Out of the Wilderness

Elishaba Doerksen was the oldest of fifteen children born to ex-hippies Robert and Kurina Hale- also known as Papa Pilgrim and Country Rose. Elishaba grew up in a dilapidated 341-square-foot log cabin in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico, isolated from civilization by a fundamentalist father intent on keeping his large family cloistered from a godless world. When she was nineteen, Papa Pilgrim began taking liberties with Elishaba in unimaginable ways and beating her-and her siblings-when he judged them to be "rebellious." 

The horrific sexual and physical abuse continued after the family moved to a remote valley in the Alaska wilderness. After ten years of terrifying mistreatment, Elishaba gathered her courage to make a run for it on a snowmobile. What happens next is the basis for a powerful, dramatic story about perseverance, faith, and redemption, as well as forgiveness. 

This is the first time that Elishaba has told her side of a story that garnered national attention with major articles in the Washington Post, NPR, and Outside magazine as well as a significant buzz on social media. She needed time to heal, but now she''s ready to tell the world what it was like living with Papa Pilgrim-and how she overcame some of the worst trauma a daughter can experience at the hands of a father.