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Issue 4, January 28, 2004:
Helga’s Historic Walk
Across America
Helga Estby should have been
one of the most celebrated Norwegian Americans, right up there with Snowshoe
Thompson and Ole Bull. She was the first woman to walk across the continent
alone – a trek she made in an attempt to save her family farm.
By JUDITH GABRIEL VINJE
But, her bold saga ended in
tragedy – and a generations-long cover-up.
Enthusiastic Reviews
Now, more than a century later, her saga has finally come to light, thanks
to the research of a Norwegian-American professor, Linda Hunt. She chronicled
the journey in her new book "Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten
Walk Across Victorian America," which is garnering enthusiastic reviews
and media attention.
In 1896, Helga set out to walk across 3,500 miles of the North American
continent to win a $10,000 wager offered by an unidentified sponso. The
only condition was that she and her 18-year-old daughter, Clara, had to
wear the new-fangled, ankle-exposing "bicycle skirts," considered
risque at the time.
Norwegian-born Helga had come to the United States at the age of 11, and
grew up in a merchant’s family in Michigan. After she got married,
she lived in a sod house in Minnesota, battling the fire, snow and challenges
of the prairie before moving to a 160-acre homestead near Spokane with
her husband, Ole, where they raised their nine children.
To make the long walk to New York, she left her 150-acre homestead, her
husband, Ole, and the rest of their nine children, to follow the railroads
east.
Carrying only five dollars each, as well as a Smith and Wesson revolver,
they survived hunger, snowstorms, wild animals and an occasional human
predator.
Refused to Pay
The two women arrived in New York just before Christmas, but fate
handed them a stinging failure: their sponsor refused to pay the promised
reward. Helga and her daughter were stranded in the city. Meanwhile, back
home, two of Helga’s children had died of diphtheria, and many blamed
Helga for their deaths.
After the women returned home, the story of their cross-country trek was
quickly covered up. Helga was seen as a deserter. As a woman who had "abandoned"
her family, she got no respect from the community of Norwegian immigrants.
Silenced but undaunted, Helga went on to become a suffragist. After her
husband died in 1913, she began writing down the stories from her long
walk, planning to write a book. Her daughters eventually burned it, and
the project seemed to have been put to rest forever.
The story, however, managed to survive, however, thanks to a daughter-in-law
who had secretly saved some photos and news clippings from Helga’s
scrapbook. She passed it to down to her children. The story stayed within
the family until Helga’s great-grandson, 8th grade Doug Bahr, wrote
an award-winning essay "about my great-great-grandmother, and her
wondrous adventure... that no woman unattended had ever attempted before."
One of the judges in the essay contest suggested his wife read the essay
– Linda Hunt, an associate professor of English at Whitworth College
in Spokane, WA. Thus, she was introduced to Helga Estby’s lost saga.
Doctoral Dissertation
Hunt, whose own grandparents came from Norway and settled in Duluth,
MN, describes her book as a "rag-rug" history, pieced together
from fragments of history.
She started her research with only two news articles printed in a Minneapolis
newspaper in Helga’s scrapbook. She ultimately turned the story into
her doctoral dissertation, later rewriting it for public consumption.
In Hunt’s carefully probed and lovingly penned "Bold Spirit",
we follow Helga across the physical landscape of 1896 America.
From its mountains and plains to cities and reservations, we also get
revealing glimpses of the country’s social, political, economic,
and cultural landscape as well.
The narrative is embedded in the author’s extensive research of life
in the nation at the time, and includes rare viewes of the Norwegian American
community and its values.
Hunt acknowledges that she can identify with Helga’s grief at the
loss of her children. One of Hunt’s three children, Krista, died
at the age of 25 in a bus accident in Bolivia, where she had been working
in a community development. Hunt subsequently founded the Krista Foundation
for Global Citizenship, a non-profit group that encourages young adults
involved in local and international community work.
"My family survived this loss because of the tremendous support we
received from family and friends. The Estbys had no one to comfort them,
in those days of deadly black diptheria, with the quarantine and all.
The father couldn’t even comfort the surviving siblings."
Tops Sales Lists
The book is receiving interest throughout the media. Hunt appeared
in a prime time interview on CNN, along with several of the photos. The
book is now in its fourth printing, which Hunt notes is unusual for a
work published by an academic press. It has made top sales lists in the
Pacific Northwest, has received excellent reviews, and was featured in
a national article by the Associated Press.
Hunt herself followed the path Helga trod. Shortly after the book was
published last spring, she and a theater professor associate traveled
across the Union Pacific railroad route that Helga walked in 1896. On
their journey, they stopped at bookstores, libraries, and museums, giving
dramatic presentations of Helga’s adventures.
Hunt continues her research on Helga Estby, noting that many people have
come forward with articles and pictures. She hopes to find journals written
by others who may have may have met Helga and her daughter. She is also
seeking to find clues that will ultimately lead to the identification
of the sponsor of the undelivered wager.
Family Didn’t Know the Story
Many times, Norwegians are in the audience. "Most Norwegians
are proud of her courage and gutsiness," Hunt said in a telephone
interview with Norway Times. "They’re glad the story has finally
been done. And Helga’s family is really thrilled. They didn’t
even know the story."
Everywhere she goes, Hunt emphasizes the importance of keeping family
stories alive. "I care about people keeping and treasuring family
stories." As a college professor in writing, Hunt says that among
her students she has seen from that "having a deep sense of roots
helps with all the change and challenge of today’s mobile world.
Those who know something about their grandparents have a certain resilience."
Previous Stories:
• Issue 3, January
21, 2004
Arne Næss Jr. Dies
Climbing in South Africa
• Issue 2, January
14, 2004
Norway's Kurt Ready
To Conquer the World
• Issue 1, January
7, 2004
Dragsten Honors Sons of
Norway's Founding Fathers
