Nothing to Do But Stay

In the early 1900s, twenty-five-year-old Carrine Gafkjen boarded a train from Minneapolis to claim a homestead on the western North Dakota prairies. She lived alone in her claim shack, barred her door at night against the coyotes, existed on potatoes and salt, and walked five miles to the nearest creek to wash her clothes.

A decade later she had doubled her landholdings and, at an age when most other women would have been declared spinsters, married Sever Berg and had six children.

Carrine’s daughter tells the story of this uncommon woman with warmth and good humor. This book will appeal to those interested in the settlement of the West, the history of the Great Plains, and women’s studies.

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