Between 1801 and 1812, North West Company fur trader, explorer, and cartographer David Thompson established two viable trade routes across the Rocky Mountains in Canada and systematically surveyed the entire 1,250-mile course of the Columbia River. In succeeding years he distilled his mathematical notations from dozens of journal notebooks into the first accurate maps of a vast portion of the northwest quadrant of North America. The writings in those same journals reveal a complex man who was headstrong, curious, and resourceful in ways that reflected both his London education and his fur trade apprenticeship on the Canadian Shield.

In The Mapmaker's Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau, Jack Nisbet utilizes fresh research to convey how Thompson experienced the full sweep of human and natural history etched across the Columbia drainage. He places Thompson's movements within the larger contexts of the European Enlightenment, the British fur trade economy, and American expansion as represented by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Nisbet courses through journal notebooks to assemble and comment on the explorer's bird and mammal lists, his surprisingly detailed Salish vocabulary, the barrel organ music he and his crew listened to, and the woodworking techniques they used to keep themselves under shelter or on the move.

Visual elements bring Thompson's written daybooks to life. Watercolor landscapes and tribal portraits drawn by the first artists to travel along his trade routes illuminate what the explorer actually saw. Tribal and fur trade artifacts reveal intimate details of two cultures at the moment of contact. The Mapmaker's Eye also depicts the surveying instruments that Thompson utilized, and displays the series of remarkable maps that grew out of his patient, persistent years of work. In addition, Nisbet taps into oral memories kept by the Kootenai and Salish bands who guided the agent and his party along their way.

Investigation at its best. --Tucson Citizen

On May 2, 1972, 174 miners entered Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho, on their daily quest for silver. From his office window, safety engineer Bob Launhardt could see the air shafts that fed fresh air into the mine, which was more than a mile below the surface. Sunshine was a fireproof hardrock mine, full of nothing but cold, dripping wet stone. There were many safety concerns, but fire wasn't one of them. So when thick black smoke began pouring from one of the air shafts, Launhardt was as amazed as he was struck with fear.

When the alarm sounded, less than half of the dayshift was able to return to the surface. The others were too deep in the mine to escape. Scores of miners died almost immediately, but in one of the deepest corners of the mine, Ron Flory and Tom Wilkinson were left alone and in total darkness, surviving off a trickle of fresh air from a borehole. The miners' families waited and prayed, while Launhardt refused to give up the search until he could be sure that no one was left underground.

In The Deep Dark, Gregg Olsen looks beyond an intensely suspenseful story of the rescue and into the wounded heart of Kellogg, a quintessential company town that has never recovered from its loss.

Tah-hy! I jerked my head up as I heard my name. Tah-hy! They are coming!

On June 17, 1877, gunshots marked the start of war--one that swept twelve-year-old Tah-hy (Chief Joseph's daughter) and her people into a harrowing journey across the American West. Relentlessly pursued, they endured multiple battles, cold, hunger, and death. Eventually, after months of exile and heartbreak, they began their path to a new way of life.

Based on actual events and narrated by Tah-hy's youthful voice, this biographical novel is intended for young adults, but will also interest older readers. The story presents many aspects of the Nez Perce Dreamer culture and reminds us of what was lost when they were overpowered and displaced.

2012 Idaho Book Award Honorable Mention from the Idaho Library Association.

In the dead of night in 1894, a trembling, wide-eyed 13-year-old boy assisted with his first surgery--an experience that changed his life. Robert H. Wright attended medical school, then returned home to Hailey, Idaho, to marry Cynthia Beamer, his childhood sweetheart, and to practice in the frontier west--a choice that required both rugged courage and devoted compassion. Called to risk his own life on multiple occasions, he remained composed during a crisis, and his gentle confidence calmed traumatized victims. At times, he performed operations by lantern light and traveled by buggy, dog sled, or Studebaker to reach remote patients. In 1917, he led the rescue effort at the North Star mine avalanche disaster.

Eventually, the doctor welcomed a grandson, also named Robert Wright, who eagerly absorbed thrilling tales of a pioneer past. Yet despite their close relationship, the younger Wright sensed mysterious secrets and unspoken heartbreak, and he began to probe for the untold stories. In Rugged Mercy, he unravels and celebrates the lives of his beloved grandparents. Alternating between accounts of the doctor's decades of medicine and his own memories of growing up in Hailey, the author provides an intimate glimpse of challenges faced by rural physicians in the first half of the 1900s, of significant events in the history and evolution of the Wood River Valley and Sun Valley resort, and of family life in a small Idaho community.

As they endeavor upon this simple, grand project, the three reveal themselves in cautiously resonant, profound ways. And in a voice of striking intimacy and grace, Carlson's novel reveals itself as a story of biblical, almost spiritual force. A bellwether return from one of our greatest craftsmen, Five Skies is sure to be one of the most praised and cherished novels of the year.

