In 1871 Kathryn Amhurst traveled from New Hampshire to the Pacific Northwest to marry Aaron Collier, a man she had never met. A spinster at 22, she did not choose to continue her teaching career or seek a husband in the East. She thought a challenging life awaited her in Washington Territory's wilderness. It did, in many ways. She experienced birth, death, sickness, accidents, various relationships, and with great courage she survived every one of them. She also felt the blush of first love, but not for her husband.