The letters in this box are those that were not interfiled into J. Neilson Barry's topical research files. In some cases the letters were of a general or miscellaneous nature that either defied classification or could not be identified; or they were wide-ranging letters exchanged with a particular person or institution on a variety of topics. Many of the research topics in the research files are represented here; for example, Barry and Eugene B. Chaffee discussed several areas of Idaho history, and the correspondence with the Oregon Historical Society discusses many themes in Oregon history. Not all of it is research correspondence, per se; some of it (particularly in Folders 1 through 4) is of a miscellaneous nature, such as letters to the editor, inquiries to merchants, and the like. All the correspondents are, however, included in the collection's index of correspondents. The one letter from H.L. Mencken (Folder 13) is a friendly letter, evidently in response to one from Barry, inviting him to submit an article to the . A letter to Boise State University from E.W. Giesecke, written in 2004 describing Barry's home, Barrycrest, has been added to the file of correspondence between Barry and Giesecke (Box 9, Folder 10). The letter includes some reminiscences by Giesecke about Barry and two photos of the house.

The early history of Astoria, John Jacob Astor's short-lived fur trading outpost near the mouth of the Columbia River, was one of J. Neilson Barry's primary research interests. He was particularly interested in determining the routes of travel of the overland Astorians (especially Wilson Price Hunt and Robert Stuart) and in ascertaining the names of all persons who worked at or visited Astoria, the names of those who stayed on in Oregon, and the names of ships that called there. He began preparing an annotated edition of Washington Irving's Astoria, but did not obtain the commitment of a publisher and never completed the project. He did, however, publish an article, "Astorians Who Became Permanent Settlers" in the in 1933. Much of Barry's correspondence and research material on Astoria and Astorians is gathered in Files 1 through 8 (Folders 1 to 126). There is additional material in the Miscellaneous Subject File under names of individuals; and bodies of other related materials in File 33 (Ross Cox), File 35 (Marie Dorion), File 72 (South Pass / Robert Stuart), and elsewhere in the collection. Portions of Barry's Astoria files were microfilmed by the Oregon State Library in the early 1950s.

Included in this File are Barry's notebooks recording events at Astoria chronologically (Folders 14 to 20), an index of places associated with Astoria and Astorians (Folder 21), and other compilations.

Mainly notes and compiled bibliographical references on the persons and topics listed.

Barry sought to trace the route of Wilson Price Hunt's disaster-plagued overland expedition from St. Louis to Astoria. Correspondents include B.W. Driggs, Howard B. Lott, A.C. McCain, and Louie W. Shevling. See also File 71 (Snake River and Snake River Canyon); the Miscellaneous Subject File folder on Donald McKenzie (Folder 978); and Map folder 1302.

Mostly maps drawn by Barry himself. See also Miscellaneous Subject File, Folder 669, for township maps; Folder 939 in the Miscellaneous Subject File (Lapie Map); and Folder 1328 in the Maps (Series 4 for a town plan.

J. Neilson Barry compiled these folders (arranged alphabetically by last name) with references to and information concerning persons who lived, worked, or visited Astoria. Data on Astorians who remained in Oregon was used as source material for his article, "Astorians Who Became Permanent Settlers" (, 1933). The names of Astorians should also be checked against the compilations in Files 67 through 70.5 (Persons) and names of persons in the Miscellaneous Subject File.

Research material and references to outposts of Astoria.

See also the folders on Ships in the Miscellaneous Subject File (Folders 1115-1127). E.W. Giesecke cited Barry's research in his series of articles, "Search for the Tonquin," in Cumtux (1990). His articles and other notes have been added to the collection (Folders 122 and 123).

In 1846, Sam Barlow obtained a charter allowing him to cut a toll road from Tygh Valley, Oregon, to the Willamette Valley, enabling westbound pioneers to leave the Columbia River at The Dalles and avoid both the rapids and ferry charges. Over its many years of operation, there were many course variations. Barry traced much of the route on hand-drawn township maps, and was interested in other cross-country routes from the Columbia to the Willamette. The file includes several letters (1941-1942) from W.J. Williams, who was particularly interested in the descent on the steep grade of Laurel Hill. For information on other emigrant trails in Oregon, see the folders on Trails, Roads, and Routes (Folders 1169-1177) in the Miscellaneous Subject file.

