The Cowgirl magazine Wild Women of the West article by Chris Enss entitled

Dr. Jenny Murphy:  Yanton Doctor of Medicine is a finalist for the 2021 Downing Journalism Award. 

The Downing Award is sponsored by the organization Women Writing the West. 

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The Lady and the Mountain Man: 

Isabella Bird, Mountain Man Jim Nugent, and their Unlikely Friendship

Isabella considered the criticism Evans had about Jim.  She believed some of the animosity was born out of the fact that he was a popular character and articles about him frequently appeared in Colorado newspapers.  He was a man to be envied, and Evans and others hoping to drive Jim out of the park were consumed with jealousy.  “Ruffian as he looks,” Isabella elaborated on Jim in her memoirs, “the first word he speaks – to a lady, at least – places him on a level with educated gentlemen, and his conversation is brilliant, and full of the light and fitfulness of genius.”

Isabella always keenly felt Jim’s absences.  On one hand she admired him greatly, and on the other she grieved the life she felt he wasted because of his unruly past.  “What good could the future have in store for one who has for so long chosen evil,” she asked herself in her memoirs.  After each encounter, she was consumed with the notion if Jim surrendered all to the Lord his path would be set straight again.  Only then could there be hope for “a most painful spectacle.”  Only then could there be hope the two might find happiness together.  Thoughts of Jim and his restoration crowded her mind to the exclusion of all else.  She couldn’t write.  Distractions were necessary.  Fortunately, the day after her exhilarating ride with Jim and the Deweys, Griff Evans provided one.  Once again, he needed another hand to help with a cattle drive.  Isabella gladly agreed.

The bronco Isabella was given to ride was quick and resilient.  The pair traveled over rocks and inclines, driving the herds out of canyons and tree lines.  While riding fast and pushing the cows forward, Isabella reflected on her days riding in Hawaii.  That challenge had provided her with the experience needed to round up Texas steers.

To learn more about Isabella Bird’s time with Jim Nugent read

The Lady and the Mountain Man

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The Lady and the Mountain Man: 

Isabella Bird, Mountain Man Jim Nugent, and their Unlikely Friendship

If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets. 

This was all Mountain Man Jim Nugent could hope for from Isabella Bird. 

The true story of their romance is at the center of  The Lady and the Mountain Man. 

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The Lady and the Mountain Man: 

Isabella Bird, Mountain Man Jim Nugent, and their Unlikely Friendship

At dawn, a brilliant sun bloomed on the horizon, and its golden petals stretched ever outward into the rich, blue sky.  Isabella stirred under her covers and gingerly peered out to take in the new day.  Jim was just waking up, and Rogers was tending to the horses.  The sounds of the animals feasting on their breakfast rousted the mountain man from his bedroll.  He stretched and scratched as he surveyed the camping spot.  He and Isabella exchanged a look and a smile as Downer hurried onto the scene from nearby, beckoning his traveling companions to follow him.  Rogers, Isabella, and Jim complied, traipsing after the excited youth to the ledge of the mountain.  Before them lay a spectacular view of silver pine trees decorated in white, far-off snow hooded mountains punching the sky, and low hanging clouds hugging sections of the vast, blue-gray plains.  Moved by the indescribable beauty of the setting, Jim proclaimed, “I believe there is a God!”  The sincere praise delighted Isabella, and she couldn’t help herself admiring him.  She acknowledged the Lord’s handiwork as well.  “I felt as if, Parsee-like, I must worship,” she wrote in her memoirs.  “The grey of the plains changed to purple, the sky was all one rose-red flush, on which vermilion cloud-streaks rested; the ghastly peaks gleamed like rubies, the earth and the heavens were new created.   Surely, ‘the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands!’”

Shortly after breakfast, the four adventurers started off on the second day of their quest to Longs Peak.  Isabella rode her horse, but the men walked, leading their mounts behind them.  Once the group reached the lava beds, Isabella was forced to walk with her horse in tow.  The lava beds were long, rocky paths made up of large and small boulders covered with snow and ice.  As the stones tended to shift under their weight, trekking over the rocks was time consuming.  When Isabella managed to take her attention off where she was placing her feet, she focused on the varied and vigorous array of life above the tree line.  Scattered before her were steep slopes, shattered summits, and precipitous walls.  There were also several lakes.  The ice on those lakes was frozen so solid horses and sojourners could walk across without fear of breaking through.  They decided to leave their rides in an area not far from the lava beds and press on without them.  They planned to retrieve them on their return.

To learn more about Isabella Bird and her relationship with Jim Nugent read

The Lady and the Mountain Man 

Enter now to win a copy of

The Lady and the Mountain Man: 

Isabella Bird, Mountain Man Jim Nugent, and their Unlikely Friendship. 

Twenty-three-year-old Platt Rogers and his friend, twenty-one-year- old Sylvester Downer, waited at the front entrance of a hotel in Longmont for the woman they promised to escort to Longs Peak.  The two men hadn’t been in Colorado long.  Rogers had recently graduated from Columbia Law School and Downer, a student at the same college, decided to go West and see the Rocky Mountains.  They hadn’t planned to venture into the high country with anyone else.  “…we were traveling light and free,” Rogers wrote of the experience years later, “and the presence of a woman would naturally operate as a restraint on our movements.”

The offer to add another body to the expedition was agreed upon only after they learned they would be paid for their trouble.  “We consoled ourselves with the hope that she would prove young, beautiful, and vivacious,” Rogers later confessed.  “Our hopes were dispelled when in the morning, Miss Bird appeared wearing bloomers, riding cowboy fashion, with a face and figure not corresponding to our ideals.”

Isabella’s outfit was one of the traditional Hawaiian riding dresses she usually wore for such an occasion.  The pa’u, as it was called, was a voluminous skirt or sarong that was tucked in around the legs.  When riding astride, the garment resembled wings.  The dress was more for comfort than style.  If the trip from Denver to Estes Park was any indication, Isabella anticipated the journey would be rough and at least wanted to feel at ease with what she was wearing.  Rogers and Downer were taken aback because of her clothing and by her ride, a horse named Birdie which looked as though it was not strong enough to make the trip.  When the two men asked Isabella about the stamina of the animal, she was quick to come to Birdie’s defense.  She assured them he had the “cat like sure-footedness of a Hawaiian horse.”  Isabella might have been confident her ride would not disappoint, but the young guides were not convinced her horse would withstand the trip.  However, they didn’t argue the point.  They simply loaded the supplies and ropes on their horses and a pack mule and started on the quest.

To learn more about Isabella Bird and her time with Mountain Man Jim Nugent read

The Lady and the Mountain Man.