Cabin Creek Chronicle: The History of the Most Remote Ranch in America

Cabin Creek Chronicle is a non-fictional account of the key activities that occurred at a little known but historically significant place in the rugged mountains of central Idaho from the mid 1800s to the present. It provides details about the last battle between the US Cavalry and Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest and follows the lives of the series of inhabitants that occupied an isolated ranch as it developed through trying times that saw it fragment into four individual homesteads, endure the era of the Great Depression, and emerge post WWII reconstituted as one of the first dude ranches in Idaho. Special focus is on land use changes during those times. The story also includes the return of the area to uninhabited wilderness and little known aspects of the events leading up to its inclusion in the present day Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The account is based on and constrained by unpublished diaries, homestead records, and correspondence of the principal residents of Cabin Creek. To the extent that it follows the occupation of Cabin Creek by Luman Caswell and his brothers, it also provides a sequel to my earlier book Wilderness Brothers. In addition to those who enjoyed Wilderness Brothers: Prospecting, Horse Packing, & Homesteading on the Western Frontier, this book will be of interest to many other readers of western US history, from those with general interest to professional scholars. Illustrated with over 100 photographs, many of them of the Cabin Creek area more than a century ago. A number of the photos illustrate landscape changes between then and now.

The author has explored the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, especially in the vicinity of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and its tributaries, on foot, by raft and on horseback for for over four decades and has made annual/regular visits to the Cabin Creek area during 25 of those years. He is Professor Emeritus of Ecology at Idaho State University where he taught courses in ecology and conducted research on stream ecosystems, including those in and around Cabin Creek. He also has substantial background teaching and living the principles of practical homesteading. His work in stream ecology has been published extensively in peer-reviewed ecological journals. This is his second book of a non-ecological science nature but, like the first, was guided by the fact that sound historical research involves many of the same processes, procedures, intellectual challenges, and constraints.