by Steven W. Coady (Author)
The open West came to an end in 1880. Conservation, not preservation was the creed of the newly formed U.S. Forest Service. This is the story of Cy Bingham of Michigan, who came to southwestern Washington for seven years working as a cowpuncher. He toughened up quick and any task he was assigned never found him wanting. Despite a second grade education, he made up for it with fast learning, his size and his abilities to make friends with anyone. Besides riding to high peaks to use a glass looking for smokes, Cy also had to assign grazing permits to sheep herders, with help, he built several log cabins and he blazed many, many trees with his name, the date, the elevation and sometimes other cryptic information. Cy didn't leave a journal of most of his work, so with information from other sources I was able to connect the dots. I can only hope that I faithfully fleshed out this larger than life character and you don't find the story wanting. Thank you.