I love books like this - historical document, reads like fiction but ISN'T! Includes some great old time photos. Like the Laura Ingalls Wilder books? Try this one!

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This book starts out in Telluride, Colorado, British Columbia, Elk City, Idaho and in the back to Leadville, Colorado.
I enjoyed it, it was a bit slow in places,typical of a book written from journals.

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This is an excellant account of a young woman's life as a new bride living at the Tomboy Mine in the mountain out of Telluride, CO. It is especially fascinating and interesting if you have ever visited that area or done mountain 4WD travel in the Colorado high country. My husband and I just returned from that area where we took two teenage boys on a jeep tour. Climbing to 12,000 feet was quite and adventure for all of us. The mining ruins, cabins and shacks are still prevelent all along the trail in the vacinity of where Harriet Backus lived. I strongly recommend both the book and a visit to the area. Once you read the book you will want to see for yourself where Harriet and her husband lived and be amazed that anyone could endure that primitive life in such very harsh conditions. Enjoy! Sandy Langner

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Mrs. Backus (and she comes from the era when the "Mrs." was worn proudly) writes an engaging memoir of her life as the wife of a mining engineer at the turn of the last century. His first job was at the Tomboy mine in Colorado. Hers was a life of drudgery and deprivation, punctuated by catastrophe and emergency. Through it all, her love for her husband shines to remind the reader why she embraced such a lifestyle. We follow Hattie through her own career as a teacher in the mining camp and later, a devoted mother and homemaker. If you remember outhouses and bucket baths, you will celebrate with the Backuses their first indoor bath, complete with bathtub. And if you appreciate history from those who really lived it, "Tomboy Bride" will be your kind of page-turner.

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What a wonderful story Mrs. Backus writes for us. I can't imagine how she and her family did what they did for each other. I guess it's called love."

As a former Marine, who also experienced some very interesting living arrangements, I am in awe of what she and her husband went through.

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This is a personal account of life in mining camps of the west written by the wife of a mining engineer, George Backus. They met at UC Berkeley where they were both students. She traveled to marry him and lived with him at several mining camps in Idaho, British Columbia, Telluride and other Colorado camps, and raised 2 children. It reads like fiction, though about the only character development is about the author. I was hoping for more adventure and to learn more about the hardships of the miners themselves. There was plenty of hardship, deprivation and unbelievable hardships, and I was broken hearted at the treatment of the animals. Definitely a good historical read.

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