Potlatch, Idaho, was a company town--a community completely owned by a large lumber firm. This is the story of the Pacific Northwest in microcosm: the exploitation of natural resources; the impact of big business on the development of a rutal area; of ordinary people making a place their home.

Company Town: Potlatch, Idaho, and the Potlatch Lumber Company

History

Petersen, Keith C.

Americas

Washington State University Press

John Mullan's celebrated road, a 625-mile link that connected the Missouri and Columbia rivers and eventually became a significant component of Interstate 90, established the West Point graduate as an accomplished engineer. After completing the West's first highway, he lived for nearly another half century, a period of dynamic change. Now Idaho State Historian Keith Petersen takes a fresh look at the dashing young soldier/explorer--probing his complex personality and continuing a story that includes business partnerships and personal relationships with some of the West's most intriguing characters.

John Mullan: The Tumultuous Life of a Western Road Builder

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

As Idaho's State Historian, the question Keith Petersen heard most was, "How did Idaho get such a strange shape?" That curiosity is fitting, because those peculiar borders have held enormous influence on much of Idaho's political, economic, and cultural history, and prompted repeated efforts to connect the north and south. 
In Inventing Idaho, Petersen answers that popular inquiry, breaking the state's intriguing border story into six sections covering the fascinating events and people--often U.S. presidents and other politicians and diplomats who never set foot in the region--involved in creating the boundaries between Idaho and Canada, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. He explains their roots in the French and Indian War, how Idaho's northern and southern portions were once split between Oregon Territory and Washington Territory, how the state's panhandle and name can be traced back to a late-night 1863 Senate proposal, how Moscow became home to the University of Idaho, what might happen to a criminal in the "Zone of Death," and how a gold rush, geographic barriers, differing business and political interests, and more factored into border decisions. In addition, he discusses some of the ramifications Idahoans have faced ever since, and the various attempts to deal with them.

Inventing Idaho: The Gem State's Eccentric Shape

Washington State Univ Pr

Illustrated History of the University of Idaho

This Crested Hill: An Illustrated History of the University of Idaho

Idaho Research Foundation

River of Life, Channel of Death: Fish and Dams on the Lower Side

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Confluence Press

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Books by Petersen, Keith C.