The Early Whistler

We are an independent bookstore, located since 1997 in a small Oregon community and historic Main Street, nestled in the foothills at the head of the Willamette Valley. Our interests in books lie particularly with environmentally sustainable skills, poetry, creating mindful relations with self and other, human-nature relationships.

About Our Name: Kalapuya Books is named as a tribute to the Kalapuya, First People on the land here which we now call home. They were caretakers, living skillfully and carefully in this area for untold years. The Nez Perce people, from the eastern side of the Cascades, are said to have acknowledged the Kalapuya as healers. The irony and sadness of this is that whole villages were struck and decimated by a devastating epidemic in the early 1800s, resulting in the near loss of a precious culture. Insult and loss of unbearable dimension is acknowledged. We stand on Native Ground.