This western by Zane Grey is the story of Thad Eburne, the chief forest ranger of the Grand Canyon region, mostly attending to the large deer herd in the Buckskin range. But because of the unrestricted slaughter of cougars on Buckskin Mountain, the deer population has overgrown and started starving. When Thad learns about the government’s intent to open a huge deer hunt to hundreds of hunters, he fears that it will worsen man’s destructive meddling with nature, and he agrees to act on a plan to try and preserve as many of the deers as possible.
This book is Zane Grey’s description of a real event at the Grand Canyon in 1924. Grey illustrates the scenery with his elevated words in a fascinating way. The depictions of the land, the essence of the west, and the theme of conservation are all outstanding. The novel is a perfect western with an adventurous story with the right amount of romance.