Puget's Sound


Book Description

With the same ability to make personalities and events come alive that characterizes his classic Skid Road, Murray Morgan here tells the colorful story of Tacoma, “the City of Destiny,” and southern Puget Sound, where many major events of Washington’s history took place. Drawing upon original journals and reports, Morgan builds Puget’s Sound around individuals, interweaving portraits of well-known historical figures with a raucous parade of saloonkeepers, politicians, union organizers, schemers, and swindlers. His account begins with the landing of Captain Vancouver in Puget Sound in 1792 and ends with the founding of Fort Lewis in 1916. Between are the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, the boom-and-bust of lumber mills, the anti-Chinese riots of 1885, and more distinctive Northwest history that will intrigue both new arrivals and longtime residents. With a new introduction by historian and historic preservationist Michael Sean Sullivan, this redesigned edition of Puget’s Sound brings new life to Morgan’s landmark history.




Puget Sound Through an Artist's Eye


Book Description

Artist and naturalist Tony Angell has used Puget Sound's natural diversity as his palette for nearly 50 years. He describes the methods he uses in his art and his observations and encounters with the species that make up the complex communities of the Sound's rivers, tidal flats, islands, and beaches: the flight of a young peregrine, an otter playfully herding a small red rockfish, the grasp of a curious octopus. Tony Angell is an illustrator, sculptor, and author of RAVENS, CROWS, MAGPIES, AND JAYS and OWLS. He served for thirty years as Washington State Director of Environmental Education.




Birds of the Puget Sound Region - Coast to Cascades


Book Description

Designed for beginning and experienced birders, this new edition expands the best-selling regional guide, Birds of the Puget Sound Region (out of print), to include all of western Washington, from the Coast to the Cascades. Lead author Dennis Paulson, ornithologist and regional expert on birding, has revised and updated this guide. The 450 new photographs are state of the art digital images. Pocket sized for easy traveling. Species pages are organized in our best-selling format: Description, Similar Species, Status and Habitat, Behavior, Voice and Did You Know. Eleven habitats are described in six pages. A Quick Guide to Local Birds, at the front of the book, provides an easy reference to the pages that provide a complete description of the different birds.




Skid Road


Book Description

Skid Road tells the story of Seattle “from the bottom up,” offering an informal and engaging portrait of the Emerald City’s first century, as seen through the lives of some of its most colorful citizens. With his trademark combination of deep local knowledge, precision, and wit, Murray Morgan traces the city’s history from its earliest days as a hacked-from-the-wilderness timber town, touching on local tribes, settlers, the lumber and railroad industries, the great fire of 1889, the Alaska gold rush, flourishing dens of vice, the 1919 general strike, the 1962 World’s Fair, and the stuttering growth of the 1970s and ’80s. Through it all, Morgan shows us that Seattle’s one constant is change and that its penchant for reinvention has always been fueled by creative, if sometimes unorthodox, residents. With a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Mary Ann Gwinn, this redesigned edition of Murray Morgan’s classic work is a must for those interested in how Seattle got to where it is today.




Making and Unmaking of Puget Sound


Book Description

The Puget Sound is a complex fjord-estuary system in Washington State that is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Juan de Fuca Strait and surrounded by several large population centers. The watershed is enormous, covering nearly 43,000 square kilometers with thousands of rivers and streams. Geological forces, volcanos, Ice Ages, and changes in sea levels make the Sound a biologically dynamic and fascinating environment, as well as a productive ecosystem. Human activity has also influenced the Sound. Humans built several major cities, such as Seattle and Tacoma, have dramatically affected the Puget Sound. This book describes the natural history and evolution of Puget Sound over the last 100 million years through the present and into the future. Key Features Summarizes a complex geological, geographical, and ecological history Reviews how the Puget Sound has changed and will likely change in the future Examines the different roles of various drivers of the Sound’s ecosystem function Includes the role of humans—both first people and modern populations. Explores Puget Sound as an example of general bay ecological and environmental issues




Homewaters


Book Description

Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than 250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of the region’s ecological complexities. Focusing on the area south of Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains, Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around the Sound. In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish, and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the mosquito fleet, and today’s ferry system. The book also takes an unflinching look at how the Sound’s ecosystems have suffered from human behavior, including pollution, habitat destruction, and the effects of climate change. Witty, graceful, and deeply informed, Homewaters weaves history and science into a fascinating and hopeful narrative, one that will introduce newcomers to the astonishing life that inhabits the Sound and offers longtime residents new insight into and appreciation of the waters they call home. A Michael J. Repass Book




Ferries of Puget Sound


Book Description

Running from Point Defiance to Sidney, British Columbia, the Washington State ferry system is the single largest tourist attraction in the state, with 28 routes and 23 million riders annually. In this volume, travelers are invited to look back to the past and bid Puget Sound's "ancient mariners" a fond farewell.




Tall Ships on Puget Sound


Book Description

Tall sailing ships came to the Pacific Northwest beginning in the mid-1700s. Met by native Salish people, the ships brought Spanish, British, Russian, and American explorers, as well as settlers and entrepreneurs to the Puget Sound region. Over the next two centuries, during boom and bust periods, these majestic vessels continued to ply the waters of Puget Sound. Today the proud tall ships operate in a training and education rather than commercial context.




Pride's Puget Sound


Book Description

John Pride is a forensic accounting investigator for the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He lives on a Puget Sound island west of Seattle enjoying the quiet life between cases. When he receives an unexpected phone call with unfortunate news it sends him packing his bag and flying to the mainland. At the University of Washington someone has cut short some genetically modified organism experiments with an explosive bloodbath. John is the investigation's only hope as their best evidence is internet based--Pride's specialty. His investigation takes him to Chicago, the Caribbean and back to his Puget Sound home. John Pride, almost retired but always up for adventure must stop those terrorists responsible--or else this could be his last case. "Anyone who likes fast action, twisting plots, and exotic locales... cannot fail to be taken in from page one and kept turning the pages to see what happens next." Patrick Taylor - New York Times bestselling author of the Irish Country Doctor series. "In the midst of the hero's entertaining hunt for the culprit, we also get a glimpse into the moral dilemmas facing those who flirt with terrorism, and how the desire to change the world can lead to unforeseen and destructive consequences." Jennifer Welsh - University of Oxford Professor "Take notice Grisham and Turow... Financial crime has never been so exciting. Attention to detail is superb, and Pride is just the man we would hire...for an exciting case like this - deal me in for an adventure." Bill T. - Senior Partner, International Law Firm




The Natural History of Puget Sound Country


Book Description

Winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award Bounded on the east by the crest of the Cascade Range and on the west by the lofty east flank of the Olympic Mountains, Puget Sound terrain includes every imaginable topograhic variety. This thoughtful and eloquent natural history of the Puget Sound region begins with a discussion of how the ice ages and vulcanism shaped the land and then examines the natural attributes of the region--flora and fauna, climate, special habitats, life histories of key organisms--as they pertain to the functioning ecosystem. Mankind's effects upon the natural environment are a pervasive theme of the book. Kruckeberg looks at both positive and negative aspects of human interaction with nature in the Puget basin. By probing the interconnectedness of all natural aspects of one region, Kruckeberg illustrates ecological principles at work and gives us a basis for wise decision-making. The Natural History of Puget Sound Country is a comprehensive reference, invaluable for all citizens of the Northwest, as well as for conservationists, biologists, foresters, fisheries and wildlife personnel, urban planners, and environmental consultants everywhere. Lavishly illustrated with over three hundred photographs and drawings, it is much more than a beautiful book. It is a guide to our future.