Pioneers & Legends

Jordan Lawrence Mott III (1881–1931)

Novelist and pioneer on Oregon's North Umpqua River 

By Jack W. Berryman

Jordan Lawrence Mott III was born on August 15, 1881, in New York City. He was the only child of Jordan Lawrence Mott, Jr., and the grandson of Jordan Lawrence Mott, Sr. His father and grandfather owned and operated the J. L. Mott Iron Works, a large manufacturer of plumbing fixtures and other iron products in Trenton, New Jersey. His grandfather was also president of the North American Iron Works, the Star Foundry Company, and the North River Bridge Company, and vice president of the New River Mineral Company, all in New York.

Mott Sr. and Mott Jr. were both avid outdoorsmen who traveled extensively throughout the world, hunting and fishing. By the time Mott III reached the age of 10, he had begun to accompany his father and grandfather on their adventures. They were particularly fond of the Canadian wilderness, but also hunted and fished throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and all parts of North America. When Mott graduated from high school, he was highly skilled with guns, bird dogs, and fishing rods. He also had fly fished extensively for Atlantic salmon in England, Scotland, Newfoundland, Ireland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia, and was a superb fly caster.

He entered Harvard College in 1901 and shortly after married Caroline Pitkin from Braintree, Massachusetts. Two years later, they had a son, Jordan Lawrence Mott IV. While still an undergraduate student, Mott began to write short stories and accounts of some of his adventures, simply for his own enjoyment. However, just before his graduation in 1905, his writings were shown to the editor of New York's Century Magazine , who liked them and accepted them for publication. This was such a rare occurrence that a writer for The Critic and Literary World noted that young Mott had written “a batch of stories with the wilderness for a background” and they were accepted immediately by a major national magazine. He went on to say that “I cannot recall any other man or woman whose talent has been so quick to gain recognition. Mr. Mott's manuscripts have never been rejected.”

Beginning with the June 1905 issue and continuing through September, Century Magazine published four of his stories. Another story was published in The Outing Magazine in October. Mott was working at the time at a New York City newspaper and was dubbed “the millionaire reporter” by those who knew his family background. Later in 1905, the Century Company published his first novel, Jules of the Great Heart: “Free” Trapper and Outlaw in the Hudson Bay Region in the Early Days . By year's end, his portrait appeared in The Critic and Literary World . He was pictured at his desk with hunting trophies, gun cases, fishing rods, angling and hunting photographs, and guns all around him. The story about Mott suggested that his photograph “shows the tastes of the young author, who is as enthusiastic a sportsman as he is a writer” and that “the trophies of the chase by which he is surrounded in the picture are of his own getting.”

Mott's writing career developed substantially between 1906 and 1910. Several of his articles were published in Harper's Weekly , Century , and Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1906, and that same year “Salmon Fishing on the Forteau, Labrador ” and “Love in the Wilderness” were published in Outing 's June and November issues, respectively. The following year, short stories by Mott appeared in Outing , Harper's , and Lippincott's , and he published his second and third novels. His second book, The White Darkness, and Other Stories of the Great Northwest , was published by the Outing Publishing Company; his third book, To the Credit of the Sea , was published by Harper Brothers. Other short stories, as well as poems, appeared in Harper's and Century in 1909. His fourth novel, Prairie, Sea, and Snow, was published in 1910.

In 1911, Mott met and befriended Frances Bowne, a Broadway musical comedy star and wife of New York attorney Walter Bowne. Despite the best efforts of Mr. Bowne and Mott's grandfather to stop the relationship, Mott and Mrs. Bowne eloped to Japan and resided in Tokyo from 1912 until 1914. The affair made sensational news in New York City, with several articles appearing in The New York Times , and interrupted his literary career.

Mott was commissioned a major in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War I and wrote sporadically after that for Collier's , Harper's , and Sunset . He and Mrs. Bowne moved to Catalina Island, California, in the 1920s, and he finally divorced his first wife in 1927. Mott and Mrs. Bowne were married in October the following year.

