A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

by Isabella Lucy Bird, Daniel J. Boorstin (Introduction)

A cosmopolitan, middle-aged Englishwoman touring the Rocky Mountains in 1873, Isabella Bird had embarked upon a trip that called for as much stamina as would have been expected of an explorer or anthropologist — and she was neither! Possessing a prodigious amount of curiosity and a huge appetite for traveling, she journeyed later in life to India, Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, and Canada and wrote eight successful books about her adventures. In this volume, she paints an intimate picture of the "Wild West," writing eloquently of flora and fauna, isolated settlers and assorted refugees from civilization, vigilance committees and lynchings, and crude table manners yet a gentle civility — even chivalry — among the men she encountered in the wilderness. Thoughtfully written, this captivating narrative provides a vibrant account of a bygone era and the people that forever changed the face of the frontier.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, History, Memoir, Biography, Adventure, Nature

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1879

About the author

Isabella Lucy Bird Bishop (October 15, 1831 – October 7, 1904) was a nineteenth-century English traveller, writer, and a natural historian.

Works:
* The Englishwoman in America (1856)
* Pen and Pencil Sketches Among The Outer Hebrides (published in The Leisure Hour) (1866)
* The Hawaiian Archipelago (1875)
* The Two Atlantics (published in The Leisure Hour) (1876)
* Australia Felix: Impressions of Victoria and Melbourne (published in The Leisure Hour) (1877)
* A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879)
* Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880)
* Sketches In The Malay Peninsula (published in The Leisure Hour) (1883)
* The Golden Chersonese and the way Thither (1883)
* A Pilgrimage To Sinai (published in The Leisure Hour) (1886)
* Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (1891)
* Among the Tibetans (1894)
* Korea and her Neighbours (1898)
* The Yangtze Valley and Beyond (1899)
* Chinese Pictures (1900)
* Notes on Morocco (published in the Monthly Review) (1901)

Reviews

[Candi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I cannot describe my feelings on this ride, produced by the utter loneliness, the silence and dumbness of all things, the snow falling quietly without wind, the obliterated mountains, the darkness, the intense cold, and the unusual and appalling aspect of nature. All life was in a shroud, all work and travel suspended. There was not a foot-mark or wheel-mark. There was nothing to be afraid of; and though I can’t exactly say that I enjoyed the ride, yet there was the pleasant feeling of gaining health every hour."

My idea of ‘roughing it’ is sleeping in a tent in a state park with a shared bathroom a bothersome five minute walk away by flashlight in the dark. It’s waking up to the disagreeable chirping of a songbird in the early hours of the morning after a night of tossing and turning in a sleeping bag set atop an inflatable mattress. It’s cooking Kraft macaroni and cheese over a propane stove and hot dogs over a campfire. It’s showering in a public bathroom with an alarming number of spiders lurking in the corners. All this of course happens to be in the middle of summer with no threat of snow or freezing temperatures.

Isabella Bird put me to shame. Her 1873 adventure into the Rocky Mountains of Colorado is nothing short of admirable. Her story is shared here in a series of letters written to her sister at home in England. What is even more remarkable is that she was in her early forties at the time, and had been traveling as a means to improve her health. Jumping on the back of a horse and riding through snow and wind with the mountains hemming one in on all sides is not my idea of restorative healing, but apparently it did a world of good for this gutsy lady. I couldn’t help but think about the cursed Donner party while reading of Ms. Bird’s exploits. How the heck did she come out of this alive? The descriptions of the landscape are stunning; and if ever you wish to imagine the beauty of a place before it was settled, before tourist attractions became permanent fixtures, then this book will take you right there. I’ve not been to the Rocky Mountains but I felt a part of this experience for a short time. I loved her depiction of Long’s Peak – she endowed it with a character all its own: "It is one of the noblest of mountains, but in one’s imagination it grows to be much more than a mountain. It becomes invested with a personality. In its caverns and abysses one comes to fancy that it generates and chains the strong winds, to let them loose in its fury. The thunder becomes its voice, and the lightnings do it homage."

An adventure into the western Territories would not be complete without some colorful individuals, and we sure do meet a few along the journey with Ms. Bird. My favorite was “Rocky Mountain Jim” (or “Mountain Jim”), probably known only to his mother as plain old Jim Nugent. A trapper and hunter living a solitary life in Estes Park, Mountain Jim was a desperado with a handsome face scarred by a bear encounter. His story is both fascinating and a bit mysterious – he deserves a book all his own! A man with perhaps two sides, much like his ravaged face, Mountain Jim was a legend of his time. "He has pathos, poetry, and humor, an intense love of nature, strong vanity in certain directions, an obvious desire to act and speak in character, and sustain his reputation as a desperado, a considerable acquaintance with literature, a wonderful verbal memory, opinions on every person and subject, a chivalrous respect for women in his manner, which makes it all the more amusing when he suddenly turns round upon one with some graceful raillery, a great power of fascination, and a singular love of children." Is it possible that Ms. Bird may have had a bit of a schoolgirl crush on this guy?! It’s certainly hard to tell, given the very matter-of-fact nature of her writing. Maybe she didn’t want to reveal all to sister Henrietta in these letters. After all, Mountain Jim did have quite a reputation and mothers were said to threaten their naughty children with a visit from this most infamous of men.

