In 1896, a Norwegian immigrant and mother of eight children named Helga Estby was behind on taxes and the mortgage when she learned that a mysterious sponsor would pay $10,000 to a woman who walked across America.
Hoping to win the wager and save her family’s farm, Helga and her teenaged daughter Clara, armed with little more than a compass, red-pepper spray, a revolver, and Clara’s curling iron, set out on foot from Eastern Washington. Their route would pass through 14 states, but they were not allowed to carry more than five dollars each. As they visited Indian reservations, Western boomtowns, remote ranches and local civic leaders, they confronted snowstorms, hunger, thieves and mountain lions with equal aplomb.
Their treacherous and inspirational journey to New York challenged contemporary notions of femininity and captured the public imagination. But their trip had such devastating consequences that the Estby women's achievement was blanketed in silence until, nearly a century later, Linda Lawrence Hunt encountered their extraordinary story.
Chapter 1. On Foot to New York
Chapter 2. Motherhood on a Minnesota Prairie
Chapter 4. Surprises in Spokane Falls
Chapter 5. Frontier Vices and the Move to Mica Creek
Chapter 6. Financial Fears and a Family Death
Chapter 8. Undaunted by Rain, Sleet, and Snow
Chapter 9. Hot, Hungry, and Hopeful
Chapter 11. “New Women’s” Actions and Old Victorian Attitudes
Chapter 12. An Electrifying Presidential Election
Chapter 13. Earning Their Own Way
Chapter 14. A Rush to the Finish
Chapter 15. The Impossible Happens
Chapter 16. Heartbreak at the Mica Creek Homestead
A Reflection on the Silencing of Family Stories
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