Folders 140 and 143 contain extensive lists of battles and other fights between Indians and whites, mainly in Oregon. Folder 141 includes letters (1926) from W.P. Gray, captain of the steamer , with his recollections of the fighting involving his ship in 1878. Gray's obituary is in Folder 867 in the Miscellaneous Subject File. Portions of File10 were microfilmed by the Oregon State Library in the early 1950s. Notes on forts in Washington are found in File 40, Forts: State of Washington.

These folders pertain to Barry's interest in the precise locations of the successive fur-trading posts at the mouth of the Boise River established by John Reed, Donald McKenzie, and Hudson's Bay Company. By Barry's time, the main channel of the river had shifted considerably, relocating the river's mouth and complicating his search. He corresponded with historian Annie Laurie Bird and other local people in attempting to locate the path of the original channel, and prepared a number of hand-drawn maps. Some of the letters by Barry in these files are photocopies (apparently made many years ago) of his originals letters sent to personnel of the Idaho State Historical Society. Additional correspondence about this topic is found in the correspondence with Eugene B. Chaffee (Box 9, Folder 6); oversize maps are located in Maps folder 1303.

This file contains more than 100 letters to and from Barry chronicling his interest in Captain Benjamin Bonneville's explorations in the Pacific Northwest, 1832-1834, and the identification of places mentioned in Bonneville's 18-page handwritten report of July 1833, particularly places in Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. Barry was instrumental in unearthing and publicizing the 1833 report (found in War Department files). He prepared an annotated typescript (File 161) from photostats he obtained from the War Department. The published a transcript from Barry's photostats in July 1927, though he was critical of that work for its lack of annotations. Among Barry's correspondents in these files are B.W. Driggs, Philip Rand, and W.A. Ricks (Idaho) and Grace Raymond Hebard (Wyoming). Additional letters about Bonneville are located in Folder 1213, Wallowa region, in the Miscellaneous Subject File.

Barry traced the claims over time of European powers and the United States to the territory of the Pacific Northwest, making note of developments, chronologically, in a series of notebooks (in Folders 170 and 171). The file includes some sketch maps but no correspondence. Much related material is found in Files 84 to 87 (Treaties). See also Miscellaneous Subject File for folders on Colorado, Map of (Folder 795) and Northwest Boundary (Folder 1013).

See also Miscellaneous Subject File for Simon Fraser and Fraser River (Folders 845 and 846).

The material in this file concentrates on the Hudson's Bay company's activities and personnel in what became the American Pacific Northwest. See also Maps folder 1305.

These files contains hand-drawn and commercial maps, as well as Barry's notes, about posts, forts, and routes of fur traders, in Canada, particularly British Columbia.

Barry was interested in the natural history of the Cascades of the Columbia River and the Indian legends of the Bridge of the Gods, as well as the military history of the vicinity, particularly the battle there in 1856. Barry mixed his notes in some of his booklets, so some of these folders contain notes on aspects of the Cascades not indicated by the folder titles. Folder 209 contains a printed prospectus for building the 1926 steel Bridge of the Gods (also found in Folder 288). Correspondents in the Sheridan Point file (Folder 208) include D.A. Brown, who wrote about the restored Fort Rains there as well as other Columbia River blockhouses. More notes and letters about the Cascades are in File 29 (Columbia River: Drowned Forest).

In 1936, J. Neilson Barry published a series of articles in the (Salem, Oregon), entitled "How Oregon Was Acquired: An Expose of the Champoeg Myth." In particular, he wished to debunk a popular notion that Oregon became part of the United States by a vote of its early settlers at Champoeg on May 2, 1843. He believed that the importance of the May 2 meeting was exaggerated in other respects, too, including the claim that it represented the beginnings of civil government in Oregon. These files reflect his continuing research on what exactly took place at various meetings at Champoeg, who was there, the wording of monuments and signage at Champoeg State Park, and the broader question of the origins of civil government by the American settlers in Oregon. See also the folders on Ewing Young's estate (Folders 1264-1267) in the Miscellaneous Subject file. Portions of Barry's Champoeg files were microfilmed by the Oregon State Library in the early 1950s.

