Arizona

Christmas Stocking Sweethearts! Cathy McDavid

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I’m so excited to be part of Christmas Stocking Sweethearts  – my first participation in a collection with my fellow Petticoats and Pistols fillies. Little known fact, I wrote western historicals early in my writing career before switching to contemporaries. I’m thrilled to be returning to one of my favorite romance genres. And the story also happens to be set in one of my favorite time periods:  the early 1900s.

A widow struggling to save her home

A cowboy sworn to protect his family

A Christmas neither will ever forget…

 

 

Merry Ann Bright may be pint-sized, but she’s chock-full of gumption. For the last three years, she’s fended off a wealthy and greedy neighbor bent on acquiring her land by hook or by crook — emphasis on the crook. The last thing she needs is more trouble. But when she unexpectedly encounters a family in dire straits, how can she turn her back on them?

Thèo Cartier is a man on a mission. Once he’s seen his sister-in-law and young nephew safely home, he’ll return to Texas and help his aging father run the ranch. The lovely widow Merry is a distraction he can ill afford. Especially when her roots are firmly planted a thousand miles from his own.

Can Christmastime, the shared love of favorite carols, and a special heirloom stocking show two people convinced they have no future together that anything is possible…if they just open their hearts?

Click here to purchase MERRY’S CHRISTMAS COWBOY

Click here to view the entire series on Amazon

 

Yes, we know. It’s that time of year when we sometimes feel less kind than we should.

Re-write the sentence in red to something less naughty and more nice.  For example:

NAUGHTY:  “Grandma’s eggnog is too thick and chunky.”

NICE: “Isn’t it wonderful Grandma is still with us to make her eggnog?”

THEIR DECORATIONS ARE SO GAUDY.

 

You might win this piano ornament from me – plus a backlist holiday book!

 

All entries will be eligible for our oh-so-beautiful Grand Prize, too!

Winners announced Sunday, December 15!

(USA Winners only, please.)

In the event the piano ornament becomes unavailable, we will happily make a substitute.

Hello November from Guest LeAnne Bristow

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A big, warm welcome today to our guest LeAnne Bristow!

Hello and Happy November! November is my favorite month because it hosts two of my favorite things, Thanksgiving and Fall. Yes, I know that fall technically started at the end of September, and since my birthday is in October, that should be my favorite month. But I live in southeastern Arizona and it really doesn’t feel like fall into November. Sometimes not until mid-November.

If I get an overwhelming urge to see fall colors before then, we pack up the truck, hook onto the camp trailer and make the 4 hour drive to the “Alps of Arizona.” Alpine is a small town nestled in the White Mountains and is one of my favorite places in the world. At an elevation of over 8000, it provides an escape from the heat during the summer, a haven for hunters in the fall and spring and a place for desert rats to experience snowboarding and skiing in the winter.

Photo by Chris English

The series I write for Harlequin Heartwarming is inspired by Alpine. Coronado is a fictional town, but in it, you will see why I love Alpine and the White Mountains so much. The latest book in the series takes place in the fall. While I was hoping that the book release would be closer to Thanksgiving, I was still pretty excited to write anything fall related.

When Randon Farr returns to Coronado, in Her Hometown Soldier’s Return, all he wants to do is fix up his family cabin, sell it and get far away from the town that looked down on him and the woman he let down. Millie Gibson has loved her brother’s best friend since she was eight years old. When he joined the military, he promised he would come back for her. Now he’s back, but he’s too broken to keep that promise.

The nurturing instinct that makes Millie a great nurse won’t let her abandon Randon, whether he wants her to or not. She promises to help him learn to deal with his PTSD symptoms, even if it means enabling him to leave Coronado for good.

In true western hospitality, Randon is never left alone for too long, whether it’s Millie, or the Ladie’s Auxiliary who insists on making sure his refrigerator is always full, men from the local church who want to help him with the repairs on his cabin, or some troubled boys from the nearby trailer park who see Randon as their mentor.