When Bill Gruber left Philadelphia for graduate school in Idaho, he and his wife decided to experience true rural living. His longing for the solitude and natural beauty that Thoreau found on Walden Pond led him to buy an abandoned log cabin and its surrounding forty acres in Alder Creek, a town considered small even by Idaho standards. But farm living was far from the bucolic wonderland he expected: he now had to rise with the sun to finish strenuous chores, cope with the lack of modern conveniences, and shed his urban pretensions to become a real local. Despite the initial hardships, he came to realize that reality was far better than his wistful fantasies. Instead of solitude, he found a warm, welcoming community; instead of rural stolidity, he found intelligence and wisdom; instead of relaxation, he found satisfaction in working the land. What began as a two-year experiment became a seven-year love affair with a town he'll always consider home.

Gene Harris, the Blues Man From Boise, as the Wall Street Journal once called him, died at the start of a new millennium, but he left a legacy of music that will outlive us all. He played on more than 80 recordings and shared the stage or recording studio with many legends and luminaries. Gene's wife, Janie, and veteran writer Bob Evancho detail the career of this gifted entertainer.

Wow A story that encapsulates college football in the '60s. From Edison Green attempting to challenge the stigma that a black man could not be a big-time college quarterback to Quintus LeClaire, the Vietnam veteran lost until fate gives him the opportunity to rekindle his life through football and become the 'blue-chipper who fell through the cracks, ' to the life struggles of coach Ben Steinbrecher, called the Leather Man, who faces his challenges and finds himself as a result, this is a must-read from cover to cover.

-Dave Campo, former Dallas Cowboys coach

Canyon City, in southern Idaho, is the home of Canyon State College, a small school in possession of a large football coach-Ben Steinbrecher, a man as strong as Samson and just as rooted in the Bible through his minister father.

Known to some as the Leather Man, the coach is doing his best to raise his mentally handicapped son in a loving home while the love in his marriage dwindles. Already kept from an NFL career by a knee injury, Steinbrecher's frustrations pile up while his coaching career blossoms until, inevitably, he hits the brink of human endurance.

The coach's team is peopled with characters such as Latin-quoting war hero Quintus LeClaire, dropped into Canyon State's football program because of a Vietnam flashback and a chance encounter with a good cop, along with straight arrow David Talty, raised by colorful Uncle Joe; menacing Brock Banning; and Preston Taters Jones. All play a role in elevating the program and in shaping Steinbrecher's path toward the ultimate test of his beliefs and his will to live.

Idaho's Place is an anthology of the most current and original writing on Gem State history. From the state's indigenous roots and early environmental battles to recent political and social events, these essays provide much-needed context for understanding Idaho's important role in the development of the American West.

Through a creative approach that combines explorations of concepts such as politics, gender, and race with the oral histories of Idaho residents - the very people who lived and made state history - this unique collection sheds new light on the state's surprisingly contentious past. Readers, whether they are longtime residents or newcomers, tourists or seasonal dwellers, policy makers or historians, will be treated to a rich narrative in which the many threads of Idaho's history entwine to produce a complete tapestry of this beautiful and complex Western state.

One of the Best Books for Reading Groups, Kirkus Reviews

Years after the tragic death of her first husband, Nance Able remarries and begins a new life in the West with Ned, a school principal whose quiet charm lulls her to contentment. A scientist tracking rattlesnakes in the wilderness of Hells Canyon, Idaho, Nance courts natural dangers, believing that conquering such risks will protect her from further grief. But at home, she is unaware that her husband's secret proclivities are emerging. When Nance's younger, errant sister Meredith moves to town, Ned can no longer suppress the terrifying mysteries of his past, and the sisters must find together the strength to survive his love.

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Caxton Press

In the early 1540s, amid the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, conquistador Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo receives orders from the Mexican viceroy to lead a fleet northward into uncharted waters and to explore the mysterious land called California. Already bearing heavy scars from services performed for the Spanish Crown, he knows the rewards will be great indeed if but half of the splendors allegedly awaiting them prove to be true.

Cabrillo's fleet departs in January 1542. Storms quickly threaten the entire journey, and aboard the San Salvador, Cabrillo must fight for every sea mile. As the fleet advances up the unknown coastline, the new country's astonishing beauty and equally astonishing perils unfold before them. Cabrillo, repeatedly choosing diplomacy over war, fosters bonds of friendship with many of the Native tribes near settlements known today as San Diego and Santa Barbara. After sailing beyond San Francisco he is forced to seek shelter for the winter off San Miguel Island, where he becomes involved with a young Chumash widow who is an outcast among her people. Trouble escalates between the sailors and Native people until rebellious crew members provoke the Chumash warriors to attack. After suffering devastating losses, the fleet struggles onward with its dangerous mission.