This is the autobiography of Oregon pioneer legend Tom Tepper, who lived the great Western American Dream of the early twentieth century. An eighth-grade dropout at thirteen, Tom and his father came homesteading in Oregon, where he revelled in the sweat and peril of herding cattle and rodeo riding. Following the times, Tom became a pioneer aviator and flight instructor in the infant Army Air Corps. After finding another calling in the creation of silver jewellery and bridle bits, in later years Tom took to the sweet pursuit of finding the exact Oregon tree suited for making world-class musical instruments. Tepper's story captures the dramatic changes that the American West went through in the twentieth century, from the perspective of a fiercely independent original.