There are so many things I loved in this story, but getting to add my favorite sights, sounds and smells of fall made this book extra special.

I would love to share this story with you.

AMAZON

I’m giving away a copy of Her Hometown Soldier’s Return to one lucky commenter.

To be entered, tell me your favorite things about fall!

LeAnne Bristow writes sweet and inspirational romance set in small towns. When she isn’t arguing with characters in her head, she enjoys hunting, camping and fishing with her family. Her day job is a reading specialist, but her most important job is teaching her grandkids how to catch lizards and love the Arizona desert as much as she does.

Leo the MGM Lion’s Incredible Story of Survival

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Two weeks ago, my husband and I spent a week in Payson, Arizona. Mostly, we went to rest and recreate and get out of the scorching heat of Phoenix. But we did spend a few afternoons doing a little sightseeing. I’ve lived in Arizona most of my life and visited Payson many times. But I learned some new things on this trip that surprised me, and I think might surprise you, too.

We thought the small and quaint Payson Museum would be just a little stop on our afternoon outing. Instead, we spent almost two hours there, soaking up the local history. On one wall hung a series of pictures that I almost missed and would have if my husband didn’t call me over. After reading this truly amazing story, I can’t believe someone hasn’t made it into a movie!

I tried to take the best pictures I could. I hope you can read the account in full and make out the old black and white pictures. But here’s what happened in a nutshell:

Jackie, a lion cub born in the wild, went on to become the second Leo the Lion, the trademark logo for MGM Films (he was the first lion to roar). He also appeared in numerous films. In 1927, MGM planned a publicity stunt and hired a pilot to fly Leo from California to New York. Leo and his 400 pound cage were loaded into a small plane. Over the Mogollom Rim, in the area outside Payson, Arizona around Hell’s Gate, the pilot experienced trouble and was forced to crash land the plane. By some miracle, both the pilot and Leo survived with only minor injuries.

 

 

Having no choice, the pilot left Leo in his cage with a supply of water and hiked for three days before reaching help. When rescuers at last reached Leo, he was in bad shape but revived with fresh water and a butchered calf that had been dragged to the site. Leo  was eventually retired to live out his life at the Philadelphia Zoo.

 

Now, I’ve been to Hell’s Gate, and there’s a reason for the name. It’s some pretty rugged country, and the steep slopes leading down to the creek are almost straight up and down. I can’t imagine crashing a small plane there among the tall pines and craggily boulders and then having to hike out for three days with no food or fresh water. Not an easy feat. Both the pilot and Leo surely had the will to survive – and an amazing story to tell later!

 

SPANISH CONQUISTADOR GOLD IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST (AND A GIVEAWAY!)–by Kristy McCaffrey

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At the end of the 15th century, gold had become rare in Europe and therefore coveted by many monarchies, especially the Spanish Crown. The conquistadors (Spanish and Portuguese colonists) began to spread into the New World, and while some were trained military warriors, many were artisans, lesser nobility, and farmers seeking new opportunities.

The Americas proved to be a gold motherlode. The indigenous peoples utilized it for its beauty and lustre, developing a strong spiritual association to the sun via the objects they created. Gold was mined and traded across the continent.

 

In the early 1500’s, Conquistador Hernán Cortés explored Mexico and ultimately conquered the Aztecs in the Spanish quest for wealth of any kind, which included emeralds and exotic hides, but mainly gold. The ensuing battles were brutal. Temples, palaces, and homes were looted for valuables, and locals were captured and tortured for information. Subjugated tribes were obliged to give yearly tribute in the form of gold, and the most lucrative mines were taken over by the Spanish.

The golden city of El Dorado was a myth with origins in the mountains near modern-day Colombia, originally referring to a king adorned in gold powder who leapt into a lake during his coronation. The story evolved into a “lost city,” and the Spanish Conquistadors were determined to find it. A subsequent myth was born of the Seven Cities of Cibola, an Aztec story revolving around the pueblos of today’s New Mexico and the southwestern United States.

