Second Annual Zane Grey Days held

By TOM KANE

LACKAWAXEN, PA — Zane Grey, the author of 90 novels and numerous motion pictures, most of them about cowboys and the west, lived at the confluence of the Delaware and Lackawaxen rivers.

His most popular novel, “Riders of the Purple Sage,” was written at his home there.

The home he build on the river has been converted into a museum about his works and life by the National Park Service (NPS).

This past weekend, July 16 and 17, the NPS celebrated his life by holding the Second Annual Zane Grey Days.

The day’s events included a talk on Grey and his wife, Dolly; a lecture on passenger service on the Erie Railroad in 1900, a talk on Grey’s the life and time, a presentation on the Zane Grey Cultural Landscape Plan, a tour of the Grey property, a talk on Pike County at the tome of Grey’s life and a game of lawn croquet on the property by the NPS staff. Three of his movies, “Drift Fence,” “Roll Along Cowboy” and “To the Last Man,” were shown.

“He was truly a remarkable man,” said Steve Miller of Lancaster, PA, a dentist and devotee of Grey’s life and career frm who had a display and gave a talk about the author of 90 novels.

“Grey was very much the Victorian in his attitudes and his writings,” Miller said.

He suffered from manic-depression, sometimes called bipolar personality. “Nothing seemed to please him and he was rarely at peace with himself,” Miller said. “He was a great fisherman and traveled throughout the west, fishing the greatest rivers and streams. He was always looking for a bigger and bigger fish and a better and better novel or movie.”

Grey was an avid anti-war advocate and was opposed to the U.S. involvement in World War I, Miller said.

While he was traveling, his wife, Lisa, whom he called Dolly, stayed in Lackawaxen raising the children, Miller said. The family finally moved to California in 1919 where Grey built a house on Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles.

A lecture on Grey’s life was delivered by NPS Education Specialist Ingrid Peterac and Assistant Superintendent Sandy Schultz led a walking tour of the Grey property.

George J. Fluhr, Pike County historian, spoke on Pike County at the time of Grey’s life.

“I read every book of his that I could get and I just finished a biography of his life,” said Mary Roebish. “He had all his brothers and sisters build houses right here in Lackawaxen. He was a remarkable family man.”

The Wayne County Historical Society, the Shohola Historical Society, the Pike County Historical Society, the Pike County Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Zane Grey’s West Society all had exhibits at the event.

The Zane Grey Museum is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It can be reached by calling 570/685-4871.