.

Minutes passed. Finally I asked, “Well?”

The second planner scoffed, “He’s just stalling, waiting for a bribe.”

“I am not,” the first retorted. Then he glared at me. “Why did you come in here anyway? This is the sort of thing people build out in the woods without bothering about permits.”

“I wanted to do it right. My father works for the newspaper, and I don’t want to get him in trouble.”

The first planner drummed his fingers on the book. “All right, here we have it.” He read off a code and section number. “We’ll call it a rustic storage facility. Mark, fill out a permit for our pioneers.” He slapped the book shut and stalked off to his office.

Mark pulled out a triplicate form and began filling the blanks. “Frontage direction?” he asked.

“Pardon?”

He translated. “Which side of the building faces the road?”

“There isn’t a road.”

“Right. Well, then the river.”

“It bends.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’ll put down ‘east’.” Then he asked, “Setback?”

Again I hesitated.

“How many feet is the building set back from the edge of the lot?”

“Oh. Again, that depends. Between an eighth and a quarter mile, I’d say.”

Finally he used a felt pen to fill out a stiff yellow cardboard sign. “This will have to be posted conspicuously on the premises until completion.”

I read the sign’s list of mandatory on-site inspections: Frame. Lath. Wallboard. I asked skeptically, “You do understand that this is a log cabin, and not a frame building?”

Mark shrugged. “We don’t have guidelines for log construction.”

“And so the inspections—?“ I began.

He shook his head. “Don’t call. I don’t like boat rides.”

Janell quickly put in, “Weren’t we supposed to get some kind of sewer permit for an outhouse, too?”

Mark looked at her a little sadly. “I didn’t hear that question. Goodbye and good luck.”

The Case of Einstein's Violin

Could a formula left in a violin case lead to the creation of a gravity bomb? This rollicking mystery caroms from Oregon to a Greek monastery, an Italian cyclotron, the Slovenian Alps, and the German city where Einstein was born.

Sample -- Chapter 1

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE

(Ana)

Now I can say this: Sometimes you need to put yourself in Harm’s way, even if she is the kind of person who sells the skeletons in your closet on eBay.

I might still be a high school German teacher drilling irregular verbs if Harmony hadn’t convinced me to break into my mother’s house.

My old key didn’t fit, and Mom must have switched the hide-a-key when Monty moved in. I just stood there on the dark porch, musing out loud that we’d have to go back to the hospital.

"Ana! Your mother’s in surgery." Harmony put one hand on a hip and tilted her head. "Back in high school, how did you sneak into the house after a late date?"

"But I never did that."

"Come on." She took a pen light from her purse. "The kitchen window usually works."

Soon we were creeping through the bushes like burglars behind the big Victorian house on College Hill. To my surprise, the kitchen window really was unlocked. Harmony clasped her hands as a stirrup to give me a boost.

When I heard a thump inside the house, I called, "Hang on, Einstein!"

"Who’s Einstein?" Harmony asked.

"He’s the real reason we’re here." I squirmed down to the counter, unfolding my legs as stiffly as a butterfly trying to emerge from a cocoon. Finally I swung my feet to the floor. Then I found the kitchen light and unlocked the back door for Harmony. By that time an ancient Siamese cat was tottering up to an empty food dish. He looked at me and emitted a long, weird, demanding meow.

"This is Einstein?" Harmony asked. "We’re spending the night here to take care of a cat?"

"A very special cat. I got him when I turned ten. Now he’s so old he needs a pill three times a day. I hope you’re not mad."

Harmony bent down and petted the old cat gently. "Poor old guy. Medicine’s no fun, is it?"

Up until that moment, I don’t think I entirely trusted Harmony as my friend. After all, we had met only three months before, at a local women’s support group called DANCE. The group’s name stands for Divorced And Now Challenging Everything, but I was still too busy getting my feet on the ground to jump up and challenge everything at once.

Harm had just ditched a manipulative hunk named Leo, and I had just been left, again, by a randy wanderer with the name of (Why didn’t I see this coming?) Randy. Eventually, I supposed Harmony and I would be in the market for upgrades, but after you’ve burned your fingers on one stove, it’s refreshing to take a little breather, and look around for some sisterly friendship, before warming up to the next fire.

