Book Review: Mary Schaffer

And now for a quick-read biography of an American female explorer for Independence Day and book review week...

Book Review For: Mary Schaffer: An Adventurous Woman’s Exploit’s in the Canadian Rockies
By Jill Foran

Take one well-off woman who can barely walk up a hill in the late 1800s and early 1900s and take her out to the Canadian Rockies. Introduce her to a man in love with botany and the great outdoors. Teach her to ride a horse. Let her imagination go wild and allow her to become the woman she was meant to be and soon you’ll have her hiring guides with other adventurous widows and exploring the Canadian Rockies.

Mary was an amazing woman pushing the boundaries of exploration for not only men, but most definitely for women in a time when most women wouldn’t venture further from their fine-boned china than a step or two. And here’s Mary treking through mountain passes, building rafts and exploring fabled lakes–and sleeping in a tent. On the ground. In snow, heat, bugs, etc.

The more Mary followed her dream, the more she didn’t fit into her ‘home’ in Philadelphia’s high society. Over a hundred years later, I can kind of relate… (Even though I don’t own any fine-boned china.)