Teaser Tuesday Oregon Two-fer: Wild in the City and Portland in Three Centuries

Today it is not uncommon to look up and see the sickle-shaped silhouette of a peregrine falcon slicing through the clouds above our city.  The peregrine haunts our urban landscape just as it has passed gracefully above medieval cathedrals and castle ramparts for centuries. 

-- Wild in the City: Exploring the Intertwine: The Portland-Vancouver Region's Network of Parks, Trails, and Natural Areas by Michael C. Houck and M. J. Cody, from OSU Press.  This book is a must-have book for any Portland explorer.

The tens of thousands of shipyard workers, many of whom were unmarried or without their families, also had money for liquor, gambling, and prostitution.  While the circulation of books from the public library dropped, the pari-mutuel handle at the dog tracks skyrocketed.

-- Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and the People by Carl Abbott, also published by OSU Press.

This is a concise, readable history of Portland, here describing the rollicking days of WWII, when Portland's shipyards thrived.  The shipyards are pretty quiet now, as are the dog tracks, but we still have -- by reputation at least -- the most strip clubs and breweries, per capita, of any major city in the US. 


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.