Cathy Healy

What a birthday gift (a day ahead)! Reporter Christine Peterson captured the charm and the important of the book and she clearly conveyed the motivation for making the book public, not just for family and a few friends.“New Wyoming book to be model for recording family histories,” headlined the Casper Star-Tribune this morning in its Sunday edition (Oct. 27, 2013).

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Edith Healy wrote everything down. She documented sandy hills and dried up grass, snowcapped mountains and cottonwood lined-creeks. She wrote about train travel and of life in a sheep wagon.

More than a century later, Healy’s letters to her widowed mother in Boston have been published in a new book, “An Improbable Pioneer.” The letters offer a window into early 20th century life in Wyoming and tell the tale of a woman who went from playing the violin in a Boston women’s symphony to navigating life on the Western frontier.

“It’s invaluable. We now have a complete history of that time period,” said Cheryl Reichelt, executive director of the Washakie Museum and Cultural Center. “When you read it you know what it looked like, it’s just that good. It’s our history and it’s very well written and those letters are amazing.”

Cathy Healy, a retired National Geographic writer and editor, spent two years putting together the 396-page book using her grandmother’s letters and pictures and filling in pieces of history from archives. Author and museum are now teaming up to teach other people how to record their own families’ stories.

“When you’re gone, you’re gone,” Cathy Healy said. “And if you haven’t captured that, it’s gone too.”

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