The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West, Paperback/Lesley Poling-Kempes

From the 1880s to the 1950s, the Harvey Girls went west to work in Fred Harvey's restaurants along the Santa Fe railway. At a time when there were ``no ladies west of Dodge City and no women west of Albuquerque,`` they came as waitresses, but many stayed and settled, founding the struggling cattle and mining towns that dotted the region. Interviews, historical research, and photographs help re-create the Harvey Girl experience. The accounts are personal, but laced with the history the women lived: the dust bowl, the depression, and anecdotes about some of the many famous people who ate at the restaurants--Teddy Roosevelt, Shirley Temple, Bob Hope, to name a few. The Harvey Girls was awarded the winner of the 1991 New Mexico PressWomen's ZIA award.