A Woman's Seven-Day Trek Through the Snoqualmie Pass
While critics mocked women’s ability to handle physical labor, one traveler proved the skeptics wrong by hiking the Cascade Range alongside her husband.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
With several companions, Mr. James Baldwin and his wife arrived last week, having walked from Seattle through the Snoqualmie Pass. Considerable snow was encountered on the summit, but the trip was made in seven days. The lady, who is of slight build, by all accounts traveled equally as well as did the men, and the good courage with which she, after a day's rest, again began a 300 mile journey toward Spokane Falls was a striking rebuke to the paragraphists who are engaged in slurring women concerning the alleged catastrophe impending their sex in view of their inability to do work.
“The good courage with which she... again began a 300 mile journey... was a striking rebuke to the paragraphists who are engaged in slurring women.”
In 1884, a woman completing the grueling trek through Snoqualmie Pass was enough to spark a regional debate on gender roles and physical capability. Today, thousands of hikers traverse the Pass daily, though the spirit of the 'paragraphists' criticizing women's roles persists in different cultural forms.
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