I really enjoyed my little jaunt to the Rockies. Ms. Bird was not much of one to show emotion in her writing, but she sure did share much of the excitement of the adventure itself! A bit wordy here and there, but overall a very satisfying and informative read.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free download at Librivox, here: https://librivox.org/a-ladys-life-in-...
Laura Caldwell narrates. She does it well.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains is epistolary non-fiction. Isabella Lucy Bird (1831 – 1904) writes letters to her sister Henrietta, relating her experiences while traveling in the Western Sierra Mountains of Wyoming and Colorado. She was in her early forties and unmarried. She traveled September through December 1873 by train, stagecoach and horse. She was a skilled rider and not afraid to take side excursions alone, on her own. English by birth, well-traveled and well educated, in the 1870s and in the rough and tumble areas where she traveled, she was quite an anomaly!

This book sat on my GR-shelves for six years—a terrible mistake! It is not the details of what the book covers, but why it is worth reading and why it is a book not to be put off until later, which I wish to explain through my review.

This book has exceptionally good nature writing. The descriptive prose is gorgeous. The mountains, plains, gorges, streams and lakes are stunningly drawn in vivid colors. I have read lots of nature writing, and this is up there with the best. We see what she sees when dawn is breaking, when night is falling, in sunny and inclement weather. When she shivers, we do too. Snow comes in through the chinks of makeshift abodes. Not just snow, but at other times dust, mud and insects coat everything. All that Isabella Bird saw and experienced is well described.

Not only nature is expertly drawn, but also people, clothing, animals and their rigging, saddles and bridles, and the appurtenances of daily life in the untamed wilderness where Isabella Bird travels. Is there too much description? No. What we are told is interesting. Pertinent historical, geographical and meteorological information is added. She expresses both pleasure and disgust in relation to what she views. The book draws a vivid and informative picture of life out west in the latter half of the 19th century. The reality of what life was really like and how people lived is spoken of.

Staying in places for weeks at a time, taking part in the chores to be done, living as others do means that Isabella comes to know well the inhabitants of the area. A desperado, one who cannot say no to liquor, who brawls and does not think twice about killing, treats Isabella with curtesy and politeness, atypical of his usual behavior. He opens up to her, tells her his life story and they become close friends. The two help each other in times of need. This is a man whom others fear. Through Isabella, we get to know Jim Nugent, the desperado, too. And others. This travel memoir is not merely a recording of sights seen; Isabella becomes too much a part of the lives of those she visits to be viewed as simply a traveler.

To write of feminism is popular today. Isabella, living in the 1800s, was strong, capable, independent and brave. Such women have always existed. They should be noted and given high acclaim. She never denies her femininity. Her presence improved the behavior of the simple ruffians around her. The respect and polite behavior shown her is curious to observe. She often traveled alone and without a firearm. We read usually of the rough, wild West, here we see something quite different. We see what is not written of elsewhere.

The narrator at Librivox, Laura Caldwell, is really very, very good. She is as good as narrators of audiobooks that must be purchased. She speaks clearly. When you listen, it seems as though Isabella is talking to us. Caldwell’s intonation mirrors the Isabella we have come to know. There is no fuss or pretense about her. She is hardworking and straightforward. At the same time, she never loses her femininity. One hears this in Caldwell’s narration. Maybe I should have given the narration five stars. I gave it four, a very strong four!

Have I explained what makes this book special? Have I explained why it should be read soon? I hope so. This book is much better than I had expected. Don’t put it off, as I did!


***********************

*Wild Life on the Rockies 4 stars by Enos A. Mills 3 stars

By Isabella Lucy Bird :
*A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains 4 stars
*Unbeaten Tracks in Japan 3 stars
*The Englishwoman in America TBR
*Among the Tibetans TBR

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating book, a series of letters written in 1873 by Isabella L. Bird to her sister, documents the amazing adventure of a resourceful and daring Victorian woman. Its lush descriptions of the natural world (sunrises and sunsets, plant life, landscapes, animals, and all varieties of weather) and of domestic life (buildings, living conditions, relationships, gardening, cooking and cleaning) are captivating and entertaining.

In the autumn and early winter of 1873, on her return to England from the Sandwich Islands, the author travelled from San Francisco by train through the Sierra Nevadas. After a couple of days exploring the area near Truckee on a hired horse, she continued by train through to Cheyenne, Wyoming (which she described as "a God-forsaken, God-forgotten place" which existed solely as a railway depot for the distribution of essential goods to settlers within a 300-mile radius).

While continuing her journey by train and wagon south to Fort Collins, Colorado, the author was smitten by her first glimpse of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. She writes (still 25 miles from the mountains) "they are gradually gaining possession of me." The mountains had captured her heart and she was determined to find someone to guide her through the Front Range into beautiful Estes Park, nestled in the hollow between the Front Range and the Long's Peak Massif.

The Park, apparently inhabited by native tribes thousands of years ago, was first "discovered" by Europeans when fur trader Rufus B. Sage visited in 1843. In 1859, gold-digger Joel Estes settled there with his family for six years, eking out a living by ranching and hunting. The tallest of the peaks which surround Estes Park, Long's Peak, was named for early explorer Major Stephen H. Long who, while exploring the plains, noticed the high mountain on the horizon. Long's was first climbed in 1868, and mapped extensively in 1871. In early September 1873, the first woman to ascend Long's Peak was among the party of the Hayden Survey, a government expedition. One can only suppose that this event spurred the author's interest in visiting Estes Park and climbing Long's Peak herself.

