Frontier Doctor: Observations on Central Oregon and the Changing West
In January 1905 Urling C. Coe moved to the new town of Bend, Oregon,
to become the first licensed doctor in what he called "the heart of
the last pioneer stock country of the West."
Frontier Doctor, Coe's autobiographical account of his thirteen-year
residency, details the extraordinary experiences of a young physician in
frontier Oregon, from childbirthing to epidemics, broken bones to unwanted
pregnancies. Coe's colorful, first-hand stories about treating patients--cowboys,
rustlers, ranch wives, Indians, prostitutes, homesteaders, and town boosters--offer
a vivid social history of town and ranch life on the Oregon high desert.
They also document the development of a Western boomtown: with the arrival
of the railroad in 1911, the wide-open settlement known as Farewell Bend
was transformed into an important center of industry, commerce, and culture.
In a new introduction Robert Bunting shows how Coe's informed opinions and
observations illustrate themes prevalent in our own understanding of western
history: the central role of women in the western experience, the significance
of the urban West, the boom and bust nature of resource-dependent communities,
concern for conservation, and Westerners' ambivalent relationship with the
federal government. Northwest readers will find Coe's comments about the
management of eastside forests especially relevant.
"If you know today's city of Bend in Central Oregon, reading the newly issued Frontier Doctor by Urling C. Coe will be a trip to an exotic land."
Virgil Rupp, Agri-Times
About the Author
Urling C. Coe (1881-1956) was born in Missouri and graduated from the University
of Missouri and the Eclectic College of Cincinnati. He practiced medicine
in Bend, where he also served as a banker and the town's second mayor, until
1918, when he moved to Portland.
Frontier Doctor was originally published
in 1940 by The MacMillan Company.
About the editor
Robert Bunting is Assistant Professor in History and Southwest Studies at
Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.
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