Life on Muskrat Creek

Composed of writings by Ethel Waxham Love, a Wellesley College graduate who married Scottish rancher John Love and went to live on his ranch in 1910, and her son, J. David Love, who later became an eminent geologist, Life on Muskrat Creek tells the fascinating story of a family's day-to-day life on an isolated ranch in early twentieth-century Wyoming. Readers will learn about the family's persistence despite a variety of challenges, including a near-fatal bout with Spanish influenza, life-threatening encounters with livestock and wildlife, as well as disastrous episodes of fires, floods, blizzards, and drought. The book's depiction of more ordinary events is equally engaging: Ethel describes her adjustment to married life and raising children with little support from neighbors, women friends, or a wider family network; David recounts growing up in a wild and remote place where there was no local school, but where he learned from the land, his parents, and the hardy people who stopped by the ranch. The two perspectives create a lively and provocative record of western history--back cover.