Reuben Aaron Long (26 January 1898 – 28 July 1974) was an Eastern Oregon rancher, author, and story teller.

Jackman to write The Oregon Desert, which is still a very popular book fifty years after its original publication.

His parents bought a ranch in the Fort Rock Valley approximately one hundred and twenty miles north of Lakeview in 1900.

On one of those trips, Reub bought his first saddle for $13.50 using money he had made trading livestock and selling coyote hides.

The garden was forty miles south of the ranch, but Reub made a round trip every three days.

[2] Reub lived his entire life on his ranch, adjacent to Fort Rock (now a state park) in northern Lake County.

The ranch covered several thousand acres where he raised cattle and allowed wild horses to run free.

A woman standing close by looked at him in utter amazement and blurted out, "How could you count all those horses, Mr. Long ... Why ...

"[1]In 1938, a team of archeologists from the University of Oregon led by Luther Cressman excavated the Fort Rock Cave located on his ranch.

[5][6][7] The team found sandals made of bark and sagebrush that carbon dating proved were 9,300 to 10,500 years old.

[8][9] The success of the Cressman dig was widely publicized, and as the team's local host, Reub and his stories shared the spotlight.

[2][10] When Hollywood film crews came to central Oregon to shoot westerns, Reub supplied horses, wagons, and other ranch equipment.

Because he was an expert at handling horse teams, Reub participated in a wild and dangerous chase scene in the movie The Indian Fighter with ten covered wagons racing across the desert.

During these productions, Reub got to know a number of well-known actors including Dana Andrews, Lloyd Bridges, Ward Bond, Andy Devine, Brian Donlevy, Kirk Douglas, and Susan Hayward.

The book "successfully blended natural science with cowboy humor and scholarly prose with casual meanderings.