After several unsuccessful attempts, the author finally reached Estes Park, where she lived with one of the two families settled there, and made the acquaintance of the famous desperado, "Rocky Mountain Jim" Nugent, with whom she explored the local area and summited Long's Peak. Estes Park became her home base during her sometimes pastoral, sometimes hair-raising solitary horseback explorations. She was well-known among the local population, and her reputation as a hard worker, a keen explorer, and a superior horsewoman preceded her wherever she went. It was with a heavy heart that, in December 1873, Isabella Bird left her mountain home to return to England.

I listened to a superb recording of this book by the Librivox volunteer, Laura Caldwell. The experience was, for me, like a multi-media installation consisting of a variety of vivid word pictures, which both informed me and spurred me on to further research. I found many websites with interesting information, maps, and photographs about the people, the history, and the geography of the places that the author visited. The couple of weeks that I spent with this book was time well spent. In fact, I would do it again!

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's rare that I read Westerns due to the genre being one of the wrongest things that ever wronged in the history of United States' literature. Another one is the holiday being celebrated today by the US Federal Government, a day that my ongoing reads of Genesis and Almanac of the Dead has thrown into piercing scrutiny. This work was the odd one out in the group in the brutal sense of the word, something I knew would be the case when I started out but didn't deter me due to, frankly, the shock I felt at learning that an English woman rode hundreds of miles in the Northwestern United States in 1873 and lived to not only tell, but write the tale. Her story is one where her deed proves her more a feminist than her word, a word that is horribly imperialist and the reason why I find more worth in a single work of fiction by an actual citizen than a hundred nonfiction pieces by tourists, but with a bag of salt these letters render the concept of the "fairer sex" null and void. It's compromised, but unlike reading something written by a white man during the same time period, this piece cuts through some of the bullshit by the sheer fact of existing.

I pass hastily over the early part of the journey, the crossing the bay in a fog as chill as November, the number of "lunch baskets," which gave the car the look of conveying a great picnic party, the last view of the Pacific, on which I had looked for nearly a year, the fierce sunshine and brilliant sky inland, the look of long rainlessness, which one may not call drought, the valleys with sides crimson with the poison oak, the dusty vineyards, with great purple clusters thick among the leaves, and between the vines great dusty melons lying on the dusty earth.

It helps that she's a decent prose stylist, along with the fact that for a while at the beginning, she's traveling through the area I grew up in. California is not one that crops up often in the literature I read, and when it does it is most often Los Angeles that graces the pages, a city I have my share of memories in but in no way compares to remembrance of the Bay Area. Reveler in imagery that I am, it is different when another agrees with the oddities, annoyances, and beauty that I have encountered in my daily life in and around San Francisco, a concordance that only becomes more precious when separated by almost 150 years. In other words, it made me nostalgic, but that happens rarely enough that I can afford to indulge.

In traveling there is nothing like dissecting people's statements, which are usually colored by their estimate of the powers or likings of the person spoken to, making all reasonable inquiries, and then pertinaciously but quietly carrying out one's own plans.

Judgmental she was, but not enough to forbear having a sense of humor. This and a firm (white) head on her shoulders helped her immensely through snow storms, bears, near starvation, a useless poet with a bottomless stomach, and a particularly infamous desperado called "Mountain Jim" who Bird had the most interesting time with because she thought he was really hot. She danced around the pronouncement like any white woman did at the time, but that's how it was.

I have seen a great deal of the roughest class of men both on sea and land during the last two years, and the more important I think the "mission" of every quiet, refined, self-respecting woman—the more mistaken I think those who would forfeit it by noisy self-assertion, masculinity, or fastness.

This is her in her last letter following up on her viewing the wife doing all the work in various settlements she stayed at as completely normal. How she would describe her own commitment to travel that would in the future venture far beyond shores both European and United States, I cannot say. However, she did write it down for those of us who need a "Look! If she could do it almost 150 years ago, so can I," every so often, so that's of merit.

Birdie slipped so alarmingly that I got off and walked, but then neither of us could keep our feet, and in the darkness she seemed so likely to fall upon me, that I took out of my pack the man's socks which had been given me at Perry's Park, and drew them on over her fore-feet—an expedient which for a time succeeded admirably, and which I commend to all travelers similarly circumstanced.

A bit of humor for the road.

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and beautifully written account of a lone British woman traveling through the Rocky Mountains in the late 1800's, this is a collection of letter's written to Isabella Bird's sister as a sort of journal of her journeys. At times harrowing in facing the elements and roughness of frontier life, Bird's grit and resilience are impressive and she writes vividly about the natural beauty around her.

But there is a darker side- this is written not long after the Civil War and we see formerly enslaved Black people turned servants. There are also many mentions of indigenous people whose land has been colonized, often in context of scary stories of violence or in reference to a couple of notorious men intent on murdering as many as possible. Bird's attitudes on this are difficult to parse. She seems at once sympathetic to them in terms of their mistreatment, and simultaneously convinced that only complete genocide would now "solve the problem" for Americans. It could be interpreted as her feeling that American's brought this on themselves, but she is just as much titillated by scary stories of dangerous Native Americans, and has complicated feelings about these murderous men who are kind to her personally.

