James Oliver Curwood, Disciple of the Wilds

by Hobart Donald Swiggett

Jim’s home is one of the most beautiful and stately ones in all of Owosso. But because he was a wilderness man, a true disciple of the wilds, and because of the Indian blood flowing in his veins, he found it difficult to write inside four walls. He found it difficult even to do so inside the walls of Curwood Castle, his own especially-built writing studio. His great-grandmother was a full blooded Mohawk Indian princess, and his famous ancestor, Captain Frederick A. Marrayat, was a great seaman and world renowned novelist. It is therefore easy to see how the adventure blood must have been surging through Jim’s veins.

Jim loved the great open spaces where all was silent and peaceful so much, that when he was away from it for a long period of time, he was quite hard to get along with. That was one of the reasons for building his Castle so he could decorate it to his own satisfaction and still feel the tang of the wilds about him. That was why he built it along the shores of the Shiawassee, “Sparkling Waters.” It had that ancient and wild look about it that gave him inspiration.

Jim lived and died an outdoorsman, believing in “the fundamental rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for all creatures of the wilderness. And so during his climb to the top rung of the ladder of success he had acquired several thousands of acres of forest land in northern Michigan, just a short way from the little city of Roscommon. There in the very center of “his own wilderness,” Jim Curwood built himself what was almost a baronial castle done in logs. Each log was from a tree which he had selected himself, making sure that his “out-of-the-way retreat” was constructed with the finest the forests had to offer.

Although situated along the banks of the Au Sable River and just a short way from the town of Roscommon, Jim would not consider having a telephone in his cabin. Although within that same distance there were electric light wires, Jim absolutely refused to have them in his wilderness home. He insisted upon keeping his lodge absolutely primitive, and that is exactly what he did.

The place cost him many thousands of dollars, but he would have no modern plumbing of any sort installed. He maintained that it was possible “to be luxuriously primitive—or primitively luxurious,” and in the end it cost him his life.

Here in this “stag hiding place” were some of Jim’s very best friends. Namely, they were the mink, the wildcat, the marten, squirrel and many other creatures of the wilds. It was here at the cabin in upper Michigan and the place in the upper part of Canada that Jim had a most contented peace, and could note wildlife at its very best.

Bruce Otto, the noted timber country guide, made many trips with Jim Curwood and helped him build several of his cabins which are scattered all over the wilds of the Canadian Northlands, ranging from the mountains of British Columbia to the wilds surrounding Hudson’s Bay. Those two men have lived entirely off the land for months at a time, securing whatever food was necessary when the time arrived. It was on journeys as these that Jim secured material for such great novels of the North as “River’s End,” “The Valley of Silent Men,” and “The Flaming Forest.”

“I traveled three thousand miles up and down the mighty Saskatchewan before I wrote ‘The River’s End,’ and if I had not gone down the Athabaska, the Slave and the Mackenzie with the ‘Wild river brigades,’ of God’s Country, I could never have written ‘The Valley of Silent Men.’”

Jim Curwood actually lived with those wonderful characters of his books. He has lived with the strong men and brave women from such books as “God’s Country and the Woman,” “The Honor of the Big Snows,” “Kazan” and many others.

In Jim Curwood’s home are twenty-seven guns of all types and calibers. Each of them has seen much service, and all of them have notches cut into them recording the number of kills made. The entire place, from attic to basement, is filled with pelts and mounted heads. These trophies, denoting the days when he was known as a great hunter, are regarded as martyrs. For, from that day when the “great light appeared,” Jim Curwood ceased being the hunter, the trapper, the destroyer of nature and wild life. For, in what he terms his religion, Jim believed that the wild creatures understood him and believed in him as their friend. This understanding and belief was eventually written into the volume entitled “God’s Country—The Trail to Happiness.” This was James Oliver Curwood’s worldly confession as a “killer.” At the time and for years after, Jim vowed that he was far more happier writing this particular book than any others he had ever penned.