This page showcases books about Wallowa County. For staff recommendations, click the category in the menu. Items are available for shipping or in-store pickup. To order all other books online, you can click the “shop” button in our menu and order through our affiliate bookshop.org.
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This charming children’s book puts a western twist on the classic story. -
This compassionate memoir of his brother's death by suicide offers a paradox about family tragedy. While there is collateral damage in all directions, through vital stories behind the shadows of silence and depression, there can be the recovery of the lost best friend. -
In 1982, Jim and Holly Akenson moved to a log cabin in the back country of Idaho seeking adventure and challenge. They managed Taylor Ranch, the University of Idaho’s wilderness research station for the next 21 years. 7003 Days: 21 Years in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is their account of those years spent tracking wolves and cougars, packing mules and doing ranch work and introducing students to the rugged Salmon River Mountains. -
Walter Brennan (1894-1974) was one of the greatest character actors in Hollywood history. He won three Academy Awards and became a national icon starring as Grandpa in The Real McCoys. He appeared in over two hundred motion pictures and became the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting, which celebrated the actor's unique role as the voice of the American Western. His life journey from Swampscott, Massachusetts, to Hollywood, to a twelve thousand-acre cattle ranch in Joseph, Oregon, is one of the great American stories. In the first biography of this epic figure, Carl Rollyson reveals Brennan's consummate mastery of virtually every kind of role while playing against and often stealing scenes from such stars as Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, and John Wayne. Rollyson fully explores Brennan's work with Hollywood's greatest directors, such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Fritz Lang. As a father and grandfather, Brennan instilled generations of his family with an outlook on the American Dream that remains a sustaining feature of their lives today. His conservative politics, which grew out of his New England upbringing and his devout Catholicism, receive meticulous attention and a balanced assessment in A Real American Character. Written with the full cooperation of the Brennan family and drawing on material in archives from every region of the United States, this new biography presents an artist and family man who lived and breathed an American idealism that made him the Real McCoy. -
The author of Nez Perce Summer has written a comprehensive history of the Nez Perces who took refuge in Canada after the war of 1877. -
This unique collection of stories reveal memories of first- and second- generation descendants of families who migrated in the 1920s through the 1950s from the Jim Crow South to Maxville, a remote company railroad logging town in Wallowa County. The stories are bolstered by the 200 + photographs from the families and from local historical collections. -
Here is the story of the 1,800-mile journey made by Chief Joseph and eight hundred Nez Perce men, women, and children from their homelands in what is now eastern Oregon through the most difficult, mountainous country in western America to the high plains of Montana where they surrendered just 40 miles from the Canadian border. Hidden in the shadow cast by the great western expeditions of Lewis and Clark lies another journey every bit as poignant, every bit as dramatic, and every bit as essential to an understanding of who we are as a nation - the 1,800-mile journey made by Chief Joseph and eight hundred Nez Perce men, women, and children from their homelands in what is now eastern Oregon through the most difficult, mountainous country in western America to the high, wintry plains of Montana. There, only forty miles from the Canadian border and freedom, Chief Joseph, convinced that the wounded and elders could go no farther, walked across the snowy battlefield, handed his rifle to the U.S. military commander who had been pursuing them, and spoke his now-famous words, "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." -