As a piece of history, this collection of letters is important and offers a truly interesting peek into frontier life of the time, and the roles played by women. We definitely see how much more freedom some women were able to have so far from "polite society" but those who became wives and mothers often spent all their time in domestic labor and not infrequently died from childbirth. It's an interesting and well-composed read. I received an audio review copy of this book from Libro.FM, all opinions are my own.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isabella Bird was very ill, so her doctor sent her to America to regain some of her strength. When she set of from England for the first time, she was already a mature woman, considered a spinster by her sister's family and boring.

Over the course of the next decades, Bird would travel the world, sending back mesmerizing accounts of her travels.

It is particularly entertaining to compare her accounts with other travelers accounts- despite her gorgeous writing voice, Bird was considered to be rather overweight and "unlovely" by some of the men who encountered her as she hiked throughout the west, including ascents of some of the more difficult peaks in what is today Rocky Mountain National Park.

True adventure literature, and highly worth reading.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMG this is all true- the story of a 19th century woman-- so brave, adventurous and she is so matter-of-fact about it.

Isabella has traveled all over the worlds and sends detailed letters to her sister. She has lots of other books including about her time in Hawaii. After Hawaii, she travels to Colorado.

For someone who is a bit prim and proper, she knows how to handle horses, climbs Longs Peak (over 14,000 feet) in the snow, rides all day in freezing cold sometimes camping out but somehow managing, often in blizzard conditions, to find a tiny cabin or town that she is heading for following vague directions. SHe meets "Mountain Jim" in Estes Park. Well, much can be read in between her prim proper lines about him! He is so interesting, as is his dog.

She is a bit wordy sometimes, but over and over there are descriptions that paint vivid pictures of the sunrise, the colors within a canyon, the crisp frost air, the biting wind, etc. Her brave and surefooted pony and Isabella's use of her tropical Hawaiian riding clothing still leave me wondering --How the heck did she survive!?!

This book was extra fun for me to read as I am just 1/2 hour from Estes Park (and Mountain Jim). She may have even passed through what is now my town, Lyons CO.

So, now when it's cold outside or a bit snowy, I think of her in her non-technical clothing and footwear, riding her pony all day, snow up to the pony's belly and fording through frigid streams to follow her dreams.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting travel-memoir, written as letters home by an Englishwoman of independent means, touring the Far West in 1873, centered on her time in Colorado, then the Union's newest state and still *very* rough around the edges. She does get to the major tourist attractions around today's Rocky Mountain National Park, at considerably more trouble and expense than a present-day traveler will meet. It was *much* less crowded, but you are likely to conclude, as I did, that some crowding is a fair tradeoff for paved roads, clean beds, cold beer and hot showers. 3.3 stars, recommended particularly to northern Coloradans.

Public Domain. I read the Gutenberg ebook, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/755
Various formats available. And actually, I think our library had a paper reprint, always my first choice.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good tale, written in a series of letters to her sister in England, of Isabella Lucy Bird's extensive (and mostly solitary) travels in the Colorado Rocky Mountains during the late summer and fall of 1873. I am in complete awe of her - I'm pretty sure I would've curled up into a little ball and refused to continue once the temperature plummeted! And I enjoyed her compulsively readable style enough that I will definitely read more of her travels (some of which you can find at Project Gutenberg).

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

An English woman, Isabella Bird, writes letters to her sister about her travels around the American West during the 1870s. Her descriptions of the land before it was filled with people are stunning and vivid. Her descriptions of the people she encounters, for me, however, seem to be often tinged with a strong sense of judgment and superiority, and that undercut my enjoyment of the book.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isabella Bird was an adventuring marvel, especially for the time (1800s) of her travels. At times I had to remind myself that I was reading non-fic as her bravery and escapades were truly remarkable! I love books depicting nature as well and she was thoroughly descriptive. Very descriptive.

[Rita · Rating 2 out of 5]

1879
In fall 1873 Bird travelled by train, apparently alone, from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe, where she rented horses and looked around up in the mountains. Then the train through Wyoming to Ft. Collins, Colorado. Then rented a horse again, staying with various settlers living in remote parts of the foothills of the Rockies., mostly struggling for a miserable existence. Then she gets lucky and finds a Welsh couple's farm in Estes Park, 'park' being a local term to refer to a large mountain valley where grass grows, rather than trees. Such 'parks' were the only places to try to do some farming.

Anyway, the two Welsh couples who run the farm with several hired hands are quite successful, partly because of doing a lot of hunting on the side, and renting out cabins to tourists looking for adventure. Here Bird feels she's in paradise. The highlight of her stay is when a local trapper takes her up to the TOP of Longs Peak, the last 2000+ feet being mostly loose rock. In sub-freezing temperatures. She admits she wouldn't have done it if she had known what was ahead, but found the scenery all glorious up there and was endlessly thrilled to have done it.

The book, published in 1878, is based on letters she wrote to her sister [in England], which she later turned into this book. I like learning what all she got up to, and how the settlers she came across lived. Her passion is describing the scenery she rides through, but I mostly can't keep my mind focused on her descriptions, don't know why.

