Wild West Women by Rosemary Neering

Wild West Women by Rosemary Neering

These aren't the women who built the west.

Not nurses or teachers or crusaders for women's

rights, they rarely show up in history books.

They are a different breed of women.

Adventurous and rebellious, they strayed outside

the permitted and undertook the unexpected.

Most of the women who came to the west coast of Canada between the time of the gold rush and the 1940s settled in Vancouver or Victoria, or in the growing towns in the interior valleys. Out beyond the cities, a different world existed. Imaginative, determined, often raucous and sometimes raunchy, women in the wilds did what they wanted to do.

They ran traplines, hotels and bawdy houses, prospected for gold, lived in the wilderness, and married as many times as they wanted or not at all.

In this new edition, complete with a new foreword, Rosemary Neering tells the stories of the strength, independence and sheer determination of women such as Lillian Alling, who tried to walk home to Russia; and Evelyn Penrose, who divined for water, oil and criminal tendencies. Madam, prospector, writer, each of these amazing individuals lived a life that challenged the rules most women lived by.

Rosemary Neering is the author of numerous award-winning books on Canadian history and travel, including works on Canadian women and pioneers. Rosemary was born in England, but she grew up in Brantford, Ontario, before moving to British Columbia when she was nineteen years old. Rosemary loves to travel all around Canada, Europe, and South America. She enjoys gardening, tennis, and spending time with her cat Cayambe when she is at home in Victoria.