 

 

From 1540 to 1542, Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led a large expedition from what is now Mexico to present-day Kansas, taking him through parts of the American southwest. A leg of this journey is said to have gone through Arizona Territory, exploring the Verde River near what would become the mining town of Jerome where the local Yavapai tribe mined copper. Antonio de Espejo and a troop of Conquistadors came through Jerome looking for El Cibola, and the locals instead showed them an area that would later become Cleopatra Hill, the site of a large copper mine. Legend says the Spanish found a vein of gold, mined it, and hid the spoils in a nearby area known as Sycamore Canyon. An elderly prospector known as Jerry the Miner spent nearly thirty years in the canyon looking for the treasure, and he claimed to have found a helmet and a breastplate left by one of the Conquistadors, but it’s unclear whether he ever found any gold.

In my new novel, The Nighthawk, treasure hunters and outlaws are searching for Spanish gold in the Arizona Territory. The Nighthawk is Book 10 in my Wings of the West series, but it can be read as a standalone.

 

 

Arizona Territory

September 1899

Sophie Ryan’s dream of working for a newspaper has come true. Accompanied by her cousin, Lucas Blackmore, a newly appointed U.S. Deputy Marshal, she arrives in Jerome, one of the richest mining towns in America. And one of the most remote. Although she’s been hired to report for the Jerome Mining News on education and cultural issues, she soon finds herself immersed in something more serious when she finds an enigmatic injured man in the Black Hills claiming to be an ornithologist.

U.S. Deputy Marshal Benton McKay is undercover tracking the notorious train robbing Weaver gang, and the trail ends in Jerome. When he’s injured in the Black Hills and found by a determined and beautiful young woman, he must gain her trust to keep his identity a secret. But keeping her out of trouble proves a challenge, especially with her cousin assigned to assist him. As they track down the band of outlaws, another agenda emerges—the renegades are searching for lost gold believed to have been left behind by the Spanish Conquistadors. And Sophie Ryan is determined to report on it.

The Nighthawk is a fast-paced romantic adventure filled with humor, treasure hunting, a tenacious heroine, and a hero harboring a secret. It has light steam and a happily-for-now ending.

Read Chapter One and find vendor links at Kristy’s website.

 

Have you ever visited Arizona? What was your favorite location? If you’ve never been, what Arizona sites are on your bucket list? One commenter will win an eBook of THE CANARY, Wings of the West Book 9.

Join Sarah Ryan and paleontologist Jack Brenner in a quest for an elusive dinosaur fossil in the Painted Desert.

Kristy McCaffrey writes award-winning historical western romances with grit and emotion, along with contemporary adventure stories packed with smoldering romance and spine-tingling suspense. Her work is filled with compelling heroes, determined heroines, and her trademark mysticism. She lives in the desert north of Phoenix with her husband and rescue bulldog, Jeb. Learn more about her books at her website, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Graphics courtesy of Deposit Photos. Book covers by Earthly Charms.

What Fishing Was Like in the Early 1900s

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Good morning, everyone. And I’m sorry to be late with this blog. I admit, my calendar failed me (which is better than saying I forgot).

You may remember from a previous blog post of mine, I’m working on a new historical story. That means, for me, I have to stop every few pages and research something to make sure I got it right. In this book, my heroine is fishing for trout in a creek. Seems simple enough, yes? But no. first research item – were there trout in the area where I’m setting my story during 1915. Turns out there were, so I’m good there. Second item, do I call what she’s using a fishing pole or a fishing rod? Well, who knew there’s a difference?

Turns out, she’d use a fishing pole — which is basically a long stick from which a string is tied and seems to have been around for at least four-thousand years. A fishing rod is more complicated and sophisticated. It has ringed guides along the pole and a reel to store the line. My heroine would definitely not have that. But from my research, reels did first start appearing in the 1600s.  In those day, it was mostly a loop of wire attached to the end of the pole. An improvement, nonetheless, and the string didn’t get so tangled.

