Alamosa Public Library

Born in 1831, Isabella Bird, daughter of a clergyman, set off alone to the Antipodes in 1872 'in search of health' and found she had embarked on a life of adventurous travel.

The author draws on her travels and homestead life in the Colorado Rockies in an essay collection on her ties to nature that explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and the earth. "'How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us,' Pam Houston writes. On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, this beloved writer learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves...

Tells the stories of six women who traveled to Oregon Territory as missionary wives in the 1830s. One of the women, Narcissa Whitman, was killed in the Whitman Massacre of 1847. The others were Eliza Spalding, Mary Richardson Walker, Myra Fairbanks Eells, Sarah White Smith and Mary Dix Gray. Describes establishment of missions at Tshimakian and Waiilaptu.

"The watershed year of Isabella Lucy Bird's life was 1873. In autumn of that year, the forty-one-year-old English gentlewoman embarked by rail from San Francisco's east bay, bound for the Colorado Rockies. A challenging journey, it drove Bird to the utmost physical effort and initiated her life-long career in what today is called adventure travel. More than one hundred twenty years after their first publication, Isabella Bird's letters to her sister...

This book describes the life and accomplishments of Sacagawea, a Shoshone Native American who traveled with the Corps of Discovery in 1805-1806 as they explored the Louisiana Territory, the western half of the Mississippi River basin.

"Cassandra Kircher was in her twenties when she was hired by the National Park Service, landing a life that allowed her to reinvent herself. For four years she collected entrance fees and worked in the dispatch office before being assigned as the first woman to patrol an isolated backcountry district of Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. There, Kircher encountered wonder and beauty, accidents and death. Although she always suspected the mountains...

"Colorado Experience profiles Grand Junction resident, Annabelle Craft Moss. During World War II, while most male Air Force pilots left for combat missions abroad, the Women Air Force Service Pilot program was formed for domestic missions. Growing up with a passion for flight and a deep sense of patriotism, Annabelle jumped at the opportunity to serve her country. But flying an A-16 Trainer was only the beginning. Annabelle went on to lead an active...