Prior to the early 1870s, Oregon's Long Creek Valley was an isolated oasis of bunch grass and wildlife surrounded by rugged, heavily timbered mountains. Among the valley's first white settlers, lured by the abundance of grass and water, were William F. Willingham's great-grandparents. During summer visits as a child, he listened to his elderly relatives' stories about growing up on the frontier.

In Starting Over, the author draws on a range of sources to bring to life the people who scratched out a community based on cattle and sheep raising, kinship ties, and shared social values. Willingham shows how the development of Long Creek illuminates key aspects of the story of the last phase of the settling of the American frontier.