A Bride Goes West

Nannie T. Alderson's memoir recounts the life of a transplanted, southern woman who, after marrying in 1883, finds herself learning to run a ranch in eastern Montana near the mouth of Lame Deer Creek.

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Blizzards, droughts, predators, unpredictable markets, and a host of other calamities tell the history of the daily struggles of Western ranching, and perhaps no one has told the story better than Nannie T. Alderson, a transplanted southern woman who married a cowboy and found herself in eastern Montana trying to build a ranching business a one-hundred-mile horse-and-buggy ride from the nearest town. Unfamiliar with even the most basic household chores, she soon found herself washing, cooking, riding, cleaning, branding, and a host of other ranch activities for which her upbringing had not prepared her.

Although Nannie Alderson and her husband, Walt, would eventually move to Miles City, her story of the rigors of ranch life serves as the preeminent account of Montana ranch life and culture. This edition features a foreword from Nannie’s great-grandniece, Jeanie Alderson, who ranches in the same area.