Offers a narrative overview of the nature and culture of the Pacific Northwest; reflecting on its ecological and racial turmoil. This book provides a fresh perspective on the aesthetic, historical, cultural, anthropological, and social contexts in which Winthrop wrote his sometimes disturbing, sometimes enlightening, and always riveting account.

Theodore Winthrop visited the Oregon and Washington territories in 1853 and wrote up eleven days of his visit in a book that has had sixteen printings and three editions.