From the 1870s to the turn of the century, while countless men gambled their fortunes in Death Valley's mines, many bold women capitalized on the boom-and-bust lifestyle and established saloons and brothels. These lively ladies were clever entrepreneurs and fearless adventurers but also mothers, wives and respected members of their communities. Madam Lola Travis was one of the wealthiest single women in Inyo County in the 1870s. Known as "Diamond Tooth Lil," Evelyn Hildegard was a poor immigrant girl who became a western legend. Local author and historian Robin Flinchum chronicles the lives of these women and many others who were unafraid to live outside the bounds of polite society and risk everything for a better future in the forbidding Death Valley desert.
Robin Flinchum is a freelance writer and editor living in Tecopa, California, near Death Valley National Park. She served as a correspondent for the Inyo County Register and Pahrump Valley Times and her freelance work has appeared in a wide variety of publications. Her research and writings on women's history have been published by the Death Valley Natural History Association, the Nevada Women's History Project, Chronicles of the Old West, the Mojave River Valley Museum and the Beatty Historical Society.