What a lot of spunk she had! And what hardships she was willing to undergo!

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why did this truly remarkable woman ride 800 miles in 1873 through the Rocky Mountains in the dead of winter alone? She like many in England suffering from a damp climate came for the “camp cure” of the thin dry air of Colorado. But, beyond that she was mesmerized by the sublimity and ethereal beauty of the place. She stayed with families leading hard lives of subsistence, living in un-chinked log cabins where snow settled on her bed over the night. She lent a hand in all endeavors; herding cattle, baking bread, washing dishes and clothes. Observations made to her sister in a series of letters are telling. A hard working lack luster lifestyle spiced with tales of adventure from hunters, trappers around the fire in the evening became her routine. A desperado named Mountain Jim became her guide and companion on many of her rides through country she describes with the passion of the devout pilgrim. In her lifetime Ms. Bird traveled extensively writing letters from the Sandwich Islands, China, India,Japan and other exotic realms before she passed at 73. I truly admire this plucky lady’s zest for life and true Brit grit.
www.lindaballouauthor.com

[Panayoti Kelaidis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read this more decades than I care to say: more's the pity that I waited so long: this is a book to re-read again and again! It is a very quick and extremely entertianing read. Isabella Bird is one of a kind, incredibly bold--a burly mountain man would have had trouble keeping up with some of her innumerable cross-country treks in a single Colorado autumnal visit. Her lyrical penned descriptions of the Colorado Front Range will never be equalled (post Victorian writers would never dare use such flagrantly magenta-tinted ink for one thing). Isabella was an astute observer who revels in her depictions and opinions. Anyone even SLIGHTLY interested in Western history generally, and Colorado history specifically should buy and promptly read this frequently reprinted classic and not wait as long as I did to revel in its lush descriptions of the austere Great Plains, the dingy, dusty, unruly towns and the magnificent mountain scenery and extremely colorful pioneer characters. I guarantee you: open it to any page and you will be hooked: Isabella rules!

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished in the 11th hour of 2024 and it was perfect to listen to before and after a trip to Colorado.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

May 2010 - A very interesting book. An English horsewoman traveling western USA in the 1870's. She rode a borrowed horse, Birdie, 500 miles in Colorado, by herself, in the winter, for pleasure. The idea I remember most is that Isabella felt safe (and was safe) traveling alone because westerners "have respect for a lady". Unless she was seeing with rose colored glasses, our civilization has deteriorated a lot. Safety and security are very valuable.

July 2012 - At the time of the review above, I had some concern that Isabella might have stretched the truth. I have researched everything I can find about her and the subject of western respect for a lady in those times that are often referred to as lawless. I read the book the second time with a different edition. (It was free on Kindle 7/1/2012 but on 7/10/2012 it was not free.) Everything I have found indicates Isabella told the truth.

I recently read "The Gentle Tamers" by Dee Brown. About midway in the book I realized what I was reading supported Isabella's assertion that "westerners have respect for a lady". Dee Brown is a respected historian and "The Gentle Tamers" indicates that women were held in high regard out west. The book concludes by pointing out that Wyoming was the first state that passed woman's suffrage and that seven states west of the Mississippi passed woman's suffrage before it was ever passed east of that river.

[Kerry Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting seeing Americans and American history thru the lens of someone not from here. Highly recommended if you would like to see which ‘western’ tropes are real, and which are not.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up because of the title from a used book sale. I'm a Colorado girl who thought it would be interesting to read about an English lady exploring my neck of the woods back in 1873. I was not wrong. I was enthralled with this book and Isabella Lucy Bird. Miss Bird tells this story through letters that were written to her sister back in England and first published in 1878. Miss Bird was a solo world traveler and on her way back from visiting the Hawaiian Islands (then called the Sandwich Islands) she was determined to see Estes Park, now home to Rocky Mountain National Park, in the Colorado Territory aka The Wild West. Determined to see it on her terms though a lady of some means she did not take the easy way by any stretch of the imagination and almost all her travel was done on her own, very seldom did she have a guide or company. She took a train from San Francisco, California to Cheyenne, Wyoming and from there rode horseback, rather than a train or wagon, to The Greeley Temperance Colony then on to Fort Collins in September of 1873. Constantly being told that she'd never make Estes Park due to winter coming. Not only did she make it to Estes Park she summitted Long's Peak (not 5 years from its initial ascent). Not to end her adventure there; she goes on to Denver, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Divide, Boulder, Longmount, Georgetown, Golden City and back to Estes Park. She is much more a fan of the small towns and nature than the bustling dirty cities and all their profanity. It was fascinating to hear about places I know so well and how much and how little they have changed in the past 150 years. She was somewhat of a celebrity at the time and met a number of the more important people in the area, which I recognized as the names on streets, high schools, etc. in the area. Miss Bird is a lover of nature and that comes through in all of her writing. She is also a woman of her time and her thoughts on Indians are not kind, and you are well reminded of the pre- PC world.