J. Neilson Barry made a detailed study of early land ownership and donation claims in the Champoeg vicinity. He created detailed hand-drawn maps of the townships and sections, noting early ownership and the presence of structures such as barns, houses, etc. See also Maps folder 1306.

Chiefly photostats of primary source documents Barry used in his research and prepared for duplication and distribution. For maps of Champoeg Park, see Map folder 1306.

Notations, year by year, on important events in Oregon, with bibliographical references.

John Colter, one of the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, returned to the Rocky Mountains as a trapper after the conclusion of the expedition in 1806. On William Clark's 1814 map, Clark added the route of Colter's travels in 1807. The anomalies and inaccuracies of that map have given rise to questions about Colter's actual route, however. Barry pursued the problem, analyzing the information and trying to sort out the verifiable geographic locales from the disputable ones. He also investigated the 1933 discovery of a stone in eastern Idaho with an inscription allegedly by John Colter. More information on the latter is also found in File 39, Fort Henry / Carved Stones. Correspondents include Merrill D. Beal, Carl E. Jepson, Roy A. Phillips, John E. Price, and Howard R. Stagner. See also Map folder 1307.

One of Barry's primary historical interests was the identification of places named by early explorers of the Columbia River. He sought to restore the names those explorers gave to those places and, in pursuit of that goal, conducted an active correspondence with the U.S. Board of Geographic Names. File 26 centers around the exploration by Lieutenant William Broughton of the Royal Navy, who in 1792, during Vancouver's voyage to the Northwest coast, entered the river and charted it as far as a point he named Point Vancouver. There is information about Barry's attempts to identify Broughton's Point Vancouver both in this file and File 32, Columbia River: Point Vancouver. This file also documents Barry's efforts to memorialize Broughton. Correspondents include Broughton's grandson Bertram R. Mitford (Folder 271). See also File 88 on Captain George Vancouver, and Folder 749 in the Miscellaneous Subject File on Edward Bell and the search for his journal, which also relate to Broughton's Columbia River explorations. A Photostat of Broughton's chart of the river is in Map folder 1308.

Barry's concise summation of Broughton's exploration of the river, extracted from Vancouver's and Edward Bell's journal.

These folders contain notes and correspondence about the Columbia River, chiefly (but not exclusively) about physical aspects of the river. His short essay, "The Unanswered Question" (Folder 300), addresses the extent of the river; i.e. whether the salt waters of the lower Columbia can properly be considered part of the river at all, or whether they are really an inlet of the ocean; a question that has bearing on who should be credited with discovering the river: Heceta, Gray, or Broughton. The question is also explored in Barry's file of correspondence with the Canadian Geographic Journal and Royal Geographical Society (Folder 287). More information about this can be found in File 43 (Heceta); and Folders 864-865 in the Miscellaneous Subject file on Captain Robert Gray. See also Map folder 1309.

The notes and correspondence in these folders pertain primarily to the drowned (or submerged) forest in the Columbia River, above the Cascade rapids, whose snags protruding above the water were noted by early travelers during periods of low water.

[Removed and cataloged with Special Collection books: "Columbia River and Minor Tributaries" (1933)]

This file, consisting chiefly of correspondence, documents Barry's efforts to identify the site along the river that Lt. Broughton named Point Vancouver in 1792. Barry's correspondence extended to the British Admiralty Office, from whom he obtained a photostat of Broughton's chart of the Columbia, confirming the conclusions he had made in 1928 from his comparison of Broughton's narrative and astronomical observations (recorded in Vancouver's ) to modern charts and maps, his own site visits, and consultations with river experts. An article summarizing Barry's work was published in the Portland on January 1, 1933 (Folder 318). Barry also sought recognition of the site by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, a task complicated by an earlier identification of Broughton's Point Vancouver as modern-day Cottonwood Point. Correspondents include historian T.C. Elliott, Fred C. Schubert of the Army Corps of Engineers (Portland), and Captain R.S. Patton, Director of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, whose investigation and report convinced the U.S. Board of Geographic Names to accept Barry's location. Additional information about the identification of Point Vancouver is also found in File 26, Columbia River: Lt. Broughton. A copy of the Patton report is found there, in Folder 273. A photostat of Broughton's chart is located in Maps folder 1308.

