Almost Pioneers: One Couple's Homesteading Adventure In The West

by John J. Fry and Laura Gibson Smith

Book Overview

In the fall of 1913, Laura and Earle Smith, a young Iowa couple, made the gutsy--some might say foolhardy--decision to homestead in Wyoming. There, they built their first house, a claim shanty half dug out of the ground, hauled every drop of their water from a spring over a half-mile away, and fought off rattlesnakes and boredom on a daily basis.
Soon, other families moved to nearby homesteads, and the Smiths built a house closer to those neighbors. The growing community built its first public schoolhouse and celebrated the Fourth of July together--although the festivities were cut short because of snow.
By 1917, however, the Smiths had moved back to Iowa, leasing their land to a local rancher and using the proceeds to fund Earle's study of law. The Smiths lived in Iowa for most of the rest of their lives, and sometime after the mid-1930s, Laura wrote this clear, vivid, witty, and self-deprecating memoir of their time in Wyoming, a book that captures the pioneer spirit of the era and of the building of community against daunting odds.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0762784393
• ISBN13: 9780762784394
• Release Date: August 2013
• Publisher: Two Dot Books
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"