I also learned that most fishing poles and fishing rods, at least until the 1900s, were home-made by people. There were even books published about how to make your own fishing poles, such as Iziak Walton’s “The Complete Angler (1676). I wonder if my local library has that. Tackle shops which sold manufactured fishing equipment have only been around for a hundred years or so, which is probably when innovations to fishing rods really took off and we got the modern tools anglers use today.

There are other ways of fishing besides with a pole or rod. Early man used spears, sometimes setting traps or bait and standing in the water waiting until a fish approached. A more primitive version of the pole was to simply toss a line into the water, anchor it with a heavy rock and wait for a fish to take the bait. Large nets were also used, sometimes requiring two or more people.

All this is probably more than you wanted to know about early fishing and more than I needed for my one scene in the book when my heroine is fishing. But I always enjoy learning something new. I didn’t bother researching hooks, figuring that was going a little too deep and readers probably would care. But now I’m thinking, maybe that would be interesting…

The Wild West…Not Just Cactus! And a Giveaway!

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Hi! LeAnne Bristow here. A few days ago, I was driving on the outskirts of Tucson and I saw a large sign that read. “Open Range. Watch for Cattle.” I was surrounded by housing developments and there was a school just down the street, but it wasn’t unusual for cattle to be seen grazing on the side of the road. It made me think about the culture shock I received when I moved to Arizona from Texas.
Growing up, I loved everything about the rolling hills of central Texas and never thought about leaving. Texas is the home of King Ranch, George Strait and longhorn cattle. I learned how to two-step before I could walk, and while I can never claim to be a cowgirl, I certainly know how to ride a horse. What’s not to love? And why would anyone ever want to leave? Then, I met my husband, an Arizona native, who was stationed at Ford Hood while he served in the US Army.
After Desert Storm, his enlistment was up, so he moved back to Arizona to find us a place to live while I finished that semester of college. I flew to Arizona to visit during spring break. I wanted to see exactly what I was getting myself into. After all, Arizona was nothing but cactus, rattlesnakes and dirt, right?

My first glimpse of Arizona from the window of the airplane didn’t give me much hope. I was sure my days of seeing green grass and trees were over. When he picked me up, we had to drive three hours to his family home. On the way, I saw more cottonfields than I’d ever seen in my life, and I finally understood what he meant when he said Texas was too flat. The next day we took the Coronado Trail through the White Mountains and my mind was blown.
I grew up in the hill country, but there were no rolling hills where we went. The White Mountains of Arizona were unlike anything I’d ever seen and I immediately fell in love. By the end of the day, I’d played in snow drifts higher than my head, caught my first glimpse of an elk, saw a bald eagle flying over an ice-covered lake and realized that Arizona was a lot more than I ever expected.
But that was just the beginning of things I needed to learn.

After I moved to Arizona, my husband and I spent a lot of time driving around back roads (if that’s what you want to call them).
The first time he stopped to open a closed gate, I had a fit. Didn’t he know he couldn’t go on private land like that? That’s when I learned that Arizona, like many places in the West, had more public land than it did private, so we were able to go through gates at will. Aside from giving us something to do on the weekends, my husband claimed these backroad adventures were necessary for deer scouting.
Scouting for deer was another foreign concept to me. Back home, when I wanted to see deer, I went to my family’s deer lease, climbed into the deer stand and waited. Not so in Arizona. Deer feeders are illegal. If you want to hunt deer, you have to get out and find them. It’s hard work. And they’re hard to find! No matter how remote the areas we traveled to was, it wasn’t unusual to come across cowboys searching for cattle that wandered too far from their home range, checking water tanks or checking the fences that were few and far between. Instead of being mad that we were in their area, they always tipped their hats and waved. Sometimes they had time to stop and chat with us, often letting us know where they saw a big buck or warning us when a mountain lion had been spotted in the area.


After thirty years of living in Arizona, I’m still amazed by the diversity of the western landscape. From the snow covered mountains, to the vast desert, there really is something for everyone. Even a small town Texas girl like me, who is now a proud desert rat.

