“If moments could be wholly all-satisfying with thrills and
starts, and dreads and hopes, and a vague, deep full sense of the wild beauty
of the environment … if moments of life could utterly satisfy, I experienced
them then. … the unselfish appreciation of him and his beautiful Rogue. …” –
Author Zane Grey on the One of the earliest masters of the American western novel, Zane
Grey made Oregon’s Rogue River the backdrop to his novel, “Rogue River
Feud.” He also made it his home. Iconoclast Grey was a novelist, explorer, world
record-holding angler, minor-league baseball player and intermittent dentist. An unstereotypical Ivy Leaguer, Grey began
his adult life attending the But after struggling on the professional diamond, Grey succumbed
to growing pressure from his father to take a more suitable livelihood. Thus did the former Somewhere in between extractions and cavities, the dentist told
his family and friends he was growing restless.
Grey looked west to explore the remaining unsettled natural lands and
begin a writing career that would span 40 years. A The Rogue River gurgles out from the flanks of old Given that it’s one of only two American trails that Outside
Magazine included on its list, it is no surprise that the From that day forward, Grey wasn’t just a world-famous
Western writer. He was a Northwestern
one as well. With more than 80 novels, countless articles, and stories inspiring
more than 130 films, Grey was the consummate writer. But he was just as likely to be found traversing
his beloved outdoors as he was typing in his library. Equally at home in both environments, he lived
to experience the wilderness of his stories.
Grey also became renowned for his nonfiction works and joined
contemporary adventurers President Teddy Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway to
contribute to Outdoor Life magazine. But it was Grey’s novels that have secured his place among
the genre’s most inspirational and primary sources today. “Riders of the Purple Sage,” which Harper & Brothers published in 1912, is one of Grey’s
most famous works. The novel is unique both for its atypical strong female
protagonist and its early anti-hero dressed entirely in black. Harper’s, which had first rejected the book,
agreed to publish it after an editor’s wife stayed up all night reading it in a
single sitting. “Riders of the Purple
Sage” has since gone on to sell more than 2 million copies. And country music’s legendary “Man in Black,”
Johnny Cash, proclaimed Grey a direct influence on his life and work. As television grew in popularity, a posthumous series titled,
“
A Local Favorite, a Western
Tradition and an American Legacy After Grey died at the age of 67 in 1939, the Haas family,
long-time owners of Levi Straus, purchased his property at Winkle Bar. The property’s
transition to the makers of denim overalls for Western pioneers in the 19th
century seemed fitting. And though the
Haas’s built their homes there, they maintained Grey’s isolated cabin,
welcoming those willing to raft the Rogue or hike the 5 miles necessary to
reach it. The Haas family continued that cooperation in the 1970s with
an agreement that authorized the Bureau of Land Management to provide public
activities on the land. In 2005, BLM and the Trust for And here the Zane Grey cabin still stands — rustic, tough
and weathered. After serving as Grey’s
annual home for many fishing seasons, it is now his legacy and historical gift.
Of his many major accomplishments, Zane Grey may be most proud that his modest
cabin will protect this land for future generations. They and their children
may now experience the same unsettled trails and river that inspired him and
his writings back in 1926. Zane Grey – author, world record-holding fisherman, outdoorsman,
and conservationist – once said he felt “…the happiest lot of any angler would
be to live somewhere along the banks of the
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