Today, while surfing the net on the second hottest day of 2008, I came across an AP report that ownership of a remote 32 acres in the middle of the Rogue River wild and scenic area had been sold to the Bureau of Land Management.
The land, at Winkle Bar, was the old mining claim purchased by Zane Grey in 1926. There he built a crude one-room cabin of peeled logs and hand-split shingles. This was his wilderness retreat. Grey loved what would become one of the first rivers protected by the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1962.
Grey first discovered the Rogue River in 1916 and the river became the backdrop for his novel “Rogue River Feud”. What other stories came out of his visits to the remote cabin?
The AP reporter interviewed Eric Grey, Zane’s great grandson. The article quotes Eric saying that Zane Grey once wrote, “The quail and trout have vanished from California and the forests are following. I’m glad Romer (Zane Grey’s son and Eric’s grandfather) can still see something of wild America, but I fear his son never will.”
This bit of Oregon and literary history is being preserved, Rafters on the wild section of the Rogue will continue to stop and peer into the windows and wonder about the man who created a retreat in this bit of the wild west. What dreams does the brief visit inspire today?
The land, at Winkle Bar, was the old mining claim purchased by Zane Grey in 1926. There he built a crude one-room cabin of peeled logs and hand-split shingles. This was his wilderness retreat. Grey loved what would become one of the first rivers protected by the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1962.
Grey first discovered the Rogue River in 1916 and the river became the backdrop for his novel “Rogue River Feud”. What other stories came out of his visits to the remote cabin?
The AP reporter interviewed Eric Grey, Zane’s great grandson. The article quotes Eric saying that Zane Grey once wrote, “The quail and trout have vanished from California and the forests are following. I’m glad Romer (Zane Grey’s son and Eric’s grandfather) can still see something of wild America, but I fear his son never will.”
This bit of Oregon and literary history is being preserved, Rafters on the wild section of the Rogue will continue to stop and peer into the windows and wonder about the man who created a retreat in this bit of the wild west. What dreams does the brief visit inspire today?
