Sandra Crowell's history of Lewis County, "The Land Called Lewis," has finally reached print.
"I originally wrote it 10 years ago," the author said. "It set on some old Mac disks for a decade."
Crowell introduced her book Tuesday morning at the Lewis County Historical Museum, signing copies during the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce's monthly morning social meeting.
"I felt strongly that Lewis County has been overlooked by Washington historians," Crowell said of her initial motivation for putting the history into her own words.
At one point Lewis County stretched north to Sitka, Alaska, covering most of what is now British Columbia. Thirteen counties were carved from its boundaries and it contained the first farm north of the Columbia River.
The project came back to life when Crowell received an e-mail from Chehalis attorney and radio talk show host John Panesko, who said he had a group of people interested in finishing the project.
"We went through several generations of computers to convert it to readable text," she said.
Local historian Edna Fund was brought on board to verify facts and track down photos, Crowell said, and former Chronicle editor John Martin checked the text.
"We had a great time discussing commas," Crowell joked, adding that Martin also developed an educational guide so that the book can be used in schools as a local history text.
Panesko took over publishing duties, restoring photos and laying out pages. Centralia's Gorham Printing handled the production and cover design for the 4,000-copy first run.
"It was so wonderful to have a local company take such pride in producing such quality work," Crowell said.
Sets the Standard
As Judy DeVaul of Chehalis waited in line to have her book inscribed, she lavished praise on the history text.
"It's an absolutely beautiful book," said DeVaul, who is a Port of Chehalis commissioner and owner of DeVaul Publishing. "The attention to detail, the typesetting, the paper, it just elevates the content and photos. It sets the standard for history books."
"We kind of hand-carried it through each of the steps," said Kathy Shaputis, who works in Gorham's customer service department. "We made sure we had the best quality for the community."
Gorham typically works on between 30 and 50 titles at a time, she added, and the actual production time was about six weeks.
"Every once in a while a really special job comes along and makes your job that much more fun," she added.
Fund, a retired state employee who proudly calls herself a history buff, spent hours checking details and finding photos for the book.
John Martin and John Panesko, she said, recruited her to "The Land Called Lewis" shortly after she finished working on the Rosie the Riveter project about two years ago.
Chasing Rumors, Finding Facts
A large part of the project was separating local lore from fact. One story covered a Mossyrock man who allegedly fled his home and committed suicide when he thought a group of Indians were coming to kill him.
"The result is, 'OK, can we verify this?'" she said. "Some of it's passed-down lore, but it may not be true."
Today, her file cabinet at home is crammed with research materials, she said.
"As a researcher, trying to verify facts, you get all the primary and secondary sources you can and try to verify them," she said. "It's been fascinating to learn more about our history here."
The book retails for $43.11 and is available in the museum's gift shop. Museum members can pick up a copy for $38.79. Crowell will also be on hand Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for another signing at the museum to help kick off ChehalisFest.
"It isn't a family history," Crowell said. "It's the history of an entire area and the factors that created it in a regional-national context."
Aaron VanTuyl covers education, economic affairs and religion for The Chronicle. He may be reached at 807-8237 or by e-mail at avantuyl@chronline.com. His blog, "VanTuyl's Views," is on line at www.chronline.com.
