Maggie's Way
Maggie O’Malley is accustomed to living life on her own terms. Born of a proud Irish heritage, Maggie grew up with stories of her mother’s struggles and hardships in traveling from her native Ireland to this brave new world across the Atlantic. Her mother’s determination and strength gave her the courage to live her life free from many of the societal restraints of her day. Although her mother was eventually forced to work as a servant in order to ensure their survival, Maggie was not content to live under the roofs of the rich men and women who delegated housekeeping jobs out to members of poor immigrant families. Instead, she longed for the freedom and equality to be found out West, where the rules of polite society took a backseat to the practical demands for survival in the untamed wilderness. Intoxicated by the possibilities of a change in lifestyle, Maggie convinces her mother to join her in an arduous journey across the Colorado territory. Acclimating themselves to life in the San Juan Mountains, Maggie and her mother start to feel like their adventure is almost at an end, only to discover that it has only just begun. After arriving in the San Juans, Maggie helps her mother set up a restaurant in Ouray, a small, rustic mining town brimming with gold fever. Before long, Maggie sets her sights on a more ambitious line of work, that of the mule skinner, a male-dominated trade known for being both physically demanding and exceptionally dangerous during the winter. Maggie soon succeeds in securing herself a position in this unconventional line of work and quickly grows to cherish her adventurous treks up into the mountains, despite the township’s frank disapproval of such an unladylike endeavor. Then she meets Matthew, a rugged preacher who finds a place in her heart and causes her to reconsider issues of marriage and childrearing.
- Published
- 2005
- ISBN
- 1-932738-21-5
- Pages
- 192
- Place
- Ouray
- Publisher
- Western Reflections Pub.
- Listed at
- $16.13
Publication details from Open Library. The price shown is the last one on record and is historic, not a current offer. Cover image courtesy of Open Library.
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About this book
Maggie's Way is a historical novel by Lucinda Stein about Maggie O'Malley, a young woman of proud Irish heritage who refuses to live by the rules society handed her. She grew up on her mother's stories of the hard crossing from Ireland, and of a mother who ended up working as a servant to keep them alive. Maggie wanted no part of that life under rich people's roofs.
She looked west instead, to a place where the practical demands of survival came before polite manners. Maggie talks her mother into an arduous journey across Colorado Territory, and the two settle in the San Juan Mountains. In Ouray, a small mining town full of gold fever, Maggie helps her mother set up a restaurant. Just when the adventure seems to be winding down, the description says, it has only begun.
Maggie soon wants more. She takes up work as a mule skinner, a trade for men that was physically punishing and dangerous in winter. She loves her treks up into the mountains, even as the town frowns on such an unladylike job. Then she meets Matthew, a rugged preacher, and begins to wonder about marriage and children. The story turns on whether independence and companionship can share one life.
What is inside
An Irish inheritance
Maggie grows up on her mother's stories of the journey from Ireland and the hardships that followed.
The crossing of Colorado Territory
She persuades her mother to join an arduous journey to the San Juan Mountains.
A restaurant in Ouray
Mother and daughter open a restaurant in the rustic mining town of Ouray.
Mule skinning
Maggie takes a demanding, male-dominated job driving mules into the mountains.
Matthew the preacher
A rugged preacher makes her reconsider marriage and childrearing.
Independence or companionship
Maggie is torn between living on her own terms and the longing for a partner.
Who it is for
Maggie's Way suits readers of historical fiction with a woman at the center and a mountain mining town for a stage. If you enjoy frontier stories about immigrant families, working women and the choices they faced, this is a fit. Readers who know Ouray and the San Juans may enjoy seeing the town as a setting for fiction. It is a novel, not a history, so it will not give you dates and documents, but it follows a trade and a place that were real.
About the author
Lucinda Stein is the author of Maggie's Way, her only book in our catalogue. We could not find a published biography of her from sources we can cite, so we will not guess at one. The book is the best introduction to her. Her author page has the short record we do have.
The place and the period
Ouray sits in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, and its story begins with prospectors. Wikipedia's account says miners seeking silver and gold established the town, and that prospectors arrived in the area in 1875. In 1877, William Weston and George Barber found the Gertrude and Una gold veins in Imogene Basin.
Thomas Walsh later acquired those claims and opened the Camp Bird Mine in 1897. At its peak, Ouray had more than 30 active mines. The town was named for Chief Ouray of the Ute people, after it changed names several times along with the county.
That is the world a restaurant and a mule team would have served in the novel: a mining town where supplies and ore moved on animals up steep country. The book is fiction, and its characters are Stein's. The place and its mining economy are the real backdrop.
Source: Ouray, Colorado (Wikipedia)
Good to know
Is Maggie's Way fiction or nonfiction?
Where is the story set?
What does Maggie do for a living?
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