Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania: Zane Grey Museum

Zane Grey thought he was going to be a dentist at one point in his life. He had used his baseball skill to get a scholarship to Penn's dental school, and graduated in 1896. Grey played baseball and practiced a little dentistry for a few years.

Then he moved to rural Pennsylvania, where he wrote about his life in the outdoors. After giving up dentistry, Grey got married in 1905 and headed west on vacation ... and fell in love with that region. He started writing books about the West ... and books, and books, and more books. Grey stayed until 1918, before Hollywood called. It seems the moviemakers liked Grey's work as source material.

The so-called "Father of the Western Novel" worked until his death in 1939. The house back in Pennsylvania was sold to a family friend, who eventually turned it into a Zane Grey museum. And in 1939, the building was sold to the National Park Service, which maintains it today.

It's a great spot, right on the Delaware River. The bottom floor is open to the public, with several decorations still intact. The main room is shown in the photo here. A gift shop is part of the place too. There is no admission charge.

By the way, Grey was born in Zanesville, Ohio, and a museum about him is maintained in nearby Norwich.

Here's a view of the grounds in PA that I couldn't have shot:

 

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