Notes From The Frontier

The mortality rate of westering pioneers was very high. Perhaps the greatest cause of death was pioneers not knowing the basics of survival.

As early as the 1400s in Europe, creating hair art to memorialize the dead began, especially because epidemic and plagues took a high toll.

The log cabin is an American icon. The rough-hewn, squat and humble house has long been lionized in our lore.

Pioneer survival depended on harsh realities and there was little room for sentimentality in food production.

For those of us who grew up with horses, who know the touch of horses, who love horses, we understand how much we owe to the horse and mule.

Pigs have been maligned and misunderstood throughout history. But the fact is they are smart, clean and do not sweat.

In frontier America, quilts were a way for women to gain immortality.

If patience is a virtue, oxen are saints.

Packing could mean the difference between life and death on the trail and varied wildly depending upon sensibilities.

Because the wilderness was their backyard, many other species of animals were sometimes adopted, usually as babies that could be tamed.

The little wooden outhouse has been an architectural fixture of America since the 1700s, when it began to replace chamber pots.

The earliest written mention of tornadoes in North America came from explorers in the 1500s.

Life was hard on the frontier, especially for women.

Under the Homestead Act of 1862, single women, widows, and divorced or deserted women had the right to claim 160 acres in their own name.

Both my mother and my mother-in-law grew up on Iowa farms and attended one-room country schools.