June 18th, 2007

Of all the women I’v written about, business owner and prospector Nellie Cashman, has to be one of my favorites. She labored diligently alongside male prospectors in mountainous creekbed and streams from Alaska to Arizona. She was outspoken and direct and her fellow miners respected her. She wouldn’t tolerate any improprieties was not afraid to standup to any man who dare cross the line. She never used her feminine wilds to make life easier. “Some women think they should be given special favors because of their sex. Well, all I can say is that those special favors spell doom to a woman and her business…. I’ve paid my bills and played like a man.” Nellie was one of a kind.