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Almost Pioneers: One Couple's Homesteading Adventure in the West

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
  • Pages
  • 224
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780762784394
  • Genres
  • history
  • Release date
  • 2013