Around the turn of the twentieth century, Harriet Fish at the age of twenty hopped on a train in Oakland and headed to Denver to begin a new life with her fiancee George Backus. After the young couple was married, they excitedly began their new lives together. Their first journey took them about the town of Telluride near the Tomboy Mines at 11,800 feet where they made their first home. Harriet Fish Backus writes about her life as an assayer's wife...

In 1906 at the age of twenty, Harriet Fish hopped on a train from Oakland, California, to the San Juan Mountains of Colorado in search of a new life as the bride of assayer George Backus. Together, the couple ventured forth to discover mining town life at the turn of the twentieth century, adjusting to dizzying elevation heights of 11,500 feet and all the hardships that come with it: limited water, rationed food supplies, lack of medical care, difficulty...