The Americans will never solve the Indian problem till the Indian is extinct. They have treated them after a fashion which has intensified their treachery and "devilry" as enemies, and as friends reduces them to a degraded pauperism, devoid of the very first elements of civilization. The only difference between the savage and the civilized Indian is that the latter carries firearms and gets drunk on whisky. The Indian Agency has been a sink of fraud and corruption; it is said that barely thirty per cent of the allowance ever reaches those for whom it is voted; and the complaints of shoddy blankets, damaged flour, and worthless firearms are universal. "To get rid of the Injuns" is the phrase used everywhere. Even their "reservations" do not escape seizure practically; for if gold "breaks out" on them they are "rushed," and their possessors are either compelled to accept land farther west or are shot off and driven off. One of the surest agents in their destruction is vitriolized whisky. An attempt has recently been made to cleanse the Augean stable of the Indian Department, but it has met with signal failure, the usual result in America of every effort to purify the official atmosphere. Americans specially love superlatives. The phrases "biggest in the world," "finest in the world," are on all lips. Unless President Hayes is a strong man they will soon come to boast that their government is composed of the "biggest scoundrels" in the world.

I highly recommend this book for any Coloradoan or lover of adventure.

[Jen (NerdifiedJen) · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I thought this book was great. Bird is unflinchingly honest (to the point where she actually made me mad a couple of times), and she was not shy about sharing her opinions as well as every detail, no matter how embarrassing, of her excursions. My biggest disagreement with her was her belief that Estes Park was the most beautiful and superior place in Colorado and all other natural sites were inferior, and in some cases, “hideous”. I have a really hard time thinking of any natural area in the state as “hideous”. My biggest surprise came when she dismissed Garden of the Gods completely, saying something along the lines of ‘if I were a divinity...I would not choose to reside there’. Garden of the Gods is one of my favorite things about living here. I go at least 2-3 times a month.

Despite her use of strong adjectives, both in the positive, but mostly in the negative (hideous, repulsive, etc.), I really enjoyed this read. When I started out, I expected a very isolated, and extremely dangerous existence for Bird in the “wild west,” but what I found was quite a bit different. The story was not just about the natural beauty that she encountered along the way and the hardships she faced, but there were also portraits of the people she met, some with very famous names, and some extremely detailed and lifelike. Today, one would expect someone embarking on a journey like this to have the luxury of camping equipment or even hotel stays, but the fact that settlers would open their doors to strangers traveling through and give them room and board surprised me. It was not in keeping with the idea I had in my mind of life in the Colorado Territory in the 1870s. I was very interested in her relationship with Jim and her characterization of him as an extremely dark man and a drunk, but also one of her closest companions, and a handsome English gentleman, at that.

My other preconceived notion that I had when I first began reading was that Bird would have a really hard time accomplishing her task because she was a woman. It was not that I thought her incapable, but I believed that it would be much more dangerous for her in the “wild west” and that she would be specifically targeted by less than savory characters, many of whom she met along the way. On the contrary, it seemed as though being female was actually to her benefit under most circumstances. She was treated very courteously by those she visited, and was often given shelter, food, or help when she may not have been otherwise. That surprised me, and it gave me a more well-rounded idea of what a journey like this would have been like.

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept thinking that surely this couldn’t really have been true. How could a wealthy English woman, born in the 19th century and used to a life of relative ease, travel alone through the Rocky Mountains in the fall of 1873? But she was no fictional character and this series of letters written to her sister back home in England is no hoax. She was one gutsy Victorian lady and apparently quite used to roughing it on her own, because no sooner had she finished a trip to the Sandwich Islands then she set off again for San Francisco to travel by train through the Sierra Nevadas and on to Cheyenne, Wyoming and from there to Fort Collins, Colorado to begin her journey on horseback into the Rocky Mountains. Her goal was Estes Park, and her letters are an amazing account of her adventures.

She often relied on word of mouth to point out which trail to follow and had no qualms about wandering alone into remote areas where she described even the roughest “mountain men” as perfect gentlemen when in the presence of a lady. She traveled either by foot or “rent-a-horse” (which apparently was pretty easy to do back in the days when there was no other method of getting from place to place.) In an era that pre-dated motel chains and tourist resorts, there was an informal network of shacks and cabins inhabited by settlers who were ready to offer a bed for the night to strangers who needed a place to stay before setting off again to wherever they were headed.

Despite freezing temperatures, winter storms, rattlesnakes, wild animals and treacherous mountain paths, Isabella always managed to find her way to where she wanted to be, hiring local people when necessary to serve as guides. She loved the mountain scenery and rhapsodized at length about sunsets, sunrises, snow on the mountain peaks and the lush vistas that stretched out all around her as she traveled into Estes Park where she managed to make it to the top of Long’s Peak after a truly horrifying climb, dressed in her “Hawaiian riding costume” (whatever on earth that was!) Through it all, she managed to write faithfully to her sister back home in England, filling her letters with detailed accounts of all her adventures and somehow making it sound like it was nothing more strenuous than a stroll across the English moors.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

My grandma gave me this book for my seventeenth birthday, 18 months before she died, with the inscription, "Melody, dear -- Isabella Bird will surely take you on a grand adventure! Hope you enjoy the trip." Nearly 13 years later, I've discovered that she was right, and I wonder what took me so long to set out for the Rocky Mountains of 1872.

I guess I didn't expect much of an adventure, but was pleased to find that Bird was no passive observer. She immersed herself in the places she travelled, mostly on horseback and in fierce weather. She was foolish, really, embarking on one risky foray through the wild after another, yet her confidence is inspiring.

