Four short research trails through places, voices and original records.
Start with a question. Each trail connects a few chosen sources and gives you something to look for as you read or watch. Allow about ten minutes for a first visit; the fuller record is always a link away.
4 stops · about 11 minutes
Follow a vanished town, a resident’s memory of Camp Adair, and the work of managing a research forest. These are different witnesses to a changing landscape.
Begin this trail →The Moore family farm on Soap Creek, about 1899 or 1900. Photograph by Samuel H. Moore. Courtesy of Myra Moore Lauridson and the Soap Creek Schoolhouse Foundation, as credited on Bob Zybach’s original site.
4 stops · about 9 minutes
Follow a claim, an answer and two jury decisions. The spelling is the clerks’ own; Jan and John Meranda made the transcriptions.
Begin this trail →Soap Creek Valley in 1993, photographed by Bob Zybach. From Bob Zybach’s published Letitia Carson research at orww.org.
4 stops · about 10 minutes
Visit Dean Mountain on film, then return to an earlier interview and the photographs taken on that earlier tour. The place connects the records; the recordings were made on different dates.
Begin this trail →Deans Mountain, frame 0989, November 8, 2017. Place and date from the creator’s catalog. From Bob Zybach’s ORWW Elliott files; no separate photographer credit is recorded for this frame.
4 stops · about 10 minutes
Read an expedition journal, a company report and a chief’s account preserved by a company officer. Ask who spoke, who wrote, and what each source can tell us.
Begin this trail →Fort Vancouver, painted by Henry Warre in 1845 or 1846, as dated in Bob Zybach’s caption. Creator’s scan; caption source: Bob Zybach, illustration captions, May 29, 2023.
Each trail includes a reading notebook: keep an observation at every stop, compare the sources, then download your notes or print a sheet with the questions and clickable source links. Notes stay in your browser. Ask each reader to bring back one observation and the page that supports it. Compare what a narrator remembers with what a document records. When sources disagree, keep both in view and ask what further evidence would help.
Choose your own question and search the collection →Trail questions and source connections prepared by the Library with Codex assistance. Source texts and credits remain those of the original works. Reading times are estimates for the selected stops.
