Pat Cary Peek papers
Content Description
Most of the material was collected by Pat Cary Peek as she researched for her book projects on Taylor Ranch research station, David “Cougar Dave” Lewis, and the Couer d’Alene mining wars. Research materials include copies of newspaper articles, copies of journals and correspondences, copies of interviews, and some secondary sources. Peek also conducted several interviews and the collection includes transcripts or her notes from those interviews. There are also ten journals kept by Peek that document the travels of her and her husband.
Pat Cary Peek and her husband James Peek, a former University of Idaho professor of wildlife resource management, traveled extensively between 1988 and 2012. Pat kept journals documenting their travels with frequent entries concerning the people and animals they saw, the places they visited, and the activities they undertook. There are also personal notes about family events. There are 9 journals, each containing approximately 150 pages of writing. A small amount of loose material is tucked into pages, some pictures are taped onto pages.
Dates
- Creation: 1900-2018
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Biographical / Historical
Pat Cary Peek is an author and educator based in north central Idaho. Her husband, James Peek, was a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Idaho for many years. Pat taught special education in the Potlatch School District until her retirement in the early 1990s. Peek’s memoir about the winter she spent with her husband at the U of I’s Taylor Ranch research station won the book of the year award in 1998 from the Idaho Library Association. In “One Winter in the Wilderness” Peek recounts in journal form the difficulties and uniqueness of living deep in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Her connection to the area informed her interest in David “Cougar Dave” Lewis, a notoriously colorful character in Idaho’s history. She spent years separating myth from fact to write a history of one of the state’s last “mountain men.”
Extent
2.5 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The research files from author and educator Pat Cary Peek, wife of University of Idaho professor James Peek. Together the Peeks spent significant time exploring and studying Idaho’s wilderness areas. They spent time at the U of I’s Taylor Ranch research station, an experience which formed the basis of Pat’s book “One Winter in the Wilderness.” The ranch is also connected to the story of David “Cougar Dave” Lewis, another topic that Pat wrote about.
Arrangement
The arrangement of this collection loosely follows the file structure created by Peek, and many of her original files are still included after rehousing the materials. The files have been grouped by general topic, but researchers should note that there is a great deal of subject cross-over among the series. The collection is made up of three accessions received by Spec over the course of a decade.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Materials were received from Pat Cary Peek in 2005 (MA 2005-05), 2016 (MA 2016-28) and 2022 (MA 2022-31).
- Title
- Guide to Pat Cary Peek papers
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Dulce Kersting-Lark
- Date
- 2022
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives Repository