What is your favorite thing about the west? I’d love to chat with you about it. But warning, I might use it in a book! I’ll be giving away a copy of the latest book in my Coronado series, Her Hometown Secret, to one lucky commenter!




 

Get to Know Cathy McDavid and Giveaway

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Earlier this month, I celebrated the release of my latest Harlequin Heartwarming book, HER SURPRISE COWBOY GROOM. To help promote the book, I answered a few questions about myself in some get to know you posts I thought might be fun to share here as well.

To enter the giveaway (a free print copy of HER COWBOY SWEETHEART, Starbucks card and cowboy coffee mug), all you have to do is post a comment below, telling a short fun fact about yourself ?

What is something interesting readers would enjoy learning about you?

I really have lived the cowboy lifestyle for most of my life, getting my first horse when I was a youngster and having them up until a few years ago. Nothing like walking out your back door to the barn and petting a velvety nose. Or some feathers and wiry hair. While my kids were growing up, we had not just horses and the usual cats and dogs, I also kept a flock of around twenty-five hens (including one resident rooster), adopted a couple of rescue goats and had a pet potbellied pig named Queenie. She lived on the back porch in her own house, built by my stepdad, and had her personal wading pool. Queenie was very smart and knew a half-dozen tricks. She enjoyed going on walks with me around the neighborhood with would follow along like a dog. And also like a dog, she loved belly rubs, flopping over onto her back and begging for them. Every night after dinner, she waited outside the kitchen door for leftover, which I delivered. Her only bad habit was knocking over the barrels of horse grain or chicken feed and gorging herself.

 

Can you tell us about your latest novel?

Her Surprise Cowboy Groom is book four and the last installment in my Wishing Well Springs series.

An instant family…Could change her plans!

Ambitious wedding dress designer Laurel Montgomery can’t afford to be distracted…especially not by easygoing cowboy Max Maxwell. Wrangling his three-year-old twin daughters, a rambunctious puppy and a fledgling business, Max has his hands full, too. But he also knows the value of going for ice cream and fishing with his girls. Can he show Laurel there are more important things than making it big—like love and family?

 

Purchase HER SURPRISE COWBOY GOOM

 

Why did you choose to write a story set on a ranch?

Cowboy and ranch stories are my favorites to write, mostly because I lived the life and think cowboy heroes are the best.  And since I lived on a small ranch for over twenty years, it’s a story setting I’m very familiar with and love. There’s something very appealing about the great outdoors. It can be adventurous and exciting and charming, too.

 

What kind of ranching is done in your story?

Wishing Well Springs was once a thriving horse ranch, the largest in the state. When the heroine’s grandparents went into dept and lost the business fifteen years ago, the ranch was sold off acre by acre. It was the heroine’s idea to turn the remaining house, barn, and few acres into a wedding venue. She and her business partner brother keep the cowboy and ranching spirit alive by giving carriage rides to excited brides the happy couples.

Have you been to a rodeo? What are they like and how did you incorporate it into your story?

I’ve been to plenty of rodeos, from the time I was just a kid, and love them. My characters are often rodeo competitors, current or retired. Like so many live sporting events, they are fast-paced and exciting with the crowds going wild. The dangerous events, like bull and bronc riding, are thrilling. The skill events, roping especially, amaze me.  I love that women are no longer restricted to just barrel racing and are competing in breakaway roping and team roping. Go girl power. I find writing rodeo scenes, when my characters are competing, to be incredibly challenging. While I’ve tried barrel racing and roping, I’ve never ridden a bull or wrestled a calf, so I’ve relied on interviewing rodeo competitors for my research.

Your story is about a wedding barn. Can you tell us more about them and how the characters created one?

