Determined Women II: The New Pioneer

She ruined our dinner and scared us silly when she announced she had to get away. "I'm tired," she said. "I need a sabbatical." She needed more than that, her wants translating into hammer, nails, and logs, into the walls, floor, and roof of a 1,200 square foot cabin. This 1950's housewife and mother of three, the daughter of Chicago artists and the heir of pioneers, drove almost every nail and lifted almost every log. Camping out with her children, a tent, and a horse high in Wyoming's Absaroka Mountains, she measured and sawed, endured storms and visits by the occasional bear. Marolyn Miller Reher was "The New Pioneer," and this is her story. Volume II of Determined Women is a classic tale of journey and discovery, of another determined woman's struggles against both herself and societal mores.