author
Clyde P. Fickes
b. 1884
A longtime U.S. Forest Service ranger and regional architect, he wrote with the calm authority of someone who had spent decades building, riding, and working in the American West. His best-known work, Building with Logs, helped turn hard-earned field knowledge into practical guidance for generations of readers.
1 Audiobook
Building with Logs
by Clyde P. Fickes, W. Ellis (William Ellis) Groben
About the author
Born in Nelson, Nebraska, in 1884, Clyde P. Fickes grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later studied at Ohio Northern University. He went on to build a long career in the U.S. Forest Service, working in the Northern Rockies during the agency’s early years and eventually serving as Regional Architect for Region 1.
Fickes is closely associated with the design and promotion of rustic Forest Service buildings and with practical writing about log construction. He co-authored Building with Logs, a handbook that reflects both technical skill and firsthand experience in the field.
He also left behind memoir-style accounts of early ranger life, describing travel by pack horse, backcountry work, and the day-to-day realities of the Forest Service in the early twentieth century. Those writings give his work an appealing mix of usefulness, history, and lived experience.