"The Collector," Jack Nisbet

The Douglas-fir takes its name from David Douglas, but we don’t know much about this hardy explorer of the Pacific Northwest. Until now, that is, thanks to Spokane’s own Jack Nisbet, one of our most important historians — and a contributor to The Inlander.

Nisbet has long been captivated by that moment when Europeans first came to our corner of North America, but just before massive settlement. His research on the way native tribes lived, as observed by the first visitors, has painted a rich panorama of Plateau cultures. David Douglas is one of those first visitors, and while this book is his story, it’s also another chance to tour the world that was lost when America was “discovered.”

Like David Thompson, the subject of Nisbet’s classic Sources of the River, Douglas is a one-of-a-kind character who left behind a trove of written recollections — something missing from most early visitors, who tended to be illiterate seekers of beaver pelts. Along his journeys — which read like epic adventures — he collects species like mad, feeding the obsession with all things horticultural that was gripping English society back home. Many plants plucked here made their way into English gardens three decades before James Glover ever laid eyes on Spokane Falls.

Nisbet’s depth of knowledge and meticulous research even leads to a surprising conclusion that Douglas may have left something much more personal behind, as local lore says he fathered a child with one of the daughters of Jaco Finlay, the Canadian fur trader who was the first white resident of the Spokane area.

Douglas was like one of our modern-day adrenaline junkies you see profiled in Outside magazine — always seeking the next adventure, which took him from Old Scone, Scotland, to the Athabasca Pass, to Hawaii, and, sadly, to an early end. But Douglas still casts a long shadow over the Pacific Northwest, and Jack Nisbet has, as usual, filled in the details beautifully.

Jack Nisbet will hold more than a dozen events related to the release of The Collector, including a reading and book signing at Auntie’s on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 7 pm. Visit jacknisbet.com.