Description
The Queen of Heartbreak Trail: The Life and Times of Harriet Smith Pullen, Pioneering Woman is the true story of Harriet Smith Pullen, Klondike Gold Rush pioneer who in 1897 landed in Skagway, Alaska, broke and alone. Newly independent and empowered, she became an entrepreneur, single-handedly hauling prospectors provisions into the mountains where gold beckoned. As Skagway morphed into a tourist destination after the gold rush ended, she started the Pullen House, an acclaimed hotel, which she managed for fifty years. A famed raconteur, Harriet entertained her guests with fabulous stories about the gold rush and her renowned collection of Alaskan Native artifacts and gold rush relics.
Eleanor Phillips Brackbill graduated from Antioch College, earned an MA in art history at Boston University, completed a curatorial fellowship in the Whitney Museum of American Arts Independent Study Program, and studied in the art history doctoral program at City University of New York. Following twenty-five years as an educator, she embarked on a second career writing about history. She lives with her husband in Portland, Maine, and is currently working on her next book, another story steeped in the history of the American West.
