Notes on forest growth in Washington Territory, circa 1860

What would you do after a gold rush? In the years following the gold rush of 1848, attention spread north to the Washington Territory. Within 5 years, ethnologist George Gibbs (1815-1873) had joined the Pacific Railroad Survey, hired to study both the ethnology and the geology between the 47th and 49th parallels. In 1857, he joined the Northwest Boundary Survey as interpreter, geologist and naturalist. Team up with other volunteers to transcribe his diary-like descriptions of tree populations in the Washington Territory include the Rocky Mountains, Spokane and Kootenay Rivers. George Gibbs (1815-1873) was an ethnologist and expert on the language and culture of the Indians of the Pacific Northwest. A graduate of Harvard University, Gibbs moved west during the gold rush of 1848 and eventually secured the position of Collector of the Port of Astoria, Oregon Territory. From 1853 to 1855, he was a geologist and ethnologist on the Pacific Railroad Survey of the 47th and 49th parallels under the command of Isaac Stevens. In 1857, Gibbs joined the Northwest Boundary Survey and served as geologist, naturalist, and interpreter until 1862. The last decade of his life was spent in Washington, D.C., where he undertook studies of Indian languages under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution.