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JUNE 3, 2010

Pierce June Sesquicentennial speaker is Keith Petersen

   The Pierce Sesquicentennial Task Force invites you to a presentation by State Historian, Keith Petersen, on June 13, 2 p.m., at the Pierce Community Center. To help celebrate Pierce’s 150th anniversary, Mr. Petersen’s topic will be ‘E.D. Pierce and Friends’.

   Keith Petersen is the Associate Director and State Historian with the Idaho State Historical Society. Prior to that position, he served as the state’s Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Coordinator.

   Petersen is the author of numerous books and articles about Idaho and the Northwest, including, “River of Life, Channel of Death: Fish and Dams on the Lower Snake”; “Company Town: Potlatch, Idaho, and the Potlatch Lumber Company”; and “This Crested Hill: An Illustrated History of the University of Idaho”. Petersen is the only person to have won the Outstanding Book on Idaho twice.

   He also was the first person to win the Idaho Humanities Council’s annual Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Humanities in Idaho. Keith Petersen has been researching and writing about Idaho history for more than 30 years.

   Petersen is a frequent speaker on Idaho history topics through-out the state. He is currently writing a biography of John Mullan, who headed the crew that constructed the famous Mullan military road between Fort Walla Walla, WA, and Fort Benton, MT, the first engineered highway in the Pacific Northwest.

   Thousands of people a day travel the Mullan Road in Idaho today—only they know it as Interstate 90. John Mullan is one of the ‘friends’ of E. D. Pierce that Petersen will discuss in his presentation at Pierce, as he looks at Idaho in the early 1860s and the impact some significant early residents had on Idaho, and Idaho had on them.

   This will be a talk not to be missed; there will be plenty of time for questions, and to get to know this interesting historian. This event is free and open to all; there will be refreshments served following Mr. Petersen’s presentation. The sesquicentennial Miner’s Claim Card will be stamped, and the pins and new T-shirts will be on sale.