"She is always armed with shooting irons, and when a child she was the crack shot of the mining camp."

The mail carrier was a vital cog in American communications for most of our nation’s history. The September 13, 1900 Brooklyn Daily Eagle profiled a unique member of the profession, Sarah M. Burks, the only female mail carrier in the West at the time. Sarah had a particularly treacherous route: She was armed when she traveled and the area streams were poisoned. An excerpt:

“Miss Sarah M. Burks is probably the only woman mail carrier in the West, says the Kansas City Journal and her route is one of the most desolate conceivable. From St. Johns to Jimtown, A.T., she travels twice a week, covering a distance of 208 miles, as the towns are 52 miles apart. The interesting country is practically a wilderness, the settlers being few and far between.

It would be difficult to imagine a more uninviting region than that traversed by Miss Burks. What tiny streams there are poisoned by alkali. Navajo Indians and occasionally an Apache are somewhat plentiful, but white men seldom go there, and then only to get the gold, silver and copper. Nothing in the way of vegetation can grow there. It is simply a region of rich minerals deposited in titanic volcanic action ages ago.

Along the western border of this desolate, uncanny wilderness Miss Burks rides twice a week. Generally she is alone, and if she has a companion he is likely to be a miner, a commercial traveler, or mayhap a lawyer, who has rented a horse from Miss Burks’ father, and she is to collect payment and to see to the care of the horse. She is always armed with shooting irons, and when a child she was the crack shot of the mining camp at Hurqua Hala.

Her hat is a wide straw. She wears short skirts of blue serge, a corduroy or canvas jacket, leather leggings and heavy shoes.”