Frances B. Barkan

This little book, published by the Washington State Capitol Museum,is a handy guide to the exploration of the Northwest by the Wilkes Expedition. Though primarily a sea expedition, members of the party went overland east of the Cascades to view the plateau, up the Columbia River valley and into Oregon.

The book uses many excerpts from the journals of the expedition, and provides considerable insight to the condition of the territory before it was widely settled..