Reub Long

Reuben Aaron Long (26 January 1898 – 28 July 1974) was an Eastern Oregon rancher, author, and story teller. He was known throughout Oregon as a witty and wise cowboy philosopher. In 1964, he joined E.R. Jackman to write The Oregon Desert, which is still a very popular book fifty years after its original publication.

Early life

Reub was born in Lakeview, Oregon on 26 January 1898. His parents bought a ranch in the Fort Rock Valley approximately one hundred and twenty miles north of Lakeview in 1900. The family's ranch was so isolated that they only made the round-trip to Prineville once a year to get supplies. On one of those trips, Reub bought his first saddle for $13.50 using money he had made trading livestock and selling coyote hides. At the time, he was seven years old.

The Long ranch had alkaline soil and insufficient water to produce good vegetables. When he was eleven, his parents sent him to the Summer Lake area during the summer to raise a garden. The garden was forty miles south of the ranch, but Reub made a round trip every three days. The first day, he would ride his horse to the garden site. The next day he tended and watered the garden, and then he rode home on the third day. In the fall, Reub's family gathered two wagon loads of vegetables from his garden. The team found sandals made of bark and sagebrush that carbon dating proved were 9,300 to 10,500 years old. At the time, these were the oldest human artifacts ever found in North America. The success of the Cressman dig was widely publicized, and as the team's local host, Reub and his stories shared the spotlight.

When Hollywood film crews came to central Oregon to shoot westerns, Reub supplied horses, wagons, and other ranch equipment. He helped film makers scout locations and advised them on pioneer life. Reub and his wife, Eleanor, also worked as movie extras in two films. Because he was an expert at handling horse teams, Reub participated in a wild and dangerous chase scene in the movie The Indian Fighter with ten covered wagons racing across the desert. Over the years, he participated in three films: Canyon Passage, The Way West, and The Indian Fighter. During these productions, Reub got to know a number of well-known actors including Dana Andrews, Lloyd Bridges, Ward Bond, Andy Devine, Brian Donlevy, Kirk Douglas, and Susan Hayward.

Throughout his life, Long was a strong advocate and supporter of agricultural education. He was a longtime member of the Oregon's State Board of Agriculture, serving as its chairman for a term.

Sage of Fort Rock

In 1964, a collection of Reub's anecdotal stories was compiled into a book, co-written with E.R. Jackman. The book, titled The Oregon Desert, recounts with good humor the places, events, animals, and people that made up Reub's Eastern Oregon world. The book "successfully blended natural science with cowboy humor and scholarly prose with casual meanderings. It was a celebration of rural Western storytelling, and over the years, it has become a Pacific Northwest classic."

Legacy

During his lifetime, Long donated property to the State of Oregon to establish the Fort Rock State Natural Area. He also created a trust that endowed a professorship at Oregon State University's College of Agricultural Sciences.

The best known building on the Oregon State Fairgrounds is named in honor of Long and E. R. Jackman. The Jackman-Long Building was opened in 1976. It is a exposition center that also houses the Oregon State Fair and Exposition Center's main office.