The Road to Pelican

In 1871, Sarah Cole and her family left the Mauston, Wisconsin, area after the hops market crashed and headed for western Minnesota and a new beginning. Sarah left a written account of this adventure by prairie schooner. The account, passed down through three generations, is a precious legacy.

Like her great-grandmother, Marla Kay Houghteling, the fifty-two-year-old author, begins a traveling adventure.  She moves from Pennsylvania to Michigan, her home state, and soon meets a man who will become her second husband.  Together they follow Sarah Cole's trail in a Toyota Camry as they make their own plans for a new beginning, including building a house on twenty-three acres in Michigan's "tip-of-the-mitt." 

Readers with an interest in upper Midwest history, and the details of daily life in the post-Civil War era, will be drawn to Sarah Cole's account. And readers who have made or are thinking about making a mid-life change will find a like-minded soul in the author's account.