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In her memoir spanning more than seven decades, Lois Whitcomb Boblett (1844-1925) writes of the day-to-day struggle

to settle the West. Lois and her family homesteaded in Iowa and Nebraska, prospected for gold in Colorado's Pike's Peak

Rush, contributed to the formation of the New Mexico Territory during the Civil War, ranched on the edge of the Arizona frontier, traveled through California, homesteaded in Washington Territory, searched for silver in Idaho, and stampeded to the Klondike. Lois and Ed Boblett returned to Whatcom County, Washington, where their impact is still recognized today.

Through meticulous research and a wealth of detail, Western Historian L. Darlene Spargo positions the Whitcomb and Boblett families in the movement West and adds context to their decisions and actions. Spargo adds numerous historical photographs and maps to illustrate Lois's story. How Lois and her family dealt with life on the Frontier is a fascinating story of survival.

Order A Fair Distance, Lois Boblett's Western Memoir, 1851-1922, by L. Darlene Spargo on our shopping cart!

"I loved the book, A Fair Distance, by L. Darlene Spargo. Reading about the experiences of people who traveled west in the 1800s and early 1900s is fascinating to me. Their daily lives were vastly different from ours, and reading of the challenges they faced gave me a new appreciation for the effort it took. I, like Lois Boblett, am from Wisconsin. I now live in Colorado, and made many connections with her as I read her book. I am also a teacher, and hearing her stories of one room school houses and the conditions teachers taught in makes me feel fortunate to have the resources I have to do my job."

"Lois Boblett’s memoir A Fair Distance was a fascinating account of a journey that propels the reader forward in anticipation of the writer’s next true struggles and adventure. The supporting documentation by historian Darlene Spargo richly compliments the stories and supplies coinciding details."

"So wonderful to read this account of a family's journey across America. So similar to my father's family that I have shared the book with my mother and sister. This is a book you can come back to over and over again and learn something new each time."