kuniga.me > Books > A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

This book is a collection of letters the author, Isabella L. Bird, wrote to her sister while travelling to Western USA as a Englishwoman around 1873.

She starts the trip in California, and reaches Colorado by train and horseback. She spends considerable time in the Rocky Mountains, near Este Park.

She travelled largely by herself but often camped or squatted with or near other people. A notable person she meets is mountain Jim. A troubled loner known for his violence but who is very polite and is able to hold intelligent conversation with her. This reminds me of the fairytale the beauty and the beast.

The major themes of the letters and being awed by the mountains and surviving with the bare minimum. Some other themes:

Sickness. People believed that going to high altitude could cure their respiratory diseases. I had heard of this before in The Silverado Squatters, because the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, went to Mount Saint Helena in California in hopes to ease his asthma.

Weather and Mood. The author says:

I have been 10 months in almost perpetual sunshine and now a single cloudy day makes me feel quite depressed.

I’ve always lived in places there were sunny most of the year and feel sadder in cloudy days, so can’t imagine living in places like London or Seattle. But the author quote suggests that we get used to it (in either direction).

Natural Beauty. The author evokes art and spirituality in her awe of nature. On commenting how trees, grass and rocks seem to be perfectly arranged:

I am almost angry with Nature for her close imitation of art.

A few times she brings up spirituality:

Here again worship seemed the only attitude for a human spirit

I did find it hard to partake her awe just from the descriptions, however vivid they were. The author was perhaps aware her sister (the recipient of the letters) would feel the same:

I fear you will grow tired of the details of these journal letters

Frugality. During a stay in the Rockies, the author lives in some bare bone conditions, but is stoic about it:

I really need nothing more than this log cabin offers. But elsewhere one must have a house and servants, and burdens and worries - not that one may be hospitable and comfortable - but for the thick clay in the short of things one has accumulated.

and also:

One learns how very little is necessary either for comfort or happiness

Chilvary. One pretty interesting social phenomena is that men seemed to respect her and it doesn’t seem like she suffered any major threat from men despite traveling by herself in territory that is mostly inhabited by uneducated, single bachelors in lawless mine towns.

Traveling. On her return home after the sojourn in Colorado:

Surely one advantage of traveling is that while it removes much prejudice against foreigners and their customs, it intensifies tenfold one’s appreciation of the good at home.

Which I can relate to.

Conclusion

I bought this book to read during a trip to Colorado, in particular hikes in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

I found the book generally ok. It provides an interesting peek at life in the 19th century and the adventures of a brave woman in the “wild west”.