Recent News
Steptoe Butte Bus Trip
Join Jack Nisbet for a journey back in time to the iconic lookout of Steptoe Butte. We will visit the site of the Coplen Brothers’ 1876 mammoth find, talk about the flora and fauna that lived here during the last Ice Age, and walk the flower-strewn slopes of Steptoe on a spring afternoon.
View Event DetailsPublications
The Spokane River
This spring the University of Washington Press will release a wide-ranging anthology on the Spokane River edited by Paul Lindholdt. It will include an essay by Jack on the Spokane House fur trade post
for more information, go to
http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/LINSPO.html
The Dreamer and the Doctor
Jack’s newest effort, which traces the unlikely saga of John and Carrie Leiberg, will be out this October from Sasquatch Books.
John was a prospector and naturalist who published landmark investigations from all over the Intermountain West in the late nineteenth century. Carrie was a practicing physician who kept a much lower profile, but made a habit of appearing at the nexus of social and public health issues of her time. Full of surprising twists and turns, the Leiberg story resonates forward with a decidedly human glow.
“A Taste for Roots” Presentation at Sandpoint Community Hall
Jack will be in Sandpoint to speak about biscuitroots to the Native Plant Society on Saturday morning, January 27.
View Event DetailsC-Span Interview
Here is an interview Jack did about Ancient Places along scenic Hangman Creek in Spokane
Date Change for Colville Public Library Event
The date has changed from August 8th to August 7th for “A Possible Friend: William Morley Manning and Families of Chief Joseph, William Three Mountains, and Masseslow” event at Colville Public Library. We apologize for any inconvenience.
View Event DetailsMontana’s Pioneer Botanists
Jack has written the introduction to Montana’s Pioneer Botanists, a long-awaited publication of the Montana Native Plant Society. Edited by Rachel Potter & Peter Lesica, this beautiful book includes biographies of Montana’s iconic plant collectors written by some of today’s most respected naturalists and scientists.
To find out more, visit www.mtnativeplants.org.
Titans of the Ice Age Exhibit
This February through May, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane will be featuring a major exhibit assembled by Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Titans of the Ice Age fills four large galleries with all things mammoth and mastodon, and Jack will be doing a presentation and leading a field trip in celebration of our area’s close connection to the scientific history of the Columbia Mammoth.
For more information visit
February 22 – The Return of the Columbia Mammoth
Based on an essay that appeared in Nisbet’s book Visible Bones plus extensive further research and updates, this talk will focus on the story of the Hangman and Pine Creek discoveries in 1876. They resulted in North American’s first mounted mammoth at the Field Museum and the type specimen of Mammut columbi at the American Museum of Natural History, as well as ongoing activity in the scientific world.
For details go to
https://www.northwestmuseum.org/calendar/all-events.cfm/event/the-return-of-the-columbia-mammoth