282-Helga Estby's Walk

Futility Closet

Greg Ross

History

4.8 • 748 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2020

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1896, Norwegian immigrant Helga Estby faced the foreclosure of her family's Washington farm. To pay the debt she accepted a wager to walk across the United States within seven months. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll follow her daring bid to win the prize, and its surprising consequence.

We'll also toast Edgar Allan Poe and puzzle over a perplexing train.

Intro:

The Dutch and French words for kidney are reversals of one another.

In Japan, Douglas Adams encountered a new conception of persistence.

Sources for our feature on Helga Estby:

Linda Lawrence Hunt, Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, 2007.

Margaret Riddle, "Estby, Helga (1860-1942)," HistoryLink, Sept. 23, 2011.

Stefanie Pettit, "Helga Estby a Walking Tale," Spokesman Review, July 9, 2015, S.8.

Pia Hallenberg Christensen, "Cross-Country Walk Inspires Women," [Spokane, Wash.] Spokesman Review, May 3, 2008, B.1.

Chris Rodkey, "Women Get No Mileage From Cross-Country Trek," Los Angeles Times, July 13, 2003, A.27.

Linda Duval, "The Forgotten Walk: Helga Estby's Hike Across America," [Colorado Springs, Colo.] Gazette, June 8, 2003, LIFE1.

Dan Webster, "A Feat Nearly Forgotten," [Spokane, Wash.] Spokesman Review, April 27, 2003, F1.

"Mrs. Helga Estby," Spokane Daily Chronicle, April 21, 1942.

"A $10,000 Walk," Saint Paul Globe, June 2, 1897, 3.

"From Spokane to New York," San Francisco Call 79:157 (May 5, 1896), 4.

Listener mail:

Ian Duncan, "New Poe Toaster Takes Up a Baltimore Tradition," Baltimore Sun, Jan. 17, 2016.

Keith Perry, "New Spate of Attacks by Sleeping Gas Gang, Caravanners Warned," Telegraph, Sept. 1, 2014.

Joel Gunter, "Jenson Button Robbery: Are French Burglars Really Using Has?", BBC News, Aug. 7, 2015.

Sarah Hilley, "Holiday Couple Gassed and Robbed," Swindon Advertiser, Aug. 15, 2007.

"Gassed When Wild Camping," Motor Home Fun, March 31, 2009.

"Travelling In France - Warning," Caravan Talk, Aug. 16, 2007.