Girl from the Gulches

A covered wagon on a dim road, the promise of a long journey, and the wonder of what lay ahead filled the shadowy spaces of Mary Sheehan Ronan’s earliest memories. By the time she was a married woman in her twenties, she was a well-seasoned pioneer, having crossed most of the country and retraced her steps back across a third of it. In this highly readable, entertaining account, Ronan tells the story of one woman’s life in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century. 


This detailed memoir recalls the young girl’s journey across the Great Plains, her childhood on the Colorado and Montana mining frontiers, her ascent to young womanhood on a farm in southern California, her experiences as a student in a Los Angeles convent school, her return to Montana as a bride, and her life on the Flathead Indian Reservation as wife of the Indian agent. The exhilaration of a forbidden sled ride, the creaking of the hangman’s rope, her father giving the last of their water to his dying mule—these things Ronan describes with vivid clarity. Ably edited and annotated, Girl from the Gulches offers a unique perspective that is a joy to read.