Barry was interested in tracing the "lost wanderings" of the Astorian Ross Cox in what is now eastern Washington in August 1812. Among his correspondents was Otto Wollweber, of Reardan, Washington, who was familiar with many of the old trails. Barry's annotated copy of Cox's Adventures on the Columbia River (1831) is located in the Special Collections Department. A map by Barry of Cox's wanderings is in Map folder 1310.

One of the last controversies Barry entered into concerned the alleged burial site of the Astorian John Day and the question whether or not he was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. In 1953, the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution recognized a traditional gravesite on Birch Creek, Clark County, Idaho, as the place, and had it marked accordingly. Almost immediately that was challenged, and eventually the Sons of the American Revolution asked that the marker be taken down. Much of the controversy hinged on whether Birch Creek or some other stream was the one known in the 19th century as John Day's River. Barry contributed to the investigations by supplying copies of historic maps of the vicinity showing that the Little Lost River, not Birch Creek, was that stream. Principal correspondents include J.A. Harrington and E.C. Phoenix, both of whom questioned the Birch Creek site, as well as Ellen Fourt, J.R. Gobble, Lula H. Lough, and Marion C. Orr. See also File 38 on the Ferris Map and Map folder 1311.

The travails and heroic survival of Marie Dorion, the only female member of the Wilson Price Hunt party, were related by Washington Irving, Ross Cox, and other early chroniclers of the West, but the details of her life story and whereabouts afterwards remained as obscure as Sacajawea's until J. Neilson Barry ferreted them out of church and civil records (from St. Louis to Oregon) and found elderly people who remembered her. His findings were published in the in 1929 as "Madame Dorion of the Astorians." W.J. Ghent, who wrote Dorion's entry in the , credited Barry with the breakthrough. "My sketch for the Dictionary will be recalled and amended to accord with your discoveries. Fortunately the D's have not yet been reached in the printing...I trust that you will keep me informed of any further discoveries you make" (June 11, 1929, in Folder 342). The letters and notes in these folders document Barry's research. One of his principal informants was Isabel Bertrand, who not only remembered Madame Dorion but also recounted the history of her own family, the Aubichons, early settlers of the French Prairie vicinity on the Willamette (Folder 341). Other correspondents include Cleveland S. Simkins, a Dorion descendant, and Vera Joyce Nelson.

Barry traced out and mapped Scottish botanist David Douglas' travels in the Pacific Northwest, 1826-1827, through a close reading of his journal.

The map by fur trader Warren Angus Ferris was one of the keys disproving the alleged gravesite of John Day (see File 34, John Day). Folder 359 contains Barry's hand drawn worksheets tracing Ferris' map and comparing it to modern maps. Correspondents include J. Cecil Alter and Fred Rosenstock.

The notes and correspondence in these folders relate primarily to finding the site of Andrew Henry's fort and trading post in the upper Snake River region of eastern Idaho, and to attempts to authenticate two stones allegedly inscribed by members of Henry's party. Correspondents include Merrill D. Beal, Charles Kelly, Susie Boice Trego, and F.A. Miller of St. Anthony, Idaho, owner of the two Fort Henry stones. Barry studied the route and personnel of the 1871 Hayden survey of the Yellowstone region to determine if any members of that party could have left the stones; see File 42, Hayden Survey (Box 19, Folders 379 and 380) for those notes. There is also information about a stone allegedly inscribed by John Colter in 1808, and one allegedly left by an early Hudson's Bay Company party in Stevenson, Washington. For information about stones allegedly carved by William Clark in 1805, see File 48, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Clark stones (Box 21, Folder 441).

Miscellaneous materials about military forts and trading posts in early Washington. Notes on forts in Oregon are found in File 10, Battles.

J. Neilson Barry worked to correlate the place names and geographic features on Robert Frazer's map (1807) of Lewis and Clark's explorations with modern maps.

