Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and Stage Coaches and Boats, too): Women Travel in Arizona

Arizona has some of the most stunning scenery in the world, but until recently, traveling over this terrain was quite an adventure. Meet women like army wife Martha Summerhayes, suffrage leader Josephine Brawley Hughes, the Harvey Girl waitresses, Barry Goldwater’s personal pilot Ruth Reinhold, as well as other daring women who braved Arizona’s extreme elements. The next time your car battery dies in the triple-digit heat, you might not think your luck so bad!
Heidi Osselaer holds a Ph.D. in history and teaches at Arizona State University, Tempe, focusing on women in Arizona history. Her book Winning Their Place: Arizona Women in Politics was published by the University of Arizona Press and she served as the historical consultant for a documentary film on the deadliest gunfight in Arizona history, the Power shootout. Osselaer is a recipient of the Sharlot Hall Award for her “valuable contributions to the understanding and awareness of Arizona and its history” and she plays an active role with the Arizona Women’s Heritage Trail.