Not that Harmony and I are much alike. To be sure, we were both thirty, and we both taught school in Eugene, Oregon. But Harm is a natural beauty, with wide brown eyes, a dimple in her cheek, and a blonde ponytail that cascades casually out the back of a baseball cap. She grew up with hippie parents who make wooden toys on a commune behind Spencer Butte. As a child she was granted all the liberties in the world. The resulting innocent freeness has become a mysterious part of her attraction, from the way she shrugs with one shoulder to the way she chooses impossible combinations for a double-scoop ice cream cone.

Harm is irresistible to men, but she has a dangerous streak. Sure, she teaches kindergarten, but she also has an advanced belt in Aikido.

As for me, I’ve found other ways to turn heads. I’m happy enough with my roundish face, brown eyes, and mid-length brown hair, even though it tends to frizz out on either side. It’s just that I get people’s attention faster by writing freelance articles for Eugene Weekly about library funding or adult literacy or the like. Did I envy Harm’s adventurous style? Yeah, and I’ll admit I was lonely since the divorce. It wasn’t any easier knowing that my only living relative had just checked into McKenzie-Willamette Hospital to remove a lump in her breast. I didn’t want to think it might be cancer.

"Where are the pills?" Harmony asked.

"What?" I blinked, as if awakening from a trance.

"Einstein’s pills. Where does your Mom keep them?"

"Oh. I think she said they’re in the dining room cabinet. Where they keep the wine."

Harmony turned on a chandelier in the next room. "Wow. Where did your mother get all the antiques?"

"The house used to belong to my great aunt Margret. Margret may have been confused about many things, but she understood antiques. When Mom inherited the house she wanted to modernize everything. I convinced her to leave the dining room alone."

Harmony was halfway to the cabinet when she paused beside an oak buffet. "Hey, here’s a letter for you."

"But I haven’t lived here for years." Curious, I picked up the envelope. There, neatly penned in my mother’s looping hand, was the inscription, "For Ana Percey Smyth." I turned it over. Written in large letters across the sealed flap were the words, "TOP SECRET! To be opened by my daughter in the event of my death!"

For a moment I simply stood there, stunned. The formality and the finality of the envelope made me fear for an instant that Mom really might be dying. I sank into one of the nearby plush chairs, hit by a sick feeling in my stomach.

"What is it?" Harmony asked.

I held out the envelope in reply.

She read the words and bit her lip. "Damn. I’m always barging around in other people’s business. This time I’ve gone too far."

"No, it’s not your fault. My mother can be melodramatic. She probably leaves a letter like this every time she goes to the hospital."

Harmony handed back the envelope. "Do you have any idea what’s in it?"

I turned it over in my hands, wondering. Knowing my mother, the most likely message would be a teary farewell. Or some ghastly, detailed funeral instructions. Or perhaps a photograph? The thought tempted me to open it, despite the envelope’s instructions. When Mom had remarried, she had burned our family photo albums. The only pictures I had of my father were memories, and they grew fuzzier every year. . . .