I was inspired to set my series in a wedding barn ranch after attending a friend’s nuptials at a charming wedding barn and western town. While watching the couple exchange vows, I was mentally creating stories. Since I knew I wanted two to four books in the series, I had to come up with a reason for my characters to turn the family ranch into a rustic wedding venue. Desperation seemed like a good motive, so I gave them financial hardships. But why a wedding barn? That part was easy. I made the heroine of my book a wedding fashion designer and her brother an architect. Together, they formed the perfect team.

Well, that’s probably more than you want to know about me 🙂 Don’t forget to enter the giveaway by posting a comment. Prize will be sent via regular mail service, US only (sorry).

Riders of the Purple Sage – 5 Movie Versions

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We went out to dinner with friends a couple weekends ago and had a lovely time. One topic of discussion that came up was the famous western author Zane Grey and how many times his book, Riders of the Purple Sage was made into a movie. I insisted it was five, while one of our companions was certain it was four. Well, I was correct. But the real takeaway from this story is that a classic western book has been into a movie five times. That’s pretty impressive.

The first was in 1918 and starred William Farnum and Mary Mersch. Yes, it was a silent movie.

 

The second was in 1925 and starred Tom Mix (a very popular cowboy actor who appeared in 291 films) and Mabel Ballin. This was also a silent movie.

The third, the first movie with sound, was in 1931 and starred George O’Brien and Marguerite Churchill.

The fourth was in 1941 and starred George Montgomery (married to Dinah Shore and once engaged to Hedy Lamar) and Mary Howard (a founding member of Recording for the Blind.

The fifth and last was in 1996 and starred Ed Harris and Amy Madigan. This was a TV movie and not a theatrical release.

Other interesting tidbits about this book. In 1952, Dell released a comic book version. It was also adapted into an opera by compose Craig Bohmler — our dinner companion knew and offered up this fact. Three separate western bands have gone by the name Riders of the Purple Sage. Lastly, the author breaks a huge rule by telling the story from an anonymous third-person, omniscient point-of-view.

I’ve watched the 1931, 1941 and 1996 movies, though years ago. I’m thinking now I need to search online and find out if there’s a way I can watch the first two. Would be interesting comparing them to the others.

How One Movie Scene Created a Fictional Family

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Please welcome Tina Wheeler to the Petticoats and Pistols Corral today.

I watched way too much television growing up. Okay, I still watch more than I should, but in my defense, I’m a visual learner and seeing characters in settings helps me build my fictional world.

I come from a military/law enforcement family, so I already had a solid grasp of alpha males who own guns. Watching mysteries with my mother influenced my desire to include a puzzle in my novels. But why cowboys?

When writing my debut, Love Inspired Suspense, I created the Walker family and their ranch outside Sedona. Jackson, Cole and Zach are brothers who are the fictional embodiment of all the heart-stopping cowboys I’ve seen on television and their finer qualities. I’m an Arizona girl, born and raised. Every time we hosted out-of-state visitors, we headed to Old Tucson Studios to watch cowboy gunfights with stuntmen falling off buildings. Five hundred movies had scenes filmed there, including four John Wayne Westerns. Feeding my love for cowboys were TV shows like Bonanza, The Big Valley, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, The Wild Wild West, The Rifleman, and The High Chaparral which was filmed at Old Tucson.

Man in coat on the wind

My absolute favorite movie scene of all time is in Tombstone. Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliott, and Val Kilmer (playing the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday) are walking down the dusty town road toward the O.K. Corral to reenact the famous thirty-second shootout. They’re wearing mostly black with their cowboy hats and boots, but it’s the black duster coats that complete the image. My heart skips a beat every time I watch that scene. I could replay it a hundred times. The Earps were close brothers, cowboys, and lawmen. Together, they bravely protected the town. Yes, they had their flaws, but in that moment, they were four strong, good-hearted men about to prove that good conquers evil. Yesterday, we had the Earps. Today, we have the Walker brothers.

 

Ranch Under Fire, a Publishers Weekly Bestseller

A witness on the run.

A mission to survive.