Barry traced the route of the Hayden survey in the Yellowstone area, 1871. One of his motivations to do this was his belief that at least one of the carved stones ("Al, the cook....") found in eastern Idaho (File 39) might have been left by this survey team. See also File 39 (Fort Henry / Carved Stones).

Barry was interested in identifying the geographic features on Heceta's chart of the mouth of the Columbia River (1775) and calculating the position of Heceta's ship when he drew it. He published a summary of his findings in the Portland on September 20, 1931, maintaining that the chart should settle the dispute as to whether the mouth of the Columbia is actually an inlet of the ocean or a part of the river proper. Additional information may be found in File 28 (Columbia River III) and in his file of correspondence with the (Box 16, Folder 287). See also Map folder 1314.

This file consists chiefly of research correspondence, references to primary sources, and clippings, about Indians in Oregon and Washington. Barry was particularly interested in sorting out the tribes and linguistic families in Washington (Folders 405 to 407), the agricultural practices of Oregon and Washington Indians (Folder 386), and the sources of the iron and copper weapons the Indians of the Columbia possessed when first encountered by American and European explorers (Folder 388). Among his correspondents on the latter topic were George G. Heye and Arthur A. Woodward, who wrote a long letter on the subject. See Barry's articles on the linguistic families of Washington and Oregon Indians (Box 6, Folders 19 and 20) and on copper weapons (Box 5, Folder 14). See also File 14 (Canada: British Columbia) for Barry's notes on British Columbia Indians; names of tribes in the Miscellaneous Subject File; and the folders on Pictographs (Folder 1048), Religious Observances in Oregon (Folder 1077), and Tobacco (Folders 1160 and 1161) in the Miscellaneous Subject File. There is a good deal of correspondence with Ellen Center, a Tillamook Indian, regarding Chief Kilchis, his ancestry and descendants in the Miscellaneous Subject File Folder 1158 (Tillamook Indians).

Most of the letters in the correspondence file (Folder 413) concern Barry's attempts to determine if the Minnesota River, rather than the Missouri, was the "Long River" described by French explorer, the Baron de la Hontan, in the published version of this travels. Correspondents include Louis D. Powers, of Ortonville, Minnesota, who was familiar with the local geography. Barry was also interested in La Hontan's descriptions of Indians and geography of the West. See also Map folder 1317.

Barry was "not a great admirer of Jason Lee, as a missionary, a husband, or a man" (February 10, 1932). He opposed the placement of a statue of Lee in the U.S. Capitol as well as the issuance of a postage stamp in his honor. Barry studied the surveys of the U.S.-Canadian border and insisted Lee was born in Canada rather than in Vermont, and considered him a transient, not an Oregon settler eligible to represent the state on either a postage stamp or in Statuary Hall. Correspondents in this file include Richard G. Montgomery, who proposed writing a novelized version of Lee's life.

Barry conducted intensive research in land and survey records to pinpoint the location of Jason's Lee's mission building. Portions of this file were microfilmed by the Oregon State Library in the early 1950s. See also Map folder 1319.

J. Neilson Barry was interested in many aspects of the Lewis and Clark expedition besides their route of travel. File 48 contains folders on a variety of topics. The most extensive folder pertains to one of the expedition's presentation medals owned by Mrs. Mary V. Lane, of Underwood, Washington (Folder 452). Correspondents include Mrs. Lane and D.A. Brown.

Barry took detailed notes on the journal of Patrick Gass. He corresponded with Donegan Wiggins and others about marking Gass' grave in West Virginia, and with Rufus Rockwell Wilson (Press of the Pioneers) about publishing an annotated version of Gass' journal.

Sacajawea was not a major research interest of Barry's, but he did compile some notes regarding her name and her role with the Lewis and Clark expedition. His thinking is summarized in a letter of January 22, 1949 (Folder 470) in which he calls Sacajawea "an interpreter...not a guide." Among his correspondents was Grace Raymond Hebard, who advanced the thesis that Sacajawea died at the Wind River reservation, Wyoming, in 1884. Hebard supplied Barry with typescripts of some of the testimony she incorporated into the appendices of her book (1933), as well as some material not published. Though Barry considered Miss Hebard an "amiable lady, highly esteemed," he did not accept her theory and wrote at considerable length to refute it.