Oregon's Greatest Natural Disasters

Table of Contents

Introduction    7

I. Ice Age Floods    11

The Controversial Theory of Dr. Bretz    13

Anatomy of a Cataclysm    16

Relics of the Floods    21

II. Tsunamis    25

Stumps on the Beach    25

Clues in Japan    29

The Mechanics of Tsunamis    30

Tales from 1700    33

True Stories from a Dark Night in 1964    35

When the Sea Returns    41

III. Earthquakes    49

The Big Ones    49

The Deep Earthquakes    55

Oregon’s Other Faults    59

Are You Ready to Rock?    67

IV. Volcanoes    73

Mount Mazama    74

Newberry Crater    80

What Causes Oregon Volcanoes?    83

Mount Saint Helens    85

Mount Hood    93

South Sister    97

V. Flash Floods    105

A Dark Day in Heppner    105

Flash Floods in Mitchell    112

VI. River Floods    119

The Flood of 1861    119

Floods of the Late 1800s    123

Dams and the Flood of 1943    128

The Vanport Flood    130

The Christmas Week Flood of 1964    136

More High Water Marks    141

Why All the Floods?    146

Thinking Like a River    148

VII. Wind and Weather    155

The Columbus Day Storm    156

Will the Winds Return?    162

VIII. Landslides    163

Of Lakes, Rapids, and Beach Cliffs    163

The Mountains Are Restless    164

Rainstorms, Roads, and Clearcuts    166

IX. Forest Fires    177

A Brief History of Fire    177

The Tillamook Burn    180

The Biscuit Fire    185

A Firestorm of Controversy    189

The Many Roles of Fire    194

X. Beyond the Cycles    199

Understanding Cycles    199

The Impact of Climate Change    203

XI. A Fictional Epilogue    211

A Week of the Future    211

Acknowledgments    249

Bibliography    251

Glossary    257

Index     259

About the Author    264

Sample Chapter: Introduction

Oregon has long seemed an eerily safe place to live—an Eden immune to the terrible earthquakes of California, the hurricanes of the Caribbean, the tornadoes of the Great Plains, and the many natural misfortunes of the world outside our gentle garden.

The deadliest natural disaster to befall the state in historic times has traditionally been listed as a flash flood that killed 259 people in the small eastern Oregon town of Heppner in 1903.

But now we learn that gigantic earthquakes and tsunamis have in fact devastated the Oregon Coast every few centuries. The horrific headlines inside the front cover of this book are fictional, intended only to portray one conceivable scenario of the damage that could be caused by the next subduction earthquake.

If you find this fictional scenario shocking, consider that prehistoric Oregonians have seen much worse. In the 13,000 years that people have lived here, unimaginable floods have drowned everyone in the Willamette Valley and volcanic eruptions have killed thousands across the state.

On this larger time scale, we see not only that Oregon is a land of turmoil, but also that these cataclysmic events recur with varying degrees of regularity. What at first appear to be random disasters are in fact part of larger natural cycles. Subduction earthquakes strike Oregon every 300 to 500 years. Rivers flood every ten to 100 years. Forests burn every 20 to 200 years. Even volcanoes erupt in cycles.

Attempting to stop these cycles is hardly an answer. Dousing a forest fire, for example, only makes the next fire bigger. Subduction earthquakes could only be stopped by freezing the liquid core of the Earth itself—not really an option. Some disasters are simply the price we pay for inhabiting a living planet.

By understanding the rhythms, however, we may be able to sidestep tragedies suffered in the past. If no one is standing in the way of a natural cataclysm, is it really a disaster at all?

Because this book focuses on natural phenomena that put lives at risk, I have omitted shipwrecks, city fires, and other man-made disasters. A different book will have to cover the stranding of the New Carissa in 1999, the blaze that destroyed Oregon’s wooden State Capitol building in 1935, and the fertilizer truck explosion that leveled downtown Roseburg in 1959. I’ve also skipped the 15-million-year-old Columbia River lava floods and other cataclysms that preceded human colonization. Nor have I set out to recount every single ice storm and forest fire.

The story I have to tell is a special adventure, a guided tour through time, listening for the heartbeat of the land.

Many of the stories begin in prehistory—for example, when floods roared down the Columbia Gorge 800 feet deep, wiping out the heart of Northwest civilization. In these cases we’ll rely on the geologic record, scientific research, and Indian legends as our vehicle.

Some of the stories recount cataclysms that have become defining moments in the lifetimes of modern Oregonians—the flood of 1996, the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, or the Columbus Day windstorm of 1962.

In the book’s penultimate chapter, "Beyond the Cycles," we’ll venture forward on an expedition into Oregon’s future, admittedly a perilous landscape of projections and conjecture. If disasters occur in cycles, how reliably can we predict what will happen next? Have we already altered some cycles through development or global warming? What precautions might reasonably limit our risk of damage in the future?

The final chapter of this book is a fictional account of a major earthquake and tsunami on the Oregon Coast, set a dozen years in the future. The story is a companion piece to the fictional newspaper pages at the front of the book. Neither is intended as a specific prediction. No one can foresee the timing or effects of tectonic movement in the Cascadia subduction zone. All of the people and events described in the final chapter and in the foldout are entirely imaginary.

Of course, the other chapters of this book remain non-fiction, backed by a lengthy bibliography of sources. But I’ve found that facts are not always enough. Because we are human, we relate to disasters in human terms.

It’s all too easy to drive past the tsunami warning signs along the Oregon Coast’s Highway 101 without giving them a second thought. They are merely highway signs. Would we react differently if we could actually see how a tsunami might change our lives?

The purpose of this book is not to provide definitive answers about the effects of future disasters. That is not possible. Instead the goal is to understand the past and provoke thought about the future.

We need to ask ourselves: What other warning signs are we driving past?