Oregon Historical Quarterly

 OHQ vol. 114, no. 3 book notes Oregon Historical Quarterly volunteers and staff have created these Book Notes by drawing on publisher’s descriptions. Portland’s Pearl District by Christopher S. Gorsek Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2012. Photographs, maps. 128 pages. $21.99 paper. Author Christopher Gorsek, who grew up in Portland and has a doctoral degree from Portland State University, has culled through the City of Portland Archives and the Oregon Historical Society Research Library for historic photographs of the area now known as the Pearl District. Over the past twenty-five years, the former industrial district has transitioned into a dynamic residential and commercial neighborhood , as shown in this Images of America volume. With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849–1852 by Will Bagley University of Oklahoma Press,Norman,2012.Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 480 pages. $45.00 cloth During the mid nineteenth century, a quarter million travelers — men, women, and children — followed the “road across the plains” to gold-rush California. The second installment of Will Bagley’s Overland West series retells the classic American saga through the voices of the people who took part in that westward migration . According to Bagley, that period is more complex and contentious than the usual legend of gold-rush migration. The epoch witnessed suffering and sacrifice, and the ruinous effect tens of thousands of intruders had on America’s Native peoples’ homelands is at the center of the story. He draws from hundreds of previously unpublished diaries, letters, and recollections to describe the westward journey, illustrated with photographs and maps. Portland’s Goose Hollow by Tracey J. Prince Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2011. Photographs, maps. 127 pages. $21.99 paper. The author,scholar-in-residence at Portland State University’s Portland Center for Public Humanities , lives in Goose Hollow. She interviewed numerous Portland families and conducted archival research at the Oregonian, City of Portland , and the Oregon Historical Society Research Library to uncover the little-known history of this iconic neighborhood. With the foreward written by Portland’s former mayor and Goose Hollow resident Bud Clark, this Images of America volume tells the stories of how Goose Hollow got its name, how Tanner Creek Gulch was filled, and many more, including the history of the Great Plank Road, the trestles over Tanner Creek, and City Park’s slow-moving landslide. The Center of the World, The Edge of the World: A History of Lava Beds National Monument by Frederick L. Brown National Park Service,PacificWest Regional Office,Seattle, 2011.Illustrations,photographs,maps,bibliography,index. 348 pages. Administered by the National Park Service, Lava Beds National Monument in northern California is defined by its ModocWar battle sites,the dense network of lava tube caves, fumaroles, lava flows, and other natural features. Since 2003, Frederick BrownhasbeenahistorianwiththeNationalPark Service, and he provides numerous photographs to support his research. The history of the area includes the Modoc War of 1872–1873, which ended with the forced removal of the Modocs from their homeland; the arrival of explorers, hunters, moonshiners, and cattlemen among the sagebrush and juniper trees; and the enrollment  Book Notes of hundreds of young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps encampment to construct roads, trails,and buildings during the Great Depression Mt. Angel by Sandra Graham and Bonita Anderson Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2012. Photographs. 128 pages. $21.99 paper. Thelivelytownof Mt.Angel,locatedinthecentral portion of Oregon’sWillamette valley,has earned a reputation for its German heritage and annual Oktoberfest celebration. Many photographs for this Images of America volume were provided by the Mt. Angel Historical Society, the Queen of Angels Priory, Mt. Angel Abbey, and Trinity Lutheran Church. Quest for Flight: John J. Montgomery and the Dawn of Aviation in the West by Craig S. Harwood and Gary B. Fogel University of Oklahoma Press,Norman,2012.Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 264 pages. $29.95 cloth The Wright brothers have long received most of the credit for inventing the airplane, but Quest for Flight reveals the amazing accomplishments of John J.Montgomery,a California scientist and prolific inventor who succeeded in flying gliders twenty years before the Wrights’ powered flights at Kitty Hawk in...