This isn't a story about a woman history ignored or forgot nor diminished. That wouldn't be news.
This is a story about a woman history tried to erase. Her enemies wanted to be sure she was buried-without a gravestone. And they almost got away with it.
I stumbled on Laura Nihell while visiting friends in Jerome, Arizona, on March 28, 2014. I picked up a book in their library written in 1964 by Herbert Young titled Ghosts of Cleopatra Hill: The Men Who Built Jerome.
Luckily, this wasn't an original copy, but one issued 37 years later, in 2001, when Alene Alder added her chapter on "Women of Cleopatra Hill." It was, of course, at the back of the book.
That's where I found Laura Nihell, described in 131 words.
Bells and whistles started going off. As a journalist, why didn't I already know about this woman, who had owned and edited a newspaper in Jerome in the early 1900s? Why wasn't she in the centennial book just published on the history of female journalists in Arizona? Even I'm in that book.
When I got back to Phoenix, my first stop was the Arizona Archives, one of the state's true treasures. They have everything you want to know about territorial days in that wonderful library-but not one word about Laura Nihell. They've never heard of her.
She wasn't in the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame. Or in the Arizona Room at the Phoenix Public Library. Or mentioned in any of the state's three university libraries.
Nothing.
I even found a publication of the Jerome Historical Society titled "Herstory of Jerome." There's not a hint about Laura Nihell.
So, 131 words was all she gets? I already knew that wasn't fair.
Because those 131 words had grabbed ahold of me and yelled, "Hi there, honey. Meet a bona fide Western heroine.
They told me Laura Nihell, a 52-year-old former teacher and married-into-a-goodfamily-mother-of-two-sons, had done something brave.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2022-Ausgabe von True West.
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FIREARMS COLT WALKER 47
THE LEGENDARY HANDGUN THAT REALLY WON THE WEST
HERITAGE TRAVE
THE AMERICAN WEST IN ALL ITS GLORY OUR ANNUAL FAVORITES LIST CELEBRATES DESTINATIONS ACROSS THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.
Wild Turkey, and Not the Drinkin' Kind
The actual bird was a favorite of pioneers.
THE PASSION PROJECTS OF THE MODERN WESTERN
A YEAR OF UNDERRATED EXCELLENCE
WESTERN BOOKS THEN AND NOW
THE STATE OF WESTERN HISTORY AND FICTION PUBLISHING IN 2024 IS ONE OF GRIT AND DETERMINATION.
SAMUEL WALKER VALIANT WARRIOR
While a prisoner at the castle of Perote, Walker was put to work raising a flagpole. At the bottom of the hole, Walker placed a Yankee dime, vowing to someday come back and retrieve it, at the same time exacting revenge on his Mexican captors. In the summer of 1847, when Walker's mounted riflemen returned and routed Santa Anna's guerillas, the young captain kept his promise and got his dime back.
THE BATTLE OF CENTRALIA
ON September 27, 1864, Bloody Bill Anderson and about 80 men took over the small railroad village of Centralia, looting stores and discovering a barrel of whiskey that they hauled out into the street. Wild enough when sober, they soon were roaring drunk.
THE MAN WHO SHOOTS THE WEST
Jay Dusard is a living American photographer who has made Arizona his home for over 60 years, seeing it first in 1960 on a visit, moving here for good in 1963.
A TRUE WESTERNER INDEED PHIL SPANGENBERGER 1940-2024
Spangenberger had Nevada trained to bow by the legendary horse trainer, Glenn Randall, who trained Roy Rogers' Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion, Rex Allen's Koko and the Ben Hur chariot horses, among other great equines.
Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.
Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist? Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.
