In Celebrating the Siuslaw, Ward Tonsfeldt traces the history of the Siuslaw National Forest from its origins at the beginning of the 20th century through its centennial year in 2008. The Siuslaw's location on the Oregon coast has made the forest a lightning rod for many public lands management issues. These include controversies surrounding the creation of National Forests, Native American reservations, land fraud, World War I lumber procurement, New Deal resettlement programs, World War II coastal defense, the heavy timber production of the post-war decades, and the late 20th century environmental movement. All are played out in a setting of spectacular scenery, quiet communities, and within the endemic economic problems of the Oregon coast. Drawing from rich collections at the Siuslaw National Forest, the Knight Library of the University of Oregon, and the Oregon Historical Society, this collection brings a century of the voices of those who worked on the Forest and lived in the surrounding communities into the present.
The diaries of Fannie Taylor were written from 1914 to 1922 during her time at Mora, a community on the western edge of the Olympic Peninsula, now inside the boundaries of Olympic National Park. These entries have been transcribed from the original writings archived in the collections of Olympic National Park. Featured here are her diary entries of 1914 and 1915, -with few omissions. Fannie operated the store and overnight accommodations and served some meals, while also serving as postmaster at Mora. In her diaries Fannie describes the day to day activities of community life at Mora, and gives vivid descriptions of her homestead at Taylor Point, or the ranche as she called it. She kept a commentary of interactions with road builders, miners, Quileute and non-Indian neighbors, the stage and mail drivers, and the occasional tourist. A few details from her 1914 diary are supplemented with entries from her daughter Tealies journal of that same time. To provide a visual perspective to Fannies words, many of her photographs are included and identified whenever possible. Fannie was an aspiring photographer and her photographs presented along with her journal entries provide a unique portrait of life on the Washington coast in the early 1900s.