The Good Rain

The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest

Please read all the questions before you begin. You will also need to label a Pacific Northwest map.

Before reading:
Why do you think the author has titled this book the Good Rain? What historical and geographic areas
do you think constitute the Pacific Northwest? Why?

Introduction:
Why do you think the author uses the distribution of his grandfather’s ashes as an introduction to this
story? Why is the author surprised to find the name of Winthrop up on Mt. Rainier? The author states
that the name Winthrop, “is like an Eskimo in an Izod”. What do think he means by this statement?
What was the route of Winthrop’s 320-mile trip? Map it. While reading this book, continue to label
the map of the places that are mentioned in the Pacific Northwest, including Winthrop’s route. What
does the author mean about the boundary of Canada and America being “united by landscape, not
divided by latitude lines”? What are those regional icons? Add one more?

Chapter 1:
Describe all the sources for water that flow into the Columbia River. Describe the Columbia Bar as the
“old timers“ do, and contrast that with the experience of the author. What are some of the things that
happen when” the year really begins now” with the first salmon. Who ultimately ‘discovered’ the
Columbia Bar and the River?

Chapters 2 & 3:
Why did European and American explorers fear the rain forest? Do you think that the author’s
description of Seattle is an accurate one? How did John Huelsdonk save the Hoh River Valley? Do you
think the residents of Forks would be pleased with the description of their town? "Surrounded by thick
stumps, burned-over land and eroded hillsides, Forks is to the Olympic Peninsula what a butt rash is to
Venus." Seattle gets less rain than which eastern American cities? What things would the territory of
Ecotopia have in common, if they separated from their respective countries of the USA and Canada?
What does the Blue Hole describe? “The vices of these savages are very few when compared to ours”,
wrote Jose Mozino. How did he come to this conclusion?

Chapters 4 & 5:
Fred Beckey lives, but who is he? Why is the description of the ‘new Alps’ not an appropriate one for the
North Cascades? How and why has the city of Seattle changed according to the author? Why did
George Vancouver think that the Puget Sound was perfect the way it was? How was Seattle and Elliot
Bay the ideal spot to exploit timber? Why was Chief Sealth so appalled how Seattle looked to him in
1854? Who was Dave Beck and how did the Seattle General Strike of 1919 affect him? ‘Lesser Seattle’
was Emmett Watson’s contribution to Seattle. What did he mean by it? What does the author mean by,
“every wave of fresh tenants wants to remodel this city?”

Chapters 6 & 7:
Describe Native American society as Winthrop saw it when he visited the Puyallup on
Commencement Bay in Tacoma. What accounted for the decline of the PNW Native population
between the visits of Cook and Winthrop? Were the treaties that were signed by the natives and the US
government fair? Be specific. What were some of the reactions on both sides to treaties? How did the
Salish-speaking peoples become role models for the rest of the 1.6 million American Indians? Why are
the wetlands/mudflats so important for the Puget Sound ecosystem? What animals were missing from
Winthrop’s time, according to the author when he visited? Why were otter skins so highly valued? Why
was the land north of the Columbia River judged to be useless by the Americans? Describe the Hudson
Bay Company Fort at Nisqually. How are Orcas like wolves?

Chapters 8 & 9:
Why will the volcanoes always remain “lord of the landscape”? Describe the view from the summit of
Mt. Rainier? Be specific. Explain why volcanoes are necessary for life on Earth? What were the three
stages that Mt. St. Helen’s Volcano went through before exploding in 1980? Why were natives forbidden
to speak of Crater Lake? Is Crater Lake a more dangerous volcano than Mt. St. Helen’s? According to the
author the Siskiyou Mountains are “hard to figure”. Why? How did Misters Weyerhaeuser and Hill get
their hands on so much PNW timber? Why were the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the
Wobblies) so appealing to so many loggers? Compare and contrast what loggers would like versus what
the environmentalists would like to happen to the forests of the PNW.

Chapters 10 & 11:
Describe the differences between the salmon population that Winthrop saw and the future reality.
Explain the reactions to the abundance, or lack there of, when it came to salmon by the many different
groups in the PNW. How do you go about testing for firmness and sweetness in apples? Who gets first
dips on the water from the rivers, farmers or natives? Is this fair? What has been the biggest influence on
apple growers recently? What makes the Yakima valley so perfect for growing grapes for wine?

Chapters 12, 13 & Epilogue
What does the author mean by, “if you were in favor of public power, the Review and the Washington
Water and Power Company considered you the closest thing to a Communist”. How has the Columbia
River changed since the time of the Hudson Bay Voyageurs? What was the biggest problem for farmers
in the Okanogan Valley before Grand Coulee Dam? What were the two things that made some people
so very mad at John Goldmark? What is Beacon Rock? Describe Fort Vancouver and why it was the
center of a universe? Why is Hood River now an acclaimed wind surfing area? Why were the Dalles,
the “great trade mart of the Northwest tribes”? What secret was kept for nearly forty years about Hanford
from people known as the “down winders”? Was this the right thing to do? Describe the last free flowing
stretch of the Columbia River called the Hanford Reach. What were some of the benefits and the
shortcomings to building the Grand Coulee Dam? The promise of tomorrow for the Pacific Northwest,
according to Winthrop is‘ renewal’. What do you think he meant?

What do you think the author meant by the following quotes?
"Without snow on top or verdant trimming of fir below, without its ice-cream-cone shape in the sky,
Rainier would still inspire. We are drawn to the quirks of the planet, those deformities of landscape
which mock convention...The old forests which cloak these cones and the wild streams which scramble
from their glacial tops are mere façade...we look at them and see beauty, the perfect picture of the
Northwest."

The Northwest's distinctive rain is a soft, slow, prolonged watering that "falls like a benediction."
Finally, compare and contrast the environmental differences between what the author sees today,
and what Winthrop saw in the 1850s.