Outpost: John McLoughlin and the Far Northwest Book

"Dr. John McLoughlin, Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver from 1824 to 1845, was a man easily mythologized, yet poorly known. Born in 1784 in a village near Quebec, McLoughlin struck out for the fur country as a company doctor and clerk and came to the Pacific Northwest in 1824, where he established the Hudson's Bay Company headquarters at Fort Vancouver." "Known for his compassion and his blistering temper, McLoughlin helped starving, exhausted, Oregon Trail settlers and maintained even relations with them while the United States and Great Britain decided the prickly question of national boundaries. In 1845, during a year of great personal tragedy, he was maneuvered out of his position through a massive business reorganization." After leaving HBC, he built a home in Oregon City and became a citizen of the United States, yet he was painted as a "foreigner" who had profited from the destitution of the first pioneers. Dorothy Morrison's biography of John McLoughlin, with over 100 illustrations and maps, takes a fresh view of this complex, passionate man whose personal story illuminates the history of the settlement of the Pacific Northwest.