William L. Lang is a professor of history at Portland State University, where he teaches environmental and public history. From 1977 to 1989, Lang was Editor of Montana, the Magazine of Western History, and in 1991 joined Mike Malone and Richard Roeder as a third author of Montana: A History of Two Centuries. He has written or edited seven books on Pacific Northwest history, including Confederacy of Ambition: William Winlock Miller and the Making of Washington Territory (1996), Great River of the West: Essays on the Columbia River (1999), and Two Centuries of Lewis & Clark: Reflections on the Voyage of Discovery (2004). From 1990 to 2003, Lang directed the Center for Columbia River History. He is currently Executive Editor of the Oregon Encyclopedia of History & Culture.