
In the ummer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Ro amond Underwood, clo e friend from childhood and graduate of Smith College, left home in Auburn, New York, for the wild of northwe tern Colorado. Bored by their oci-ety luncheon , charity work, and the effete young men who courted them, they learned that two teach-ing job were available in a remote mountaintop choolhou e and applied hocking their familie and friend . No young lady in our town, Dorothy later commented, had ever been hired by anybody. They took the new railroad over the Continental Divide and made their way by pring wagon to the tiny ettlement of Elkhead, where they lived with a family of home teader . They rode everal mile to chool each day on hor eback, ometime in blinding blizzard . Their tudent walked or kied on barrel tave , in tattered clothe and hoe tied together with tring. The man who had lured them out we t wa Ferry Carpenter, a witty, ideali tic, and occa ionally outrageou young lawyer and cattle rancher. He had promi ed them the adventure of a lifetime and the mo t modern choolhou e in Routt County; he hadnt let on that the teacher would be con idered dazzling pro pective bride for the local . That year tran formed the children, their familie , and the undaunted teacher them elve . Dorothy and Ro amond learned how to handle unruly children who had never heard the Pledge of Allegiance and thought Ferry Carpenter wa the pre ident of the United State ; they adeptly deflected the amorou advance of hopeful cowboy ; and they aw one of their clo e t friend violently kidnapped by two coal miner . Carpenter marital cheme turned out to be more ucce ful than even he had hoped and had a urpri ing twi t ome forty year later. In their buoyant letter home, the two women captured the voice and torie of the pioneer women, the children, and the other memorable people they got to know. Nearly a hundred year later, New Yorker executive editor Dorothy Wickenden the granddaughter of Dorothy Woodruff found the letter and began to recon truct the women journey. Enhancing the tory with interview with de cendant , re earch about the e vani hed communitie , and trip to the region, Wickenden create an exhilarating aga about two intrepid young women and the ettling up of the We t
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