Fleeing after witnessing a shooting in her office, Bailey Scott must rely on cowboy Jackson Walker for protection when the gunman turns his sights on her. With a drug ring determined to silence her, Jackson promises to protect her at his ranch. But he’s an undercover DEA agent with secrets he can’t reveal. Can he take down the criminals before their pursuers lead them straight into an inescapable trap?

More About Tina:

Tina Wheeler is an inspirational romantic suspense author and retired teacher. Although she grew up near a desert in Arizona, her favorite place to plot a new story is on a balcony overlooking the ocean. She enjoys spending time with her large extended family, brainstorming with writing friends, discovering new restaurants, and traveling with her husband. Visit authortinawheeler.com to read more.

To buy a copy of Ranch Under Fire click here.

Giveaway:

Tina is giving away a copy of Ranch Under Fire. To enter the random drawing, leave a comment about your favorite cowboy, real or fictional.

 

Heather Blanton Finds An Angel on the Loose

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In my new book releasing today, Penelope, Book 6 in the Love Train series, my heroine has to pretend to be a nun. This is, of course, a substantial obstacle to the hero who fights falling in love with her. He has to wonder, though, what kind of a nun can’t keep her veil on and doesn’t know her Bible? But when called upon to help an abused Indian girl, Penelope rises to the task with plenty of heart.

The way this story went put me in mind of a young Catholic girl who, while she didn’t don a habit, impacted the West forever with her faith.

In 1850, at about the age of five, Nellie Cashman immigrated to Boston from Ireland with her sister and widowed mother. The three spent almost fifteen years together there, but then relocated west to San Francisco around 1872. Nellie and her mother, both of whom apparently had an adventurous streak, decided to move on to the bustling, untamed mining town of Pioche, NV. They only stayed a few years, but Nellie was deeply involved with

the Catholic church there, helping with fundraisers and bazaars.

When her aging mother decided Pioche was a little too wild for a senior citizen, she and Nellie returned to San Francisco. Nellie, however, didn’t stay. She left her mother with her married sister and headed north alone to British Columbia to another rough-and-rowdy mining town. She opened a boarding house in the Cassiar District and tried her hand at mining.Now, most girls in this situation, hanging around with such an unsavory crowd, might get into mischief, forget their morals. Herein lies the quirky thing about Nellie: she loved to help people, sometimes through hell and high water…and avalanches.

In the winter of 1874-75, Nellie took a trip to Victoria where she helped establish the Sisters of St. Ann Hospital. Over the coming decades, she would continue to be a stalwart supporter of this hospital and several others. She is most famous, though, for what she did upon leaving Victoria.

Traveling back to Cassiar, she heard a blizzard had stranded dozens of the folks from the district. They were trapped, hungry, and experiencing a scurvy epidemic, to boot. Nellie immediately hired men and sleds, acquired medicine and supplies and started out for Cassiar. It took the group 77 days in unimaginable conditions to reach the miners. Nellie then worked tirelessly to nurse the folks back to health.

Her feat was so astounding, so fearless, the story was picked up by the newspapers. With good cause, she came to be known to the miners as their “Angel of the Cassiar.”

Nellie was a legitimate legend.

She was also a restless girl, constantly on the move from one raunchy mining town to the next. After the death of her sister, she continued to feed her wanderlust, but with five nephews and nieces in tow. To keep food on the table, she bought and sold restaurants, and even owned and worked her own claims.

She spent several years in Tombstone, AZ where she rubbed shoulders with larger-than-life figures like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Nellie’s faith, however, was as ingrained on her heart as cactus on the dessert. Even in wild-and-wooly Tombstone, she worked to build the city’s first hospital and Roman Catholic church.

Nellie worked tirelessly to make the world a better place and still managed to raise five upstanding citizens while keep her mines working. When she passed away in 1925, she did so in the Sisters of St. Anne hospital that she had funded for nearly fifty years.

Today Heather is giving away 5 copies of Penelope! For a chance to win one, tell Heather what ways you think we can make an impact in our local communities or neighborhoods.

Buy PENELOPE on Amazon!