Book Review:
Forlorn River


by Donald Lee Younker
North Logan, Utah


This book was originally serialized in "Ladies Home Journal" in 1926 and was then published by Harpers in 1927. The location for this novel is a remote wilderness valley covering parts of both northern California and southern Oregon. The river flowing through this area was named the "Forlorn River" by Grey but, in actuality, this is the "Lost River" which flows out of Clear Lake in California and into Oregon near Klamath Falls. On its way it gets "lost" and goes underground, then reappears, flows back into California and empties into Tule Lake.

After World War I, the Bureau of Reclamation diverted most of the "Lost" into the Klamath River; then, as Tule Lake dried up, veterans homesteaded in the area. After World War II, its veterans also homesteaded there. My own homestead was located on the southeast shore of the original Tule Lake, not far from the old stagecoach road along which Grey probably traveled.

FORLORN RIVER tells so much about this area and its history; the Ice Caves were where wild horses could get water, and where the gang was captured. Grey named Ben Ide's Indian friend "Modoc", perhaps as a reminder of the Modoc Indian War of 1872-1873 in which a General became the only U.S. Army officer of that rank to be killed in an Indian war. Some of the book's action unfolds in what is now Lava Beds National Monument near the town of Tulelake, California.

Donald Lee Younker is a Member of ZGWS. He lives in North Logan, Utah.

This book review is the personal opinion of the writer.

Historical images of Zane Grey used with permission of Dr. Loren Grey and Zane Grey, Inc.