Helen Wand, a now retired educator, spent most of her career working as a Medical Technologist, all the while researching her true passion; history.

Raised in the Columbia River Gorge hill country, she listened to the tales of her father and grandmother, describing the hardships of the early settlers, whetting her appetite to record their stories. She is a board member of the Troutdale Historical Society, a member of the Crown Point Country Historical Society and the Oregon Historical Society, and resides in Gresham, Oregon.

Helen, child of the rugged hills in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, has fearlessly trespassed into the lives of her immigrant ancestors who first settled at the west end of the Gorge. Herself a child of a large Catholic family, Helen is at the side of Julianna, raising and trying to feed a large brood of children. Likewise, she is at the side of Julianna’s Husband, Alex, building a farm and, ultimately, a community. Those who see the neat farms and green fields of Multnomah County east of the Sandy River will get a sense of how it began. And how hard it was.

Where Eagles Nest begins in the 1880’s when Alex and Juliana Lampert immigrate from Lichtenstein in search of land where a family can raise their children and participate in the American dream. The newly wed young couple settles in the rugged hills and pasturelands above the Sandy River in Oregon. You will laugh, grieve, and rejoice with them and their neighbors. Helen Wand’s brilliant research breathes life into a slice of local history that will stay with you long after the last page is turned.