Throughout the 1920s, with his home on the West Coast, Mott continued to fish and hunt. He was a contemporary of, and friends with, two other famous novelists of this period who wrote about the wilderness, outdoor life, and hunting and fishing—Jack London ( The Call of the Wild ) and Zane Grey ( Riders of the Purple Sage and Tales of Fresh Water Fishing , among many others). Grey lived near Mott in California and trolled for swordfish off Catalina Island. It was Grey who first fished Oregon's Rogue River in 1919 and was joined there later by London. Mott loved to fish for salmon and steelhead, and fished the Klamath, the Mackenzie, and the Eel, among others. He eventually spent several weeks on the Rogue in October and November 1928, just after Joe Wharton's article on “Game Fish of Rogue River” appeared in the June issue of Forest and Stream . He returned home and sold a radio station he owned in Avalon, California, and began making plans to return to Oregon the following year.

Instead of going back to the Rogue, Mott, his wife, and Captain Frank Winch of Forest and Stream magazine drove Mott's red Cadillac up to Roseburg, Oregon, pulling a skiff on a trailer behind it. The next morning they drove up a newly completed dirt road along the North Umpqua River. Mott noted that the road took “a decided bit of ‘doing' to negotiate . . . as it is entirely a dirt way, very narrow, for the most part, with an uncomfortable lot of sharp turns.” Upon reaching the Steamboat Ranger Station on the upper river, they stayed in one of a few rustic cabins built by John Ewell, a motel operator from Roseburg, where Canton Creek joins Steamboat Creek. Mott was so impressed with the steelhead fly fishing that he stayed for six weeks, obtained a permit from the U.S. Forest Service, and set up a fly-fishing camp on the south side of the North Umpqua, overlooking the pools just below the entrance of Steamboat Creek. He constructed tents on wooden platforms and hired a local guide, Zeke Allen, to be his assistant. Mott returned home with a great appreciation for the North Umpqua and the anticipation of operating his new fishing camp the next summer and fall.

With the memories of his first trip to the North Umpqua in 1929 still fresh in his mind, Mott wrote three articles for publication in Forest and Stream . Signing each Major Lawrence Mott, he published “Steelheads on 2.5 Ounces of Bamboo” in the January 1930 issue, “Umpqua Salmon” in the April issue, and “Umpqua Steelheads” in the July issue. In the first article, Mott told of his battle with a 6-pound steelhead on a very light rod and described the Steamboat pool as “a delicious run of water to lay fly over, and as it is at the head of a very steep rapid, there are always steelhead resting in its swift, though smooth-flowing depths. When the light is right . . . the great fish can be easily seen.” In his second article, on salmon, Mott says he actually spent four months on the North Umpqua in 1929, but fished for salmon in late April and May on the lower river. He had heard that “the salmon of the Pacific Coast will not take a fly,” but, still not believing it, reported that “all these negatives notwithstanding I simply had to whip the magnificent pools of the Oregon stream with almost every salmon fly ever tied, while grand fish rolled and played all about me—ere I would definitely admit the puzzling truth!” He finally caught a 40-pound chinook on a spoon using a fly rod of 8.5 ounces. The battle lasted one hour and 49 minutes.

Mott's article on “Umpqua Steelheads” immediately attracted national attention to the North Umpqua. He described the river as being “gorgeous” and having no “equal for charm of exquisite scenery.” And, unlike several other notable Western rivers, it was not crowded. He said it was on the North Umpqua that he “had the finest sport with the great steelhead, in all my years of fishing experiences” and that it “is the ONLY unspoiled river that is left on the whole of the American Pacific slope!” Mott described the river as “mile after mile of enchanting pools, riffles and deep runs,” but warned that for an angler to do well, he must be able “to wade deep in the swift current” and “cast a long line.” He recommended heavy felt soles for maneuvering over the slippery rocks and the use of a wading staff. For flies, Mott used Atlantic salmon flies such as a Jock Scott in a size 6, a Black Dose or Brown Fairy in a size 8, or a size 6 Durham Ranger. He was particularly enthralled with the beauty and magnificence of the steelhead and remarked that he knew of “no fish whose sheer loveliness of delicate hues and shadings surpass those of the famous Steelhead.” Before he released a fish of 9.5 pounds, Mott asked, “Gad man—did you ever see anything so wholly beautiful? Now then—take a quick look, as the little fly in the tough part of the upper jaw has done no harm and this chap goes back to his freedom . . .”

