Customer Reviews

In Search of Ancient Oregon: A Geological and Natural History

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In describing the events and processes in Oregon's geological history the author repeatedly references and explains familiar landscape features. (E.g. Alameda Ridge is a gravel bar left by the Lake Missoula Floods entering the Portland Basin. Mt. Scott, Rocky Butte and Powell Butte are all remnants of Pleistocene volcanoes. ) This makes the geology lesson both clearer and more interesting. Likewise, descriptions of flora and fauna further illustrate extant conditions during our state's evolution. With its many excellent photos, the book could easily succeed as a 'coffee table book.'

My wife and I have always been facinated by geology and archeology but find so many books on the subjects difficult,
and at times boring, to read. We live on a fixed, retirement income so must keep our "luxury" expenditures to a minimum.
I bought In Search of Ancient Oregon for my wife on Mother's Day,
and we both found it an absolute gem of easy to read, interesting information with wonderful photographs. The book is everything it was advertised to be, and more. WELL worth the money it cost.

This is a great, very-non-technical book that describes Oregon's geology and its past climates and plants and animals in a way that the general reader can easily understand. I bought a copy to give to my brother (a wetland specialist) but ended up keeping that copy for myself. The photos of Oregon's mountains, coast, and deserts are outstanding. It's a great read, and links the history of landscapes and climates here to changes around the globe. A great book to help understand Oregon's landscapes.

Buy this book to help you understand the geology and natural history of Oregon and to grace your coffee table and book shelf. It is written by a geologist who has published scientific articles on Oregon geology and other aspects of natural history in professional journals and books. The author, Dr. Ellen Bishop, has combined a knowledge of science with the ability to make complex concepts very understandable to nonscientists. The photographs, however, are enough by themselves to have this book on your coffee table or desk. I have been to many of the sites Dr. Bishop photographed and am impressed by her skill and experience. The photographs show not only the geology that she has written about in the text, but also the stark beauty of Oregon's landscapes.

I gave this book to my husband, at his request. He's an engineer, so I figured that this would be a book that interested similar minds. :) It turns out to be really facinating - our extended family and friends have enjoyed sharing it, and the photos are beautiful and interesting for all ages. My only wish is that it still was easy to find in hardback, as I think that would be nice.

The book is written "story-style," which makes the information a lot more palatable to those who don't have a geology background. The historical and environmental perspectives are woven together with very thoughtful writing. There is a lot of data in this book, but I don't think it reads like a textbook, which is nice.

Overall, this is a great book. It makes a wonderful gift for just about anyone who appreciates the environment or anyone who has an interest in understanding the land formations they see or live on.

If you have an interest in the geology and natural history of the Oregon region, this is a fascinating and well written book. It's easy to follow and has beautiful photographic illustrations of the material.

This book reminds me of an good meal at a restaurant ruined by the waiter forgetting your drinks. So much of it is excellent: the text is quite thorough and fairly well-written (if at times a little overwrought), the geological processes are well-explained, and of course the photographs are magnificent. What ruins the meal for me is the complete lack of a useful map. There is a map of Oregon at the back of the book, but it fails to include many of the locations mentioned, and the scale is so small and the notations so tiny that it is often impossible to locate the places that are labeled. I found myself flipping back and forth between map and text to figure out what the devil the author was talking about, but each place name required several minutes of searching to identify. After a while, I just threw my hands up in defeat.

The book should have provided small-scale maps on the same page as the text. This would have made it much easier to figure what the author was discussing. Alternatively, the author should have abandoned her detailed geographical descriptions and fallen back on much looser descriptions.

Here's an example of the kind of text that drove me crazy:

"The first Columbia River basalts to reach western Oregon were the extensive flows of Grande Ronde Basalt. Some followed the ancestral Columbia's broad valley. Others may have flooded through low places in the Cascades. Today, Grande Ronde flows are exposed along the Clackamas River, and at least four can be counted at Silver Falls State Park... Some of the lava covered portions of the Willamette Valley and what would one day become Portland. Today, about eight flows of Grande Ronde Basalt have been mapped in the West Hills..."

Wouldn't it have been much better to simply show a map presenting all this information rather than foist this avalanche of place names upon the poor reader?

Another failure was the absence of any geological map. I realize that full-bore geological maps are impossibly complex to present in a book, and very intimidating to the reader, but there's no reason why the author could not have included simplified geological maps to illustrate her points.

There are also no aerial photographs. Let's face it, some geological formations are best understood from the air, but the author seems determined to insure that nothing competes with her beautiful photography.

Lastly, there's the absence of diagrams. I'm sure that many readers would have appreciated a line drawing showing how a graben is formed, or how subduction works. But not one single diagram graces this book. There are some concepts that are best presented in a diagram, and no amount of colorful prose from the author can substitute for such diagrams.

It appears that the author may have wanted to present a nice coffee-table book that was informed with some serious geology; if that were the case, then she should have kept the geological explanations at a much simpler level. I myself enjoyed the detailed treatment, but the lack of any supporting material rendered the reading far more difficult than it should have been.

I recommend "Roadside Geology of Oregon" or "Geology of Oregon" by Orr and Orr, in preference to this book.

A casual glance at the cover with accolades only from Oregon sources (at least in my edition) might give the impression that this is one of those local market books of dubious quality. This is far from the case. The text is clear and informative with good depth and appropriate caveats on how speculative or contentious a conclusion may be that treat the reader with respect.

The photographs are world class and far more than what you get in a the Roadside Geology series or most other books of this type.

For non-Oregonians not familiar with the state geography, more maps would have been helpful but not really an issue unless you are actually driving state roads trying to find these formations in which case a map and the Roadside book make a fine accompaniment.

As an illustration of the the in-depth geology of a region, this is an excellent book for anyone of any region interested in geology. For those interested in Oregon geology, compared to the Oregon Roadside Geology book, you will find the pictures much more informative and the text more thorough especially in its treatment of alternate theories (The Roadside authors seem to have an agenda, especially in regard to the origin of the Oregon flood basalts.)

Ellen Morris Bishop's book has created a rich story about Oregon's origins that is extremely captivating. When I read her book I feel that I am going on an exciting time travel adventure in my own backyard. I have already given several copies as gifts to relatives and friends. Her book has inspired by mother to want to go backpacking!

In Search of Ancient Oregon, with its clear, engaging text and beautiful photos, sparked an interest in Oregon geology I had never possessed. Bishop has made the topic so approachable and interesting that her enthusiasm for geology soon infects the reader. And to add to the sense of awe that she brings to the subject, her exquisite photographs draws the reader into the topic. Having travel all over Oregon for years, I have had many moments when I said to myself, Oh, that's why the landscape looks like that! The book is worth the cost just for her exceptional photos. I have seen so many travel or hiking books with mediocre photos and it always struck me as sad. This book is deeply informative and a pleasure to read and evaluate.

It is true Bishop does not have maps and diagrams that would sometimes be welcome in trying to understand the intricacies of geology. But I expect this was a deliberate decision. Photographic art and diagrams would seem somewhat jarring next to each other. Let this book inspire you to read more in detail from another book on Northwest geology if you long for greater detail. Overall, a splendid book that I plan to share with my family.