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My Works

The Wobblies: Solidarity Forever and other articles

A half dozen articles about the Industrial Workers of the World. 63 pages, Coos Bay, Oregon, Golden Falls Publishing, 2012.

The IWW -- an inherited memory

Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History, Winter 2015-16. pp. 2-7.

Harry and Agnes Bridges: A Couple at Odds

Pacific Northwest Quarterly: A Scholarly Journal of Northwest History Published by the University of Washington Press. Spring 2015, Volume 106, Number 2. pp. 68-83.

Progressive Thoughts: Essays and Reviews

A series of essays by Lionel Youst which originally appeared in the Advocate, a monthly journal of opinion published at Coos Bay, Oregon. Includes essays on Montaigne, Pepys, Adam Smith, Balzac, Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Emma Goldman, Jack London, Clarence Darrow, John Steinbeck, George McGovern, and Barak Obama, each of whom were important in the author's continuing education over a period of more than 70 years.

Lost in Coos: "Heroic Deeds and Thrilling Adventures" of Searches and Rescues on Coos River, Coos County, Oregon 1871 to 2000

This is the first book to answer the question, "What happens when someone goes missing in the woods and there are no cable news crews there to cover it?" The search-and-rescue stories chronicled here may have escaped the national spotlight, but they reveal as much about human courage and endurance as anything you're likely to see on CNN. We are reminded that these woods do not lack for danger or mystery. Covering the years 1871 to 2000, these stories illuminate many of the historic uses of the Western forests, and the complex relationship between the region's forested and inhabited areas during a critical period of the American West. (from the back cover blurb, by Mike MacRae).


Sawdust in the Western Woods

This is probably the first book to focus on the logger who was also a sawmiller, adding value to his logs by manufacturing them into lumber, in situ. It is based largely on tape recorded interviews with the author's father, George Youst, who was a small sawmill operator for practically all the years the phenomenon existed in the Douglas fir region. The book contains an original essay on the "Gyppo" sawmill, its history and significance. It follows that with a lightly edited and highly annotated oral history of George Youst's experiences as a tie-mill and "gyppo" mill operator. There are scores of photos from the author's family album, it is fully indexed with bibliography and maps.

She's Tricky Like Coyote: Annie Miner Peterson, an Oregon Coast Indian Woman


This is the first full length biography of an American Indian linguistic or ethnologic informant from the northwestern states. She was the last person to speak the Miluk Coos language and was an important consultant to the anthropologist Melville Jacobs. Her life was long and eventful.

Coquelle Thompson, Athabaskan Witness: A Cultural Biography


"It tells of someone born in Oregon before whites had settled there, yet who lived far into this century; someone versed in traditional narratives and practices, in both his first language and English, who engaged the changing world around him effectively. Encounters with a series of anthropologists hold up a mirror to them."
--Dell Hymes, back cover copy for
the original hardback edition

Above the Falls: An Oral and Folk History of Upper Glenn Creek, Coos County, Oregon. Second Edition.

The story of the homesteading and logging of a remote, inaccessible valley, told through oral history interviews, family photographs, and original documents.