William Dietrich, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist for his coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, is the author of Natural Grace: The Charm, Wonder, and Lessons of Pacific Northwest Animals and Plants, The Final Forest: Big Trees, Forks, and the Pacific Northwest, and popular fiction.

• Introduction to the 2016 EditionAcknowledgments Introduction 1. The Picnic in the Coulee 2. The River of Imagination 3. Vagrant and Most Dangerous 4. Beginning and End 5. The Sculpted River 6. Comcomly's Head 7. In Heathen Lands to Dwell 8. The River That Was 9. Out Here 10. The Inland Empire 11. The Electric Revolution 12. The Biggest Thing on Earth 13. The House of Lies 14. The Salmon Gauntlet 15. The Poisoned River 16. Cloudville Epilogue A Columbia River Chronology Major Dams of the Columbia Basin Bibliography Index

"An engaging case study of a whole bundle of environmental and social issues (pollution, hydropower politics, Indian rights, resource economics) that should matter to people all over the country."(New York Times Book Review) "A wonderful, disturbing, and thought-provoking history of the Columbia River, Northwest Passage is a remarkable book, first of all in its scope and complexity. Here is a fine blend of natural history, of human history, and of political history."(Washington Post Book World)