Sarah Raymond Herndon left her home in Missouri in May 1865 and traveled west in the company of her mother, younger brothers, and fellow emigrants, finally arriving in Virginia City, Montana Territory, at the height of the Gold Rush boom in that rough frontier town. She spent the rest of her life in Montana, and published the story of her western journey in 1900.Mary Barmeyer O'Brien is the author of Heart of the Trail, Into the Western Winds, Toward the Setting Sun, and Bright Star in the Big Sky, a biography of Montana's Jeannette Rankin. She lives in Polson, Montana.