My Roots in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho

Edward Squires, my great grandfather, came from Hollenberg, Kansas to Northern Idaho in 1895 to raise a family, mine for gold, and write short stories. Edward and his wife Mary had 13 children on Harris Ridge, a bluff near Kooskia, Idaho, with a breathtaking view of the Clearwater River. Edward farmed there, and he continued to mine and write. His second youngest daughter Esther was my grandmother.

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In 1929, Esther met George Case, who had come from the Cherokee County, Kansas and had just served his time in the Army. George came to Idaho to live on some of the last remaining US land that was "wild." He and Esther married, and together they worked for the Forest Service at Moose Creek in what is now the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. They later moved to St. Maries, Idaho where Esther taught school and worked as a journalist in Spokane and Idaho.

Their youngest daughter Shirley is my mother. My father, Dennis, was raised in Washington, on the West side near Portland, Oregon. He chose to go to college at Eastern Washington State College (now Eastern Washington University) in Cheney.

My mother, too, attended Eastern Washington State College. She met my father in band class--she played the trumpet; he played the clarinet. They were engaged after their first date.

When they married, they moved to Lewiston, Idaho, and that's where I was born. Having endless energy and a love of the outdoors, they took my two brothers and me out almost every weekend for camping, hiking, and hunting along the Lochsa, Clearwater, and Selway Rivers until we moved to Seattle in the mid 1960s.

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Throughout the Seattle years, our parents took us camping and hiking in the Cascades, along the Olympic Peninsula, and we often visited Grandma in St. Maries, Idaho (our grandfather died in 1962). One summer we all piled in the panel-sided station wagon for a tour of Yellowstone, Bryce, Zion, the Grand Canyon, and all the major Western landmarks. In Seattle, our parents immersed themselves in school and community volunteer work, keeping us active. In the early 70s, our kid brother Rob was born.

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When I was in my senior year of high school, my family moved back to their roots in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. After I graduated, I left Washington state, and for the next twenty years lived in various parts of the country and the world. I earned a PhD in Literature from the University of Arizona in 1998. That same year I returned to the landscape of my childhood. Today I'm a Professor of English at Washington State University. I'm still very involved with my large, extended family and in touch with the stunning natural environments of the Pacific Northwest. I have residences in Moscow, Idaho and Oak Park, Illinois.

With my husband and daughter, Canada, 2006. (click to enlarge)

With my brothers, Cheney, WA, 2006.(click to enlarge)

Backpack with friends, Idaho, 2007.(click to enlarge)