Land of the Burnt Thigh by Edith Eudora Kohl

Among the hordes of homesteaders who settled the American West were thousands of single women who hoped to gain for themselves a piece of land and the money and satisfaction that came with it. The memoirs of many of these self-described "girl homesteaders," long ignored by historians, show the significant impact these women had on their communities.

This book, first published in 1938, is one of the best of these accounts. Edith Eudora Ammons and her sister Ida Mary moved to central South Dakota in 1907 to try homesteading near the "Land of the Burnt Thigh" - the Lower Brule Indian Reservation. There these two young women, both in their twenties and "timid as mice," found a community of homesteaders (including several other single women) who were eager to help them succeed at what looked to be impossible: living in a tiny tar-paper shack on 160 waterless, sunbaked, and snow-blasted acres for eight months, until they could "prove up" the claim.

Paperback
296 pages
ISBN: 978-0-87351-199-5

About the author: Edith and her sister, Ida Marion, were born and reared in Illinois, near St. Louis. As young women, they were among the very first brave, remarkable men and women who trekked out to settle the untamed, unchartered American West.

Image description: The cover image has a nude color background with a drawing of a wagon and horses at the top of the cover. The title and author's name are present in the center in a white frame and teal lettering. The subtitle is shown under this frame in black lettering.