Barry's main interest in Lewis and Clark was tracing the course of their route back and forth across the continent and identifying the places they mentioned in their journals. Files 51 through 57 contain his correspondence, notes, and hand-drawn maps toward that end. Though he was interested in the entire Lewis and Clark trail, Barry's most extensive research involved the land (as opposed to river) portions of the route, in what are now Montana, Wyoming, and especially Idaho. He corresponded with local historians, surveyors, Forest Service personnel, and others familiar with the areas the expedition traversed.

Barry's correspondents in File 52 include John N. Kinney, supervisor, Salmon National Forest.

Barry's principal correspondents in this File are Elers Koch and Roy A. Phillips of the U.S. Forest Service.

In this File are notes and short essays about the various 19th century maps of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Barry's correspondence about those maps, and some of his own hand-drawn maps. The maps Barry collected documenting the expedition are in Map folders 1320a to1320 h.

Barry was interested in the history of Marias Pass in northwestern Montana, particularly knowledge of it by traders, trappers, and explorers in the early 19th century. The assertion that it was discovered in 1889 by John Frank Stevens, a surveyor-engineer for the Great Northern Railway, seemed unreasonable to him, so he searched for earlier references in journals and on early maps. Correspondents include Ralph Budd, Lew L. Callaway, William Marriott Canby, L.J. Lownds, Paul C. Phillips, and H.M. Sims.

In 1928, Barry campaigned to have the historic name McLoughlin Point restored to Ryan Point on the Columbia River, near Vancouver, Washington. That proposal drew considerable opposition from locals who were used to the name Ryan Point.

Barry's notebook is subtitled "Indian Paths and Villages / Forts, etc. / Battlefields, etc.

Barry studied the published journals of Peter Skene Ogden in an attempt to trace his travels in the West. He also made note of persons mentioned in the journals (Folder 546), part of his broader effort to identify early Western inhabitants and sojourners who predated the influx of Oregon settlers in the 1840s.

Bibliographic references and occasional clippings relating to agriculture in early Oregon. See also Barry's article on early Oregon agriculture (Box 5, Folder 1) and File 44, Indians, for folders on Indian agriculture.

These slim files contain miscellaneous correspondence and printed matter related to the Oregon Trail and historic commemorations associated with it in the 1920s. See Files 9 (Barlow Road), 66 (Oregon Trail in Idaho), and 72 (South Pass) for Barry's research on segments of the trail route.

These notes and hand-drawn maps come from Barry's study of Oregon Trail maps published in , by Archer Butler Hulbert. He studied the course of the trail as outlined in the maps and redrew portions of particular interest to him in a larger scale on range and township grids.

Barry took extensive notes from Oregon Trail diaries. He paid particular attention to the mileages recorded by the diarists and correlated the geographical features they mentioned to modern place names. See also File 11 on Old Fort Boise.

Notes and correspondence about early French Canadians in the Pacific Northwest. Correspondents include Harriet D. Munnick. See also the Miscellaneous Subject File for folders on a number of individuals, filed alphabetically by name; File 6 (Astoria: Persons); File 19 on Champoeg with maps of donation land claims; File 35 on the Dorion family; and Barry's article, "The French Canadian Pioneers of the Willamette Valley" (Box 6, Folder 6 ). Portions of File 67 were microfilmed by the Oregon State Library in the early 1950s.

Lists of early settlers and others in the Pacific Northwest derived from primary sources.

Chiefly published statistical data.

Lists of names of early persons in the Oregon country, arranged by year. See also the Miscellaneous Subject File for names of signatories on Petitions to Congress (Folder 1044) and names of persons in the estate papers of Ewing Young (Folder 1266).

Compilations of bibliographic references to early settlers and others in the Pacific Northwest, arranged by last name. Occasionally newspaper clippings about persons have been affixed to their bibliography page, as well. Many of the persons are also represented by folders in the Miscellaneous Subject File and elsewhere within the collection. (Until 2006, these index folders were filed at the beginning of their letters in the Miscellaneous Subject Files).

