Twenty Miles From a Match by Sarah Olds was first published in 1978 by the Bristlecone Press of the University of Nevada. It is still in print today, which speaks volumes as to this entertaining book.
In 1908, Sarah Olds packed up her family of five children, along with her ailing husband and settled on a desert homestead north of Reno. It is a remarkable tale Sarah wrote about her shear determination to make a go it. It was her husband’s nephew, Hiram “Hi” West who planted the seeds of homesteading and more particularly that of Tule Mountain, some thirty-five miles north of Reno. Of course, Hi, would benefit if the Olds family settled there, as he would have nieghbors.
Sarah wrote, “After my homesteading talk with Hi, I didn’t let the idea get out of my mind. He told me Tule Mountain was the greatest game country ever laid out of doors. There were droves of deer, literally thousands of sage hen, coveys of mountain and valley quail, doves galore, some cottontail and of course, the much despised jack rabbit. All this added fuel to the homesteading scheme which was fast developing in my mind. My biggest problem was in getting A.J. [her husband] interested enough to file papers on a homestead. I could just hear him saying, ‘Why old lady, you’re crazy. It simply can’t be done.’”
Thus, the stage was set for a twenty year experience of homesteading.