Although the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) Indians gave instrumental help to Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition, they were rewarded by decades of invasive treaties and encroachment upon their homeland. In June 1877, the Nez Perce struck back and were soon swept into one of the most devastating Indian wars in American history. The conflict culminated in an epic twelve-hundred-mile chase as the U.S. Army pursued some eight hundred Nez Perce men, women, and children, who tried to fight their way to freedom in Canada. In this enthralling account of the Nez Perce War, Bruce Hampton brings to life unforgettable characters from both sides of the conflictwarriors and women, common soldiers and celebrated generals. Looking Glass, White Bird, the legendary Chief Joseph, and fewer than three hundred warriors waged a bloody guerilla war against a modernized American army commanded by such famous generals as William Tecumseh Sherman, Nelson Miles, Oliver Otis Howard, and Philip Sheridan. Hampton also gives voice to the Native Americans from other tribes who helped the U.S. Army block the escape of the Nez Perce to Canada. Using authoritative sources, Hampton, a Native American history scholar, presents an objective account of the Nez Perce war and offers a glimpse into the lives of the Indians struggling to maintain their homeland and way of life. Prior to 1877, the Nez Perce were a peaceful and wealthy band. Misled by the white man's promises and faced with encroachment, a renegade band massacred 18 settlers. Fearing retribution, over 750 Nez Perce Indians began their flight toward Canada, followed by several army regiments. This war would eventually last several weeks, cover 1200 miles through three states, involve numerous battles, cost over $930,000, and result in the loss of many lives before the Indians would be forced to surrender only miles from their destination. -
How can you have a rich and fulfilling life? The choices you make, not your income or financial assets, are the most powerful determining factor for your quality of life. Women have never had so many options. Yet we often experience a kind of paralysis, an unconscious willingness to follow societal dictates rather than become the CEOs of our own lives. When we mindlessly follow the dots, we smother our innate gifts and miss opportunities to fulfill our true potential.There is another way: choosing to live a simply luxurious life. This book will show you how to invest your time and what to eliminate from your life. It will enable you to: Design a life of purpose that is aligned with your passions and talents; Become financially independent; Enjoy cultivating a healthy mind and body; Build and maintain strong, loving relationships; Create a chic, timeless signature style; Design a comfortable home that is a true sanctuary; Travel in comfort and style; Discover simple pleasures that make each day something to look forward to; You can curate the life of your dreams by being purposeful and selective, no matter where you live, your income, or your relationship status. Luxury and true fulfillment are ours for the having if we know where to look and how to make the right choices. Shannon is a native of Wallowa County and currently resides in Bend, Oregon. -
Missionary Henry Spalding shipped two barrels of "Indian curiosities"--exquisite Nez Perce shirts, dresses, baskets, and horse regalia--to Dr. Dudley Allen in 1847. Donated to Oberlin College in 1893 and transferred to the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) in 1942, the collection languished in storage until Nez Perce National Historic Park curators rediscovered it in 1976. The OHS loaned most of the artifacts to the National Park Service. Twelve years later, the OHS abruptly recalled the collection, demanding the full appraised value of $608,100. Given just six-months to raise the funds, the tribe mounted a brilliant grassroots campaign. One day before the deadline, they met their goal. The author draws on interviews with Nez Perce experts and extensive archival research to tell the fascinating Spalding-Allen Collection story. He also examines the ethics of acquiring, bartering, owning, and selling Native cultural history. -
Organized both chronologically and thematically, "Encounters with the People" is an edited, annotated compilation of unique primary sources related to Nez Perce history--Native American oral histories, diary excerpts, military reports, maps, and more. Generous elders shared their collective memory of carefully-guarded stories passed down through multiple generations, beginning with early Nimiipuu/Euro-American contact and extending until just after the Treaty of 1855 held at Walla Walla. -
Fire in the Heart is a powerful memoir by a woman, once a shy, insecure schoolgirl, who reinvented herself as a professional wildlands firefighter. Determined to forge herself into a stronger, braver person, Mary devotes herself to fire from the Florida swamp to Alaska's interior. Filled with literal struggles for survival, tough choices and Mary's burning passion for what she does, Fire in the Heart, is an unflinching account of one woman's relationship with fire. But when she loses a close friend to the famous Storm King Mountain forest fire in Colorado, which killed fourteen firefighters, Mary faces the hardest choice of her life; to stay in the game or turn back and try to find the woman she used to be. It is both a thrilling memoir about life-threatening work and a meditation on identity, strength, bravery, bonds, and survivor's guilt.