Sometimes ducks fly. Sometimes ducks don't. This Duck from Oregon recounts the thrilling tale of the day he attempted to take to the skies. A story of triumph in the face of adversity, this tale is inspiring to all ages.

For forty-four years, Jim Bartko kept a secret: when he was a boy, he had been repeatedly sexually molested by his youth basketball coach, a priest, over nearly a three-year period in the 1970s. He tried to forget the memory by self-medication, dissociation, and busying himself in his job as an associate athletic director at the University of Oregon and, later, as head athletic director at Fresno State University. When, in 2016, he broke down and told a therapist--then later went public in a story done by the "Fresno Bee" newspaper--his world would never be the same. Within a year he'd lost his job, he'd lost his marriage, and he'd lost his reputation. What he'd found, however, was priceless: courage, true friends, and the freedom to no longer allow others to define his worth. Says ESPN's Neil Everett: "As sad as it is on the surface, in the long run it is a triumph over adversity, and should be an inspiration to many."

A new American journey.

Oregon’s landscape boasts brilliant waterfalls, towering volcanoes, productive river valleys, and far-reaching high deserts. People have lived in the region for at least twelve thousand years, during which they established communities; named places; harvested fish, timber, and agricultural products; and made laws and choices that both protected and threatened the land and its inhabitants. William G. Robbins traces the state’s history of commodification and conservation, despair and hope, progress and tradition. This revised and updated edition features a new introduction and epilogue with discussion of climate change, racial disparity, immigration, and discrimination. Revealing Oregon’s rich social, economic, cultural, and ecological complexities, Robbins upholds the historian’s commitment to critical inquiry, approaching the state’s past with both open-mindedness and a healthy dose of skepticism about the claims of Oregon’s boosters.

This book covers the fertile valleys, dense forests and soaring mountains of the state of Oregon.