I lived in Colorado for a decade, but there isn't as much wilderness left in this milennium, and I've seen relatively little. I laughed aloud to read Bird assert that to her "no place could be more unattractive than Colorado Springs," my hometown. She blames its ugliness on "its utter treelessness," which has certainly changed, but the barren quality of the plains persists in the shadow of Pike's Peak nevertheless.

I feel somehow homesick for places I've only visited, which are much different than the lushly described, barely settled land Isabella Bird travelled. The crisp, thin mountain air ("rarefied," says Bird), has changed much less, undoubtedly, and I look forward to my next breath of it.

[Samar Dahmash Jarrah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Star for writing a book and another for extensive description of Estes park and life on the mountains. Her disdain for the Native Owners of the land, the Native Americans, and her solution for the problem was despicable. The only solution of the savages is to kill them all. What a disgrace. Pushed my self to finish it.

[Linda Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fearless woman travels alone in the mountains!

Isabella Lucy Bird's journey through Colorado on horseback took place in 1873. Through heat and extreme cold she ventured out, sometimes in weather so terrible no sane mountain man would accompany her. Throughout her journey she wrote letters to her sister and these were later collected into what would become her fourth book.

You see, Isabella was no newcomer to travel. Her first book was An Englishwoman in America. She also traveled to Australia, Japan, Tibet, and Hawaii.

Her habit in Colorado was to travel alone but along the way she met a lot of friendly men who would offer to travel with her. She seemed to appreciate the company.

This book reads like a series of letters (which it is) but she took care to include amazing descriptions of the places she went, views she saw, and people she met. Probably she already knew she would be publishing these letters as a book. Either that, or she embellished the originals as she edited them for the book's publication. Either way, the descriptions are great.

What amazed me most about Isabella was that she seemed so fearless and traveled alone. This very much contrasts with my own experience growing up in America starting in 1952, about 100 years after her journeys started. My family taught me to be fearful of strangers and of being out alone after dark. I would not travel alone on horseback through the forests taking shelter in remote cabins with weird mountain men. Yet Isabella seemed to get along just fine, doing just that.

This is definitely a classic book worth reading.

[raccoon reader]

I think the idea of this book mattered more than the actual reading of it.

I worked in an archives that had a very old edition of this book and when I stumbled across it I became a bit obsessed, thinking I would read it eventually. I was a bit of a history nerd in a past life, but clearly it's not the time nor place for me to pick back up that thread of my life. I think it would be an interesting listen/read but alas. I tried, but am letting it go from my TBR. This is part of my 2024 initiative to revisit some of the older shit on my TBR. A lot of that stuff doesn't interest me at all, and there's no reason to keep it hanging around. :)

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isabella Bird was an English gentlewoman who first came to Colorado on her way back from Hawaii in 1873. In this collection of letters Bird wrote to her sister back home, she details her experiences as she rode over 700 miles, usually alone, though the mountains that fall.

This is a spectacular gem of a book. Bird is an astonishingly brave person to undertake such a journey through an untamed landscape as winter was rapidly bearing down, but that she did so as a woman at that time is truly inspiring.

First and foremost, this is a love letter to the landscape she discovered here on her journey. She paints vivid portraits of the awe inspiring beauty in prose that could fairly be described as purple. Yet reading it, I couldn't help but feel every word she penned was justified by the unbridled majesty she was attempting to capture.

Bird is no romantic and she also grimly describes mountainsides devastated by mining operations whose barren legacy we still live with today. In addition, she gives us images of early Cheyenne and a downtown Denver crowded with horses and pelt shops, not to mention my own town of Boulder, which she described as a "hideous collection of frame houses on the burning plane." (Oh, if she could see us now!)

Bird's letters provide a gripping glimpse into what life in these early mountain pioneer communities was like. She spent much of her time in Estes Park when it consisted of a dude ranch and a dozen people. Though Bird was a wealthy woman, money was of little use when there were no fancy hotels to spend it on, banks were closed due to financial panic, and she was trapped by a storm for days on end in a log cabin with unchinked walls in sub-zero temperatures. At one point, she discusses how the hunters and trappers she shared the ranch with were so afflicted with cabin fever they obsessed themselves with attempting to keep her ink from freezing.

As Bird traveled throughout the region, her reputation as the crazy English horsewoman began to proceed her and the rough and tumble men of the region accorded her a grudging respect. It was one that was clearly earned from events like the time she was caught riding on the plain in an ice storm. The blowing crystals stung her face, bringing tears to her eyes that froze them shut. She survived the storm with frostbite on her hands from constantly having to deice her lashes.

It was undoubtedly adventures like this one that allowed her to earn the respect and confidence of the notorious Mountain Jim. He was an Indian hunter and animal trapper with a whiskey problem who guarded the entrance to Estes Park. Over the course of her time there, Jim served as her guide on several trips, and ultimately confided in her the tortured tale that led to his perception of himself as a fallen man.

The insight Bird offers into characters like Jim, as well as other settlers she met who came for the "cure" offered by the high, dry climate, is fascinating. Not unsurprisingly for the time, her attitude towards the few Native Americans and Chinese laborers she observes is openly racist. But although she clearly prefers the refinements of her English race over white Americans as well, her observations of the differences between her homeland and this rowdy mountain culture are very thoughtful.

