O. N. Eddins
O. N. (Ned) Eddins was born and now resides in Afton, Wyoming, which is near Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons—a landmark for Indians and Mountain Men. The Lander Cutoff of the Oregon Trail goes through Star Valley three miles from where he resides.
Dr. Eddins holds bachelor and master degrees from the University of Utah and graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Veterinary Medicine. He practiced Veterinary Medicine and did postgraduate work on Equine fertility at his Salt Lake clinic. The postgraduate studies in the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Utah were fund by a grant from the National Institute of Health.
Dr. Eddins is the author of two historical novels, Mountains of Stone and The Winds of Change. The historical novels are concerned with the effects of mountain men, the fur trade, and western expansion on Indian cultures. The majority of Mountains of Stone was written in a pack camp deep in the Greys River mountains near the Strawberry Indian trail from Jackson Hole and the Tetons to the Snake River plains. By horse and pack string, Dr. Eddins has ridden many of the trails described in his novels. His campfires have been built in the same places as those of mountain men and explorers that were in this general area over two hundred years ago.
During the summer of 2009, a television crew from Germany came to Wyoming and spent the night in his Salt River camp to interview Dr. Eddins on John Jacob Astor and the Astorians for German and French public television. The film crew photographed Dr. Eddins discussing and pointing out sections of the Astorian Robert Stuart trail of 1812, the 1859 Lander Trail, and several active beaver dams. In this country, the show has been on the Smithsonian channel.
Dr. Eddins is a 2011 contributor and a peer reviewer for the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, and teaches history workshop classes for the Western Wyoming Community College.
October of 2016, Dr. Eddins presented a power point discussion on the 1826-1827 Southwest Journey of Jedediah Smith, with an emphasis on the Smith Party crossing the Mojave Desert, at the Jedediah Smith Society 60th anniversary rendezvous in Lodi, California. At the meeting Dr. Eddins was presented with an Award of Excellence by the Jedediah Smith Society for his studies on Jedediah Smith.
Dr. Eddins was an approved judge of the American Quarter Horse and the American Paint Horse associations, as well as, a certified ski instructor in Park City, Utah.