Asahel Curtis Photo Collection w/ Knute Berger & Margaret Wetherbee 

❤❤❤ Thank you all! (Knute...Newt)

LOVED this interview and learning more about this collection and scanning project! Seeing the landscape, and especially the river before the dams tells such a different story, Thanks Nick for hosting this interview, and thank you Knute and Margaret for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm for this project with us. Well done!

Wow, what an awesome job Maggie and her team is doing to preserve the photographer Asahel Curtis' works!!😃💞💗✨Also, thank you, Knute for sharing Asahel Curtis's background story!! We are very excited that Nick interviewed them on the photographer of PNW, thank you!!💞💗✨😄

In 1966, my family moved from Denver Colorado to Duvall Washington. The house we lived in was on 3rd street, and I found out later had been owned by a rich guy from back east. In the building/garage next to the house, a young explorer (me) decided to check out the attic in the little building. There I found all kinds of amazing things, among which was a box of glass plate negatives. I took them with me when we moved to Redmond a year later. I was talking with another kid at Redmond jr. High who was into photography, and he offered me $25 for the plates, of which there were about 20, and were of various subjects, one of which I remember well, a car driving through a hole cut in a Redwood. Being a dumb kid and having no idea of their value I sold them to him. His name was Bill Murphy. It was until years later that I realized that the platers were Edwin Curtis, and i had been bilked. Never saw the guy again, and wonder what happened to the plates.

I love this. Many of these photos would be great as a “Then and Now” series, where a modern photographer tries to take the same photo from the same spot. Great stuff.

The second photo appears to be what is now called Martin Peak as seen from the Mary Green Glacier on the eastern flank of Bonanza Peak. The approach may have been from Chelan as it commonly would be, but this explains the glacial ice in the foreground. Loved the video! Was just at Asahel Curtis trailhead. Cheers Nick!

Margaret has a wonderful personality, her enthusiasm bubbles through! Thanks to Skip and Margaret for doing this work! I never heard of Curtis before, kinda like an Ansel Adams of the PNW. Margaret, would you accept volunteers for doing the digitizing? Thanks Nick! Amazeballs! I'd love to see the "now" pictures!

Asahel was so amazing. This collection is gold. Thank you all!

I live in Minnesota, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this show! It’s great to see what the Columbia River looked like, and the cattle drive, with a personal connection to the historian, and where it’s now under a lake, is very striking. I want to see more! Both your guests are fascinating people. I never knew Edward Curtis had a photographer brother interested in getting out to wild places. Thanks for this!

❤❤ this is very impactful; my interest in historical Washington has been given a shot in the arm! I have glass plates of my Sheridan County Montana sheriff grandfather that are supremely precise, especially compared to most modern negatives. Again, Nick, thank you doesn't convey the extent of my appreciation!

Started to look over some of the digitized photos and almost fell over!! The content and detail captured %100 of my attention as I walked.

This is just so golden.... thank you all!!

Terrific interview! Loved the photos shown….i want to see all of them (eventually)!

Thanks Nick, Skip and Maggie! This is so interesting. I love old photos, history and geology! This presentation covered all three. ❤️

I love the old photos. It lets my mind wander and think about the time that they were taken. It's fun. Thank you Nick as always. I wonder what I would have been doing back then. Another question to contemplate.

Lovely chat and images - thanks ... - Cheers

Thank you Maggie, Skip, and Nick. Cool to see what the Walulla Gap area and Steamboat Rock looked like pre-dams.

Amazing! :D

Besides the anthropological value of photo records, the physical geology of the day is also told, revealing what Bretz and foreunners would have seen pre dam days, amazing.

How cool! I just learned about Mossback's vids!

Nick, I left you a comment today I hope you will find entertaining. I wrote it in the commentary associated with your backyard lecture on the "Mondovi Horseshoe" back in June. Go take look when you have a moment. As your devoted student, I hope you'll be pleased, and hopefully energized! Bear Owen, son of the Palouse, child of Colfax

Wondering if Curtis and Frank Matsura from the Okanogan Valley ever collaborated.

There are some great photos at the Grand Coulee dam that showed what the columbia river bottom looked like during construction. I was amazed by how it appeared to be filled with what looks like stalagmites you would see in a cave. Very jagged and sharp rock formations that look like needles point up.

An Advantage of an online Photo Library can be that People can Add information which will be interesting to others.

Looking forward to more!

Past, images, connection, present, spiritual, future.

This is amazing😮❤

Steamboat Rock cattle picture was amazing to see before the dam. There's going to be geology interest in many pictures.

Wow. Look at that river flow! I say that’s pangborn bar…. Oh Nick and I are in agreement.👍

Brilliant.

There were lakes in that Cooley when they started to fill Banks Lake.My Dad fished bass in the sage brush, wading out to his waist in the water.

Excellent! The Master will be pleased...

Wow, the speed of the media to stop the motion and get the depth of field

Great interview & photos! I'd love to look over their shoulders as new images are digitized. One mistake: The photo of sunrise from Maryhill apparently is presented backwards. If we're looking east, then we should be on the other bank of the river.

I work at Mt St Helens. There is a huge collection of slides that I’m hoping get digitized. So many great pictures. As for this particular photographer, any Mt St Helens stuff?? Maybe we need to team up with WA historical society… 🤔

T Y Sir.

Hi, I’m Alan from Southend Essex U.K.

Cattle drive at Steamboat Rock crosses a swath of dunes marching north, the low berms in the image.

The level of Lake Chelan was raised 21 feet in 1927, so the dock in the early photo will be under water now.

Edward, I think, had a farm in the Yakima Valley, in Grandview. He did a lot of photos in Zillah and Grandview.

Have you ever thought of doing a story at Shore Acres State Park, Oregon?

Premature balloon release by Professor Zentner :)

Who wouldn't recognize THESE guys!!!

I wonder how it came about that Asahel Curtis Nature Trail and Sno Park were named after him.