Julia Holmes, Adventures in Bloomers

Bloomers from 1850s

Before the gold rush in 1859, few white women had traveled over the Colorado plains. The country was harsh — dry and barren — where only a handful of mountain trappers and Plains Indians knew how to survive. Despite the dangerous conditions, two white women agreed to accompany their gold-seeking husbands in the spring of 1858. One was Julia Archibald Holmes, a 20-year-old bride who didn’t care so much about the gold. What she wanted was adventure, to walk freely across the prairie, climb mountains, and explore a territory where no white woman had ever ventured before. She achieved those dreams, wearing a new American costume called “bloomers,” which enabled her to walk unhindered by heavy skirts.

Notorious Mountain Charley

I love a good Western, from cheesy television shows to dime-store paperbacks. Most of them are chock-full of intense male characters – lone heroes bent on revenge, out to “right” some “wrongs” – but I seldom find a complex, interesting female in these stories. (Okay, so there are a few notable exceptions – Mattie Ross in True Grit comes to mind.) In general, women are portrayed as rather flat characters – either the whore with the heart of gold or the good Christian girl who wins over the conflicted gunslinger. Not much in between those extremes.

To my delight, I recently discovered a little-known autobiography in the history section of the library, called Mountain Charley, or the Adventures of Mrs. E. J. Guerin, Who Was Thirteen Years in Male Attire.