J. Neilson Barry was particularly interested in the travels of the Astorians in the Hell's Canyon country of the Snake River. See also File 4 (Astoria: Wilson Price Hunt: McKenzie Route; particularly Folder 51); and the Miscellaneous Subject File for folders on Donald McKenzie (Folder 978) the Wallowa region (Folders 1212-1214). For a variety of reasons, Barry disliked the name "Snake" and avoided using the term "Hell's Canyon." Folder 619 includes an article from the Portland of October 18, 1936, entitled "We Paddled a Canoe Through Hell Canyon," by George Thomas and Alan Williams, recounting a canoe trip from the Boise River to Portland, Oregon.

Barry was interested in the 1812 eastward overland route of the Astorian Robert Stuart and particularly his crossing of the continental divide at South Pass, Wyoming. Much of the correspondence relates to the geography of the South Pass region and speculation on Stuart's exact route of travel through the area. Correspondents include Seymour S. Bernfeld, Donald A. Sherlock, Philip Ashton Rollins (one letter), and others familiar with the territory and the terrain. Other related correspondence with B.W. Driggs (1929) is found in File 4 (Astoria: Wilson Price Hunt). Folders 627 and 628 contain photostats of field notes for government surveys of the area in 1885 and 1931. Barry's conclusions are found in his article, "The Discovery of the Oregon Trail," published in the (1937) (Box 5, Folder 23). He contended that Nathaniel J. Wyeth, rather than Stuart, was the first to travel in full the route that became the Oregon Trail through that region.

Barry was interested in the precise location of the Spokane House, the North West Company's fur trading post at the confluence of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers. In the 1940s he worked with local historians and other local people to pinpoint the site. See also Map folder 1326.

Detailed notes on the travels of David Thompson, mainly in the Spokane, Kootenay, and Columbia River regions.

Barry's main interest in David Thompson was his travels and exploration in what is now Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, as well as names of persons associated with him.

Barry made hand-drawn maps of townships in various areas of Oregon, drawing in principal streams, trails, roads, etc., and often annotating them with notations of donation land claims and their owners.

Folder 669 (Astoria) also contains numerous clippings, bibliographic references, and other information about Astoria history.

Also Wolf Creek.

The maps in this File, about the Willamette Valley, seem to have been drawn for the purpose of recording locations of donation land claims. See also Map folder 1329.

Barry was interested in the history of boundaries and sovereignty in the Oregon country and particularly international treaties regarding those issues. Much related material is located in File 13, Boundaries.

The various proposals and counterproposals of the United States and Spain leading to the Treaty of 1819, which fixed the northern boundary of Spain's possessions at the 42nd parallel, is the focus of Barry's research in this file. He drew a series of colored maps illustrating the various proposals (Folder 692).

Barry's study of the evolution of the international boundaries in the Pacific Northwest led him to correspond with scholars and government officials, including Joseph C. Grew, Philip Brooks, E.C. Barker, Hunter Miller, and C.S. Kingston. The action of Captain James Biddle, U.S. Navy, in raising the American flag at the mouth of the Columbia in 1818, and its implications, were of particular interest to him (Folders 697 and 698), as were ceremonies customary in taking possession of a new country (Folder 703). Much more correspondence with Hunter Miller is in File 15, Canada: Hudson's Bay Company. See also Miscellaneous Subject File, Northwest Boundary (Folder 1013).

Barry took extensive notes on George Vancouver's relating to the expedition's exploration of the Columbia River. He also studied the journal kept by a member of the 's crew as published in the , 1914-15. See also the files on Columbia River, particularly Files 26 and 27; Miscellaneous Subject Files, Edward Bell's Journal (Folder 749); and Map folder 1330.

The three main topics in this file are agriculture at the Fort Vancouver trading post, the old apple tree in Vancouver (reputedly the oldest apple tree in the Pacific Northwest), and General Ulysses S. Grant's association with the U.S. Army's Fort Vancouver. Barry was part of the effort to have a marker erected at the site of Grant's potato patch.

Barry took notes from the journals of John Work, fur trader, particularly as they related to his travels inside what is now the United States. Names of persons mentioned in the journals were a particular interest of his.