I closed this book with a much greater understanding of the history of my state. In the wake of the floods that have devastated many of the regions she writes about, I was also grateful to be able to see anew the mountainous backyard I have come to take for granted through the eyes of a woman who was well traveled enough to know that there is no place else like it on earth.

[Karen GoatKeeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1872 Isabella Bird, an English lady and world traveler, set out from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe and on to the Rocky Mountains. This was in the fall. Along the way she wrote letters to her sister which were published in newspapers then and now in book form.
Isabella travelled most of this journey on horseback through beautiful weather and country and in deep snow, even snowstorms. Her mount for her time in the Rockies was Birdie, then called a bronc, now called a mustang and found this horse the most reliable and trustworthy mount. She slept in log cabins with the walls unchinked. One place even was missing part of the roof.
Through it all Isabella wrote not only of the country as it was then, but of the people who lived and visited these remote places. Her reports were matter-of-fact, nonjudgemental. Her love of the country and most of the people she met shines through in her letters.
Those with at least a passing familiarity with the Estes Park, Pike's Peak area will enjoy this account more than others. The descriptions of the settlers are interesting to any history buff and are not the movie variety at all. As an adventure, this is an epic on the verge of being unbelievable as Isabella rides nearly 800 miles on Birdie through the Rockies and plains of Colorado.
Although the reading dates say it took me a long time to read this book, my reading was delayed by many other things. The book is a fast, easy, enjoyable read.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

One hundred thirty-two years before Linda Moore set out for the BookCrossing convention in Texas on her bike "Beastie", Isabella Bell set out by ship, train and finally beastie (in this case, horse) for Estes Park in the Rocky Mountains. Like Linda, Isabella wrote about her entire journey in a series of seven letters which were later published in book form, A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. Linda blogged about the experience and later published her experience as A Little Twist of Texas.

When I read through the first letter I was afraid I was reading another Riding the Iron Rooster because the first letter is nothing more than a long diatribe about how lousy the second leg of her trip was (San Francisco to Sacramento) and much she regretted leaving Hawaii. But by her second letter I was madly in love with the book. Isabella's letters reflect her mood as well as record the places and people she met along the way. When she is tired she grumbles. When she's well rested, she thrills at her adventure. She even includes passages about the history of the areas she visits and all I could think was: "She's snarfing!"

If you like travelogues and you like history, get yourself a copy A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. Then read A Little Twist of Texas and enjoy a modern version of the adventure.

[Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isabella L. Bird travelled the World during the mid to late 1800's and became a well-known travel writer. One of her adventures was through the Rocky Mountains of the early 1870's where comforts were few and dangers were plentiful. Through a series of poetically penned letters, Bird tells of an Old West which now only exists in the pages of history. Bird was an articulate and sensitive lady who moved with ease amongst desperate men, trying circumstances, and unimaginable hardships, but her journeys were set always against the pattern of a Wild and wondrous West.

Of particular interest was the friendship which developed between this proper lady and the outlaw "Mountain Jim" Nugent. Nugent was so feared that the mention of his name was used to rein in recalcitrant children. Yet, this one-eyed Indian fighter--once a handsome man--showed the deepest respect for Bird. She reciprocated, thinking him a most worthy human being. One hopes that rumors of their romance were based in fact.

Bird's daring, her compassion, her love for the wilds of frontier America make for an interesting and thoughtful read. Sometimes, I thought I was on a great adventure her stories were so exciting. I don't know how she survived the Rocky Mountains, a lady alone on horseback, but I am so ever glad she did.

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sounds like the kind of book that should be dull, but I was actually quite enthralled by it. There's something deeply fascinating about reading the personal letters of an an independent woman traveling alone though the rockies in the 1870s.

Isabella Bird is a bit uppity at times, but there's no denying she's also a badass. I know I wouldn't have to guts to travel alone, unarmed, in the mountains in the dead of winter. Some of her descriptions were so harrowing, I could hardly believe she CHOSE to life this lifestyle. At times she describes sub-zero temperatures where she must keep her ink jar on a stove to prevent the ink from freezing while she writes. Now THAT'S dedication. Imagine having to sweep snow out of your cabin every morning because your walls have giant gaps in them, or plunging into a frozen river when your horse falls, and still keep going for miles.

I especially enjoyed her accounts of the other mountain people she met along her travels, particularly the "desperado", Mountain Jim, whom she clearly carried a torch for. All her descriptions of nature's majesty were also really lovely, and makes me want to go out and revisit the rockies again someday soon!

[MzMay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reminds me of Alexandra David-Neel, another female traveler and racist. The "good" people were those that were white, had nice things, had manners and most importantly, fawned over her and treated her as classy.

The (poor white) Chalmers were portrayed as hard-working but stupid - doing labor that never got them ahead because they lacked the intelligence to work smart. She looked down on them because they shared one comb and had no fancy Sunday clothes.

I won't get into what she thinks about the Native Americans and her black train attendant. You can guess.

Please don't tell me it was a different time. Mark Twain also used language we consider outdated now, but he never thought of Jim as a lesser person. Bird truly thinks poverty is a character failing and some races are better than others. She was no trailblazer. She was a racist woman travelling alone that wrote some letters.

This is available free from Gutenberg, if you must.