A covered wagon on a dim road, the promise of a long journey, and the wonder of what lay ahead filled the shadowy spaces of Mary Sheehan Ronan�s earliest memories. By the time she was a married woman in her twenties, she was a well-seasoned pioneer, having crossed most of the country and retraced her steps back across a third of it. In this highly readable, entertaining account, Ronan tells the story of one woman�s life in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century.
This detailed memoir recalls the young girl�s journey across the Great Plains, her childhood on the Colorado and Montana mining frontiers, her ascent to young womanhood on a farm in southern California, her experiences as a student in a Los Angeles convent school, her return to Montana as a bride, and her life on the Flathead Indian Reservation as wife of the Indian agent. The exhilaration of a forbidden sled ride, the creaking of the hangman�s rope, her father giving the last of their water to his dying mule�these things Ronan describes with vivid clarity. Ably edited and annotated, Girl from the Gulches offers a unique perspective that is a joy to read.
