Hathaway Jones was a rural mail carrier in at the turn of the century. He delivered "mail" and various mail order catalogue items from West Fork to homesteaders, miners et al along the Rogue River. He had lots of time to make up stories as he led his pack string of anywhere from two to 15 mules and horses. Most were stories on himself.

Tall Tale telling is an American tradition being recognized with swaps all over the country. It helps stir the imagination and the stories are great, especially when told around a campfire.

Also gives incentive to make up your own tall tales. Look around you and you'll see lots of stories just waiting to be told. This book provides the incentive to do just that.

Folks around the Rogue River STILL talk about this guy. Some even do impersonations of him. Hathaway Jones could have been the Aesop and the Garrison Keillor of his time.

This book is a wonderful way to teach children how to use their imaginations with everyday things to create exciting stories. For adults, Hathaway's humor makes great reading next to the fireplace or around a campfire.

A note of thanks to Steven Dow Beckham for compiling these stories. Hathaway Jones was truly a remarkable man and it would have been a shame to have lost the wit and wisdom of this simple mail carrier.

Beckham has done more to understand the history of the Indian people of the Oregon coast than any other author. As a member of the Coos tribe, I am grateful for his attention to a history which not only very few non-Indians but also Indian people are aware.

However, mostly missing in this book is the Indian voice, or a discussion of the motivation and understanding of the Indian people who were being uprooted and systematically killed. While Beckham is clearly sympathetic to Indians, this is still a book written from the dominant culture's perspective; even so, the discussion of the motivations of the non-Indian settlers is somewhat superficial.

Because so little is written on the subject, this is an important addition to the history of the Oregon Coast in the early 19th century.

Professor Beckham's presents a terse and lucid account of the displacement of the natives of the Rogue Valley and surrounding areas. I grew up in the Rogue Valley and in fact my family homesteaded there, although they began a couple of decades after the natives had been displaced to reservations. I wish very much that this book had been required reading in my high school, because we were raised to be essentially blind to the melancholy history of our area.

The book is essentially a scholarly memoir, with extensive footnoting for anyone wanting to find more detail in the historical record. Yet, the writing is accessible and vivid. This is a highly recommended read.