McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK--‘Tomboy Bride’ topic at Eufaula library

McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK--‘Tomboy Bride’ topic at Eufaula library: "Margaret Rigney of Checotah will take the audience of the Friends of Eufaula Memorial Library to the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado when she reviews the book “Tomboy Bride: A Woman’s Personal Account of Life in Mining Camps of the West” by Harriet Fish Backus. The book, which takes place at the turn of the 20th century, is first and foremost, the love story of Harriet and George Backus. But it also chronicles an era in American history that began in the mid 1800s and ended shortly after World War I.

A Victorian-era born woman, Harriet marries her high school sweetheart, George, in Denver in the late fall of 1906. George, a recent graduate of the California School of Mines, takes Harriet from their honeymoon in Denver to the wilds of Telluride. He then takes his new bride five miles and 3,000 feet above Telluride to the Tomboy Mine. It is “the richest gold mine in the Savage Basin” and it is where they will begin their married life.

“Tomboy Bride” tells the lesser told tale of a woman’s life in the mining camps of the west as well as the daily life of hard rock miners. Harriet originally self-published “Tomboy Bride” in 1969 as a tribute to her husband who died in 1964. In 1977 the book was picked up by a Colorado publishing company. It has been in print continuously ever since and is considered a Colorado history classic.

Rigney began her career in the early 1970s as the first librarian at the newly established Eufaula Public Library. She has worked at Connors State College for 29 years and currently serves as director of the Westbrook Library Learning Center."