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Lavinia Morgan Anderson is a composite character of a pioneer woman living on a ranch in Colorado in the late 1880s as she remembers how she emigrated west in a covered wagon in the 1860s as a child and grew up in Kansas before settling in Colorado with her husband after staking a claim under the Homestead Act. While Lavinia did not actually exist, her life did exist as well as that of thousands of other women who made similar journeys. This story is drawn from snippets of many diaries the women kept telling of their challenges, privations, fears and triumphs. They record the woman's side of pioneer life. Come and learn about these adventures and more through this thrilling living history program.

Louisa May Alcott, best known for writing the children's novel "Little Women" in 1868, came from an unconventional victorian family and led an independent and unusual life. She was not only a prolific writer of children's books, but also of dark thrillers and serious adult novels. She served as a nurse in the Civil War and was active in the abolition movement as well as other social issues such as the women's suffrage movement. Among her friends and neighbors in Concord, MA were Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. All of these things, as well as her love and dedication to her family and her passion for writing, were factors which led her to write "Little Women" Come and meet Louisa May Alcott and learn more about this fascinating woman and her life.

Dr. Susan Anderson or "Doc Susie" as she was called was the first woman doctor in Fraser, CO. She arrived there in 1907 and practiced medicine until 1956. The story tells of Doc Susie's life, of how she became a doctor and moved to the Fraser valley and set up her practice. It tells of her struggles, challenges and triumphs in treating the lumberjacks, ranchers and railroaders of the area over the many years. It also tells of the many changes she saw over the years, like the building of the Moffat Tunnel. When she first arrived the men scoffed at her because she was a woman doctor but after awhile they would say "Call Doc Susie; she'll come if she has to walk!"

Isabella Bird was a traveler and a writer with a wonderful ability to describe her surroundings in great detail so that one feels as if they were there. Come hear about Isabella’s lively adventures on her first trip to Estes Park in 1873 and of her arduous climb of Longs Peak (she was the third woman ever to climb Longs Peak) as well as of her romance with the rogue, Rocky Mountain Jim. She was dazzled by the Rocky Mountains and enthralled by the “blue hollow at the foot of Longs Peak” – Estes Park - which is written about in her book “A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains.”

Nicknamed the “Colorado huntress” in the mid-nineteenth century, Martha Maxwell was Colorado’s first taxidermist. This shy, petite woman made a major impact on natural history as we know it today. Storyteller Linda Batlin presents a lively one-woman program of how this woman’s love of animals and the natural world along with her artistic abilities led her to create displays we now call dioramas, establish a natural history museum in Boulder, CO immortalizing animals, and represent Colorado at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. She is credited with discovering a new species of owl, the Rocky Mountain screech owl.

Mary Rippon was the University of Colorado's first woman professor. She started teaching at CU in 1878 and taught for over 30 years. She led a quiet, scholarly life and was highly respected as a role model to her students. But she kept her scandalous private life a secret. To keep her career she had to hide the fact that she had a husband and a child - a secret she took to her grave. The story is a fascinating look at her struggle of excelling in the male world of academia, while secretly supporting her family whom she had to keep at a distance.