A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains [in 1873], by Isabella L. Bird

Published: G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1881

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                   A LADY'S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

                                    BY

                             ISABELLA L. BIRD,
        AUTHOR OF 'SIX MONTHS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS,' ETC. ETC.
                            WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

                                 NEW YORK
                            G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
                                   1881




   TO MY SISTER, TO WHOM THESE LETTERS WERE ORIGINALLY WRITTEN, THEY ARE 
NOW AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.




NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

   FOR the benefit of other lady travellers, I wish to explain that my 
"Hawaiian riding dress" is the "American Lady's Mountain Dress," a half-
fitting jacket, a skirt reaching to the ankles, and full Turkish trousers 
gathered into frills falling over the boots,--a thoroughly serviceable and 
feminine costume for mountaineering and other rough travelling, as in the 
Alps or any other part of the world.

I.L.B.        November 27, 1879.



NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

   IN consequence of the unobserved omission of a date to my letters 
having been pointed out to me, I take this opportunity of stating that I 
travelled in Colorado in the autumn and early winter of 1873, on my way to 
England from the Sandwich Islands. The letters are a faithful picture of 
the country and state of society as it then was; but friends who have 
returned from the West within the last six months tell me that things are 
rapidly changing, that the frame house is replacing the log cabin, and 
that the footprints of elk and bighorn may be sought for in vain on the 
dewy slopes of Estes Park.

I.L.B.        January 16, 1880.




Page ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

LETTER I. Lake Tahoe--Morning in San Francisco--Dust--A Pacific mail 
train--Digger Indians--Cape Horn--A mountain hotel--A pioneer--A Truckee 
livery stable--A mountain stream--Finding a bear--Tahoe. ... 1-16 

II. A lady's "get-up"--Grizzly bears--The "Gem of the Sierras"--A tragic 
tale--A carnival of colour. ... 17-24 

III. A Temple of Morpheus--Utah--A "God-forgotten" town--A distressed 
couple--Dog villages--A temperance colony--A Colorado inn--The bug pest--
Fort Collins. ... 25-39 

IV. A plague of flies--A melancholy charioteer--The Foot Hills--A mountain 
boarding-house--A dull life--"Being agreeable"--Climate of Colorado--
Soroche and snakes. ... 40-48 

V. A dateless day--"Those hands of yours"--A Puritan--Persevering 
shiftlessness--The house-mother--Family worship--A grim Sunday--A "thick-
skulled Englishman"--A morning call--Another atmosphere--The Great Lone 
Land--"Ill found"--A log camp--Bad footing for horses--Accidents--
Disappointment. ... 49-72 

Page x

VI. A bronco mare--An accident--Wonderland--A sad story--The children of 
the Territories--Hard greed--Halcyon hours--Smartness--Old-fashioned 
prejudices--The Chicago colony--Good luck--Three notes of admiration--A 
good horse--The St. Vrain--The Rocky Mountains at last--"Mountain Jim"--A 
death hug--Estes Park. ... 73-96 

VII. Personality of Long's Peak--"Mountain Jim"--Lake of the Lilies--A 
silent forest--The camping ground--"Ring"--A lady's bower--Dawn and 
sunrise--A glorious view--Links of diamonds--The ascent of the Peak--The 
"Dog's Lift"--Suffering from thirst--The descent--The bivouac. ... 97-118 

VIII. Estes Park--Big game--"Parks" in Colorado--Magnificent scenery--
Flowers and pines--An awful road--Our log cabin--Griffith Evans--A 
miniature world--Our topics--A night alarm--A skunk--Morning glories--
Daily routine--The panic--"Wait for the waggon"--A musical evening.
... 119-142 

IX. 'Please Ma'ams"--A desperado--A cattle hunt--The muster--A mad cow--A 
snow storm--Snowed up--Birdie--The Plains--A prairie schooner--Denver--A 
find--Plum Creek--"Being agreeable"--Snowbound--The grey mare. ... 143-166 

X. A white world--bad travelling--A millionaire's home--Pleasant Park--
Perry's Park--Stock-raising--A cattle king--The Arkansas Divide--Birdie's 
sagacity--Luxury--Monument Park--Deference to prejudice--A death scene--
The Manitou--
 
Page xi

A loose shoe--The Ute Pass--Bergen's Park--A settler's home--Hayden's 
Divide--Sharp criticism--Speaking the truth. ... 167-192

XI. Tarryall Creek--The Red Range--Excelsior--Unfortunate pedlars--Snow 
and heat--A bison calf--Deep drifts--South Park--The Great Divide--
Comanche Bill--Difficulties--Hall's Gulch--A Lord Dundreary--Ridiculous 
fears. ... 193-207 

XII. Deer Valley--Lynch law--Vigilance Committees--The Silver Spruce--
Taste and abstinence--The Whisky Fiend--Smartness--Turkey Creek Canyon--
The Indian Problem--Public rascality--Friendly meetings--The way to the 
Golden City--A rising settlement--Clear Creek Canyon--Staging--Swearing--A 
mountain town. ... 208-223 

XIII. The blight of mining--Green Lake--Golden City--Benighted--Vertigo--
Boulder Canyon--Financial straits--A hard ride--The last cent--A 
bachelor's home--"Mountain Jim"--A surprise--A night arrival--Making the 
best of it--Scanty fare. ... 224-238 

XIV. A dismal ride--A desperado's tale--"Lost! Lost! Lost!"--Winter 
glories--Solitude--Hard times--Intense cold--A pack of wolves--The beaver 
dams--Ghastly scenes--Venison steaks--Our evenings. ... 239-252 

XV. A whisky slave--The pleasures of monotony--The mountain lion--"Another 
mouth to feed"--A tiresome boy--An outcast-- 

Page xii

Thanksgiving Day--The newcomer--A literary humbug--Milking a dry cow--
Trout-fishing--A snow-storm--A desperado's den. ... 253-270 

XVI. A harmonious home--Intense cold--A purple sun--A grim jest--A 
perilous ride--Frozen eyelids--Longmount--The pathless prairie--Hardships 
of emigrant life--A trapper's advice--The Little Thompson--Evans and 
"Jim". ... 271-284 

XVII. Woman's Mission--The last morning--Crossing the St. Vrain--Miller--
The St. Vrain again--Crossing the prairie--"Jim's" dream--"Keeping 
strangers"--The inn kitchen--A reputed child-eater--Notoriety--A quiet 
dance--"Jim's" resolve--The frost-fall--An unfortunate introduction.
... 285-296 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Estes Park Frontispiece. 
Bad footing for horses ... 67 
Grand Crater ... 101 
Lava beds, Long's Peak ... 107 
My home in the Rocky Mountains ... 120 
The Great Divide ... 203 
An Indian Camp ... 215