Credits Given
A list of those who loaned their precious photos is included in the book. In addition, if the reader looks closely along the edges of the image, will be seen in fine print the name of the lender.
Chaos Into Order
As the requests for photos brought in a wide variety of scenes and activities, photos of all shapes, sizes and condition were sorted into subjects. Eventually these topics were narrowed down to "piles on the dining room table" that became the book's 7 parts broken down into 24 chapters.
Table of Contents and Chapters
Part I - The County's Settlement
Chapters 1 - 5
A general historical sketch of medical beginnings, economic trials, the fabric of development by people and pioneer homes
Part II - Transportation
Chapters 6 - 9
Foot trails to horse and buggy, rivers as highways, building the railroad to Yacolt, autos arriving
Part III - Community Growth
Chapters 10-14
Small school districts, area churches, Town of Battle Ground, dairy farmers' cooperatives, Meadow Glade
Part IV - Income Sources
Chapters 15-17
Farming, logging, sawmills, other businesses
Part V - Battling the Elements
Chapters 18 - 19
Forest fires, Nature's way
Part VI - Just for Fun
Chapters 20 - 23
Battle Ground Lake at its peak, sports, outdoors, the finer things in life
Part VII - Pioneer Spirit
Chapter 24
Patriotism, a way of life
Fully Indexed
After the work was organized into pages, the work of indexing began. GFWC clubmember Bonnie J. Walden painstakingly noted each place named and person mentioned and alphbetized the list into an index.
Share old photos
If you have old snapshots or other photos of historical significance, please consider lending them to your favorite historical museum. Most museums have the ability to digitize them and return the originals to their owners. Often, after touchups, the copies are better quality than the originals.
The Clark County Historical Museum and WSU-Vancouver are collaborating to build a vast assortment of photos which are searchable by the public.
Other Resources
• Early community school mini-maps
• Mini index of schools and communities
What this book is NOT!
This book was written to purposely not be a book of family histories. It is meant to share the ways of life of typical Northwest pioneer families. It is hoped that all will enjoy the content whether or not their roots are in Clark County.