The Last Wilderness

By Murray Morgan

Book Overview

First published in 1955, this book tells the lively and entertaining story of the Olympic Peninsula, "the fist of land thrust north between Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean, a wilderness area of six thousand square miles, as large as the state of Massachusetts, more rugged than the Rockies, its lowlands blanketed by a cool jungle of fir and pine and cedar, its peaks bearing hundreds of miles of living ice that gave rise to swift rivers alive with giant salmon; the first land in the Pacific Northwest to be reported by explorers, the last to be mapped--the last wilderness." Murray Morgan has recorded the epic adventures of the pioneers of this remote region in this rousing and humor-filled saga, one that should capture the imagination of Americans everywhere.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0295953195
• ISBN13: 9780295953199
• Release Date: June 1976
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Great local history and local color for the most northwest corner of the Northwest

I've read most of Murray Morgan's popular history books on the Pacific Northwest, and this often-overlooked gem stands out for me. Morgan is most frequently remembered for his tremendously popular history of Seattle, Skid Road, or for his magnum opus Puget's Sound, a thicker and more "academic" treatment of Tacoma's birth and growth. But The Last Wilderness showcases Morgan's strengths as a storyteller even better than Skid Road, with great characters and rousing tales as grist: Iron John, carrying a cast-iron stove over his shoulder up to his homestead; the rough and tumble of early Grays Harbor, where bodies washed up with the morning tide from nights in the saloons over the piers; the eccentric and idealistic Wobblies, anarchists, and utopians that collected in this corner of the country; Teddy Roosevelt stumping the peninsula for environmental conservation -- to crowds of lumbermen! -- enraged at the timber practices he witnessed. I've hardly read a book that's a more robust slice of life than this.

In-depth local information

After many years of wanting to go there, I recently "discovered" the Olympic Peninsula while on a get-away vacation. I also heard about this book and after reading it, I have to give it a qualified thumbs up. Reading this book would have been somewhat bewildering and a little tedious before I traveled to the Olympic Peninsula. Having made the trip before reading the book gave me a basis upon which to appreciate the writing. There are some very interesting and even disturbing stories in here, from the fantastic to the bizarre and the terrible. For anyone interested in a behind the scenes look at one of the most fascinating and beautiful places in America, this book is a must-have. The writing is generally excellent and very readable and the organization is sound and chronologically logical. There are some poignant descriptions of life in earlier times and a rousing look at turn of the century logging practices. On the down side, the discourse on modern resource extraction activities is a bit long-winded and the book concludes with a rather disjointed short chapter which I am still trying to place in the larger context. Overall, a good read and of definite local interest.