Mott's fishing camp on the North Umpqua had its first full summer of operation in 1930. He and Zeke Allen entertained guests from as far away as New York and Pennsylvania. Fishermen were transported up the dirt road along the river, and once they reached Steamboat Creek they were ferried across the river just below the confluence. With his strategically placed camp, Mott and his guests fished the best water on a daily basis.

After the very successful 1930 season, Mott again returned to his home in California. On a radio lecture tour that fall for the Sportsmen's Association of California, he became ill. It was soon discovered that Mott had leukemia, and there was no possible cure. Instead of resting for his remaining days, he returned to his beloved North Umpqua fishing camp and died there beside the river on June 3, 1931, at the age of 50. Mott left his camp to his partner, Zeke Allen, and gave away most of his fishing equipment to the friends he had met on the river. Most went to his closest friend, Fred Asam, the district forest ranger at Steamboat, and to Asam's four children. Zeke Allen eventually sold the old Mott campsite to Clarence Gordon, another Southern Californian, in 1934. Gordon built his famous North Umpqua Lodge there. In the early 1950s, Gordon moved across the river, opened the Steamboat Store, and sold the old lodge and site to the U.S. Forest Service to become the Steamboat Ranger Station. The Steamboat Store eventually became today's Steamboat Inn.

Mott's legacy on the North Umpqua has never been forgotten. A new bridge across the river built just upstream from Steamboat Creek in 1936 was named Mott Bridge, and the part of the North Umpqua Trail on the south side of the river below Mott Bridge was named Mott Trail. In addition, several of the best pools and runs that make up the famous Camp Water from Mott Bridge downstream past the confluence with Steamboat Creek bear names directly related to Mott. Upper Boat and Lower Boat below Steamboat Creek were so named because of Mott's boat that ferried his guests across the river at that spot. Upper Kitchen and Kitchen got their names because they were visible from Mott's kitchen tent. And Upper Mott, Middle Mott, and Lower Mott were named to honor the early pioneer on the North Umpqua. A landmark plaque was placed near Mott Bridge in 1988, naming it an Oregon Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

It was not long after Mott's death that the North Umpqua gained more and more national recognition. Zane Grey began fishing there and writing about it in 1932 and wrote “North Umpqua Steelheads” for the September 1935 issue of Sports Afield . In 1938, Ray Bergman wrote a chapter on “Steelhead of the Umpqua” in Trout and caught his first steelhead in Mott Pool. Claude Krieder's Steelhead (1948) included a photograph of Mott, and when he fished the North Umpqua, he said, “I sought the famous Mott Pool and the Kitchen Pool, waters in which many tremendous steelhead had been taken over the years . . .” Three years later, in Steelhead to a Fly , in his chapter “The North Umpqua,” Clark Van Fleet talked about the Mott Pool and the rest of the Camp Water, and concluded, “Before you is the best piece of flywater for really large summer steelhead that remains in the United States.”

In 1952, a 34-mile stretch of the river, including the famous Camp Water, was designated for fly fishing only. Since then, still others, including Trey Combs, Michael Baughman, John Shewey, and Michael Checchio, have written about Mott and his wonderful contributions to Northwest fly fishing. In fact, in Steelhead Fly Fishing (1991), Combs referred to the North Umpqua's Camp Water as “the most celebrated waters in all of steelhead fly fishing.” What could be a better tribute to Major Mott than a cold, clean, fast-moving river filled with wild steelhead?

Jack W. Berryman is an angling author and historian who lives in Kirkland, Washington.

Reprinted by permission of and Jack W. Berryman.

Any reproduction of this article or any of its contents is strictly prohibited.

For information on how you can help preserve this wonderful river please email us or write to:
The North Umpqua Foundation
P.O. Box 238
Idleyld Park, OR 97447-0238