Douglass Brownstone

One of the most beneficial "mistakes" in my collection. I bought this from a mail-order book club thinking it described historical sites in the United States -- a "field guide" to the specific places. But it was instead a primer on how to read the land and landmarks in whatever area you lived and infer its history. For instance, taking a descriptive name like Mill Street and determining where a long-forgotten mill once stood; or matching a street car line on an old map with a long row of identical trees and a parallel path where vegetation doesn't grow due to hard-packed soil.

I put some of the techniques into practice and fell in love with "reading the landscape" for hidden local history. And since I avidly wandering the Northwest, it wasn't long before I was studying clues everywhere I went. It set me off on my 20+ year love of Northwest history,. Just look at how many books in my collection are tagged "Northwest" or browse my WA-List website and you'll get a good idea how much impact this one book had on me.

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