Almost Pioneers

<DIV>In the fall of 1913 Laura and Earle Smith a young Iowa couple made the gutsy—some might say foolhardy—decision to homestead in Wyoming. There they built their first house a claim shanty half dug out of the ground hauled every drop of their water from a spring over a half-mile away and fought off rattlesnakes and boredom on a daily basis.  <BR />Soon other families moved to nearby homesteads and the Smiths built a house closer to those neighbors. The growing community built its first public schoolhouse and celebrated the Fourth of July together—although the festivities were cut short because of snow.<BR />By 1917 however the Smiths had moved back to Iowa leasing their land to a local rancher and using the proceeds to fund Earle’s study of law.  The Smiths lived in Iowa for most of the rest of their lives and sometime after the mid-1930s Laura wrote this clear vivid witty and self-deprecating memoir of their time in Wyoming a book that captures the pioneer spirit of the era and of the building of community against daunting odds. <BR /></DIV>