'The Dreamer and the Doctor' book program set

BONNERS FERRY — In the turn-of-the-20h-century Northwest, the lives and passions of an American physician and her Swedish naturalist husband helped shape a territory on the cusp of change.

Dr. Carrie Leiberg, a pioneer physician, fought hard for public health while nurturing both a troubled son and a fruit orchard. Her husband, John Leiberg, was a Swedish immigrant and self-taught naturalist who transformed himself from pickax Idaho prospector to special field agent for the U.S. Forest Commission and warned Washington, D.C., of ecological devastation of public lands. The Leiberg story opens a window into the human and natural landscape of a century past that reflects all the thorny issues of our present time.

A new book, just released: “The Dreamer and the Doctor” by Jack Nisbet will be featured at a program sponsored by Bonners Books and the Boundary County Historical Society, Inc. on Saturday, Nov. 10, at 6:30 p.m. in Portrait Hall at the Boundary County Museum, 7229 Main St. Bonners Ferry.

Jack Nisbet is the author of several collections of essays that explore the human and natural history of the Northwest, including Purple Flat Top, Visible Bones, and Ancient Places. He has also written award-winning biographies of fur agent and cartographer David Thompson (Sources of the River) and naturalist David Douglas (The Collector).