Recent News
‘Train Dreams’ movie and discussion coming to the Panida
Movie and book fans will have a chance to see the Oscar-nominated movie Train Dreams on the big screen, when the Panida Theater shows the film on March 13 in an event that will include a discussion of the movie and the book it was adapted from.
The book and film are of special interest locally. Train Dreams is set around the turn of the 20th century in the Inland Northwest, in the era when the railroads and logging were the major industries. Much of the story takes place along the Moyie River – in the book spelled as a historical variant, the Moyea – where railroad and timber laborer Robert Grainier builds a remote cabin and attempts to retreat to a life with his wife and young daughter. The events in the story form a meditation on tragedy, fate, and grief during a time of monumental change in the region.
Published in 2011, the short novel was written by the late Denis Johnson, an author of national stature who did himself have a home on the Moyie River with his wife Cindy. The novel was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize; another novel by Johnson, Tree of Smoke, was also a Pulitzer finalist and won the 2007 National Book Award for fiction.
The movie was filmed at locations around eastern Washington and has won high praise for its beautiful cinematography and powerful performances by actors Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones and William H. Macy. Directed by Clint Bentley, it is nominated for four Oscars, including best picture.
The movie is distributed by Netflix but did not receive wide theatrical release, so the showing here is a rare opportunity to see it on the big screen – and it will come just two days before the Academy Awards take place on March 15.
Following the movie showing, there will be a discussion of the book and film. Jack Nisbet, author of multiple books on the human and natural history of the region, scouted North Idaho locations with Bentley and co-producer Greg Kwedar in 2021, discussing both local context and the transition from book to film. Nisbet later watched a Train Dreams scene filmed at a sawmill north of Colville. He’ll be joined on stage by Barb Rawlings, a longtime family friend of Denis and Cindy Johnson, who can tell more about the author and some of their discussions of the book and its story. Chris Bessler, Sandpoint Magazine publisher and an acquaintance as well of Johnson, will moderate.
Audience participation is invited for the post-show discussion, and Bessler encourages everyone who might attend to give the book a read first. “It’s a beautifully written book,” he said. “That it’s set right here in a fascinating time historically makes it even more compelling. I think the movie captures the feel and mood of the book, but there are differences that will make for interesting talk.”
Copies of Train Dreams are available at Sandpoint Books and Bonners Books.
Movie showtime will be 7 p.m. on Friday, March 13, at the historic Panida Theater. Admission is $15, and proceeds will benefit the Panida. Underwriters for the evening are Sandpoint Books and Sandpoint Magazine.
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For more information, contact: Heather White, Panida Theater, at <director@panida.org>
Photo Credit: Greg Kwedar
KYRS: Earth Matters Now
On Tuesday, January 27, 2026, Jack joined Nick Jeffries, the Wildland Resource Planner for the City of Spokane, on KYRS’s Earth Matters Now! for a two-hour conversation about fire on the Inland Northwest landscape. Hosted by Laura Ackerman and Mike Peterson, this episode can now be accessed as a podcast by going to https://archive.kyrs.org/ and scrolling down to the 12:00-2:00 pm time slot for January 27th. You can also download it by clicking here.
2025 Updates
Jack continues to lead walks for various organizations around the Spokane area. Since many of these excursions have a short lead time, the best way to find out about them is to get on our mailing list by sending an email request on the Contact Page.
Jack has also completed a pair of visual essays for HistoryLink.org that explore tribal use of fire on the landscape around the period of contact—one for east of the Cascades, one for the west side.
You can view them at
https://historylink.org/File/23302
https://historylink.org/File/23301
Upcoming dates to note:
Fort Colvile Summit
October 18, 2025: 10AM-3PM
Mistequa Hotel and Casino
Register and learn more here
Jack will moderate a wide-ranging conversation about the impact of Fort Colvile across our region at the Mistequa Hotel in Chewelah. The panel participants will offer a wealth of talent and perspective about thorny issues that still resonate today.
Illuminations: Naturalists & Botanicals with Jack Nisbet
November 13, 2025: 11AM-Noon
Spokane Central Library
Jack will join Dana Bronson and Sharma Shields in the Spokane Public Library’s Northwest Room to page through various published editions of David Douglas’s field journals from the Northwest. Join us to explore these treasures from the Northwest Room vault and learn more about what Douglas saw while he was here in 1826 and 27.
Newly Listed 2024 Speaking Events
WSU Press has just released the first paperback edition of David Douglas: A Naturalist at Work. This highly illustrated collection of essays describes David Douglas’s time in the Pacific Northwest through period artwork, tribal interactions, archival treasures, herbarium specimens, and tracking the trails and waterways that Douglas traveled.
For more information, click here.
Jack will be making presentations about:
- David Douglas’s journeys across the Columbia Plateau at The Sandhill Crane Festival in Othello, Washington, on March 23 at 2:30 p.m.
- Mammoth bone finds around the margins of Ice Age Floods at the Ice Age Flood Institute’s annual Jubilee in Spokane on June 7.
- John and Carrie Leiberg’s homestead site at Farragut State Park on Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho. This presentation will be held at the Athol Community Center on June 15 as part of the Idaho Native Plant Society’s annual meeting.
- Wildfire 1991 in the Dishman Hills at the Spokane Valley Library (details to come).
See UPCOMING EVENTS to check out these events plus other hikes and presentations scheduled for 2024 as they become finalized.
New Edition of Sources of the River
The last scientifically documented sighting of a wild condor in Washington state occurred in 1897. Can they come back?
Jack’s latest article in the Pacific Northwest Inlander discusses the last documented sighting of wild condors in Washington State. Is it possible for them to ever return? What is the current status of the birds, and what future plans exist for them?
The article appears in two parts, both of which are available via the links below.
The status of condors right now and future plans for the big bird
Jack is Returning to the Sandhill Crane Festival in Othello
Jack Returns to Writing for the Pacific Northwest Inlander
Coming Soon: The Many Gardens of John and CARRIE LEIBERG
This event will celebrate the freshly remodeled and re-landscaped Shadle Park branch of the Spokane Public Library
In 1885 Swedish immigrant John Leiberg and his companion Carrie staked out a homestead on the south end of Lake Pend Oreille. Join Jack Nisbet for a slide presentation that follows the Leibergs from their vegetable garden and orchard at the lake through festoons of mosses in the Clark Fork Delta, explosions of spring wildflowers in the shrub-steppe of the Columbia Basin, and old growth forests along the spine of the Rocky Mountains.
Book Recommendations
Here is the URL: https://shepherd.com/best-books/the-interwoven-lifeways-of-plants-and-people
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