Want to meet a real pioneer woman? Meet Nancy Kelsey, a woman who could drive a team, cook over a campfire, sew a shirt, shoot and dress a deer, tan the hide and make moccasins, and anything else she needed to do.

I’ll be presenting a program about Nancy tomorrow (March 15) at 2 p.m. at the Kelly-Griggs House Museum in Red Bluff. I’d love to see you there.

Nancy came to California in 1841, the only woman in the Bidwell-Bartleson Party, the first American wagon train to set out overland for California. She came with her husband Ben and her baby girl, Martha Ann. I have written a few blog posts about her: check out Letters from Nancy Kelsey and Nancy Kelsey’s Last Years and More About Nancy Kelsey.

Happy Women’s History Month!