Cashdown’s Folly
In the 1880s, Hamish Musgrave looks for land in Washington Territory and finds what becomes his stake in what was then called ‘Palouse Country’. He settles north of Colfax, in what is now the eastern part of Washington State. Fighting off claim jumpers, he establishes his family on land close by a steep-sided mountain that fires his imagination. He calls it Pyramid Peak.
Together with his wife, Libbie, and their many children, he builds first a sod house, then a farmhouse and later an inn. Known as ‘Cashdown’ because he chooses to pay cash for his purchases, Hamish becomes part, with other settlers, of developing the region from open grassland to farmland and from casual settlements to organized towns. This novel portrays the disappearance of native people, the issues fought between settlers, and the occasional ‘get-rich-quick’ arrival. It shows the coming of railroads and the increasing influence of bankers and railroad owners.
The author gives insight into this progress along with the meetings, the disputes, and the alliances that went with them. All these are shown through Cashdown Musgrave’s experiences, including becoming a prosperous influential farmer, head of a happy family, then a slightly deluded old man living in his grand hotel on top of his mountain—no longer called Pyramid Peak, but renamed ‘Steptoe Butte’ by an incomer.
While this is a novel with a protagonist and a rich cast of supporting characters, its main strength and purpose is to share the author’s research and knowledge into the history of this region of eastern Washington. He has pulled apart each step in its progress and shown how those involved came up with the idea, fought for it, and put the pieces in place. It is an entertaining look into one area’s history.
