Rocky Mountain Speculation: The Bakken

Isabella Lucy Bird (1831–1904) was an amazing traveler and writer. She traveled throughout Asia. She lived for a time among the Ainu people in northern Japan. Bird made it to Hawaii, where she climbed Mauna Loa. She wandered in Australia and rode horses in Persia. This is a snippet of her life's itinerary. She got around.

In 1873, Bird set off for the Rocky Mountains. Back then, the Rocky Mountain region was an untamed wilderness peopled with hardscrabble pioneers. Bird began her journey in San Francisco. She headed east across Nevada, and then ploughed into the Colorado Territory. Bird set her adventures down in a series of letters to her sister Henrietta. She stitched them together in a book, published in 1879.