Nellie Cashman: Prospector & Trailblazer

Western Writers of America Spur Award winner, number 98 of the Southwestern Studies series, this is the biography of a woman who left Ireland in the 19th century to become “one of the West’s most fascinating women,” according to Arizona novelist Jeanne Williams. Cashman lived in various southwestern towns and also prospected in the Yukon Territory during the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. The never-married entrepreneur was considered the country’s only female mining expert, and was the first woman prospector in Alaska. She prospected and operated a restaurant in Dawson, and also lived in Coldfoot in the Koyukuk District in her later years. At the age of 70 years, she mushed 750 miles from Coldfoot to Seward in 17 days by herself.