| Author/Contributor(s): | Short, Kayann |
| Publisher: | Beacon Press |
| Date: | 8/3/2027 |
| Binding: | Hardcover |
| Condition: | NEW |
Raised in Colorado, Kayann Short was surprised to learn about the Chicago women who’d once owned an old mountain lodge near her home. Her research uncovered a mysterious photo album depicting women hiking the Rocky Mountains together—in the early 1900s. The photos showed women gathering at trailheads, riding horses, and drinking tea with the Colorado Rockies in the background. One question rang through Short’s mind as she flipped through these archives: What brought these urban women to the wilds of Colorado?
In this era, unmarried women generally faced severe social and legal discrimination, yet here was evidence that thousands had gathered to relax in the mountains on property they bought and built with their own hard-earned money.
Pulling from a rich archive, The Blue Birds Go West is the first collective history of the Chicago women’s organization whose members worked to support themselves and vacationed together in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. These women were some of the first to key into the beauty of the mountains as a tourist attraction, and staunch advocates for women’s education and the suffrage movement, crossing paths with New Women like Jane Addams and Georgia O’Keeffe.
In the club’s 50 years of touring, hiking, and horseback riding, the Blue Birds split from social expectations as they developed a community. To this day, we have the fearless, fun-loving Blue Birds to thank for their dedication to making the world more open to women’s adventures.