Among the wide gamut of working women in the West were not only schoolteachers, nurses, restaurateurs, seamstresses, good time girls and even outlaws but there were also ranchers.
Among those was a college-educated lady named Mary Kidder Rak. After graduating from Stanford University she married a cowboy named Charlie Rak in 1917. Her career as a ranch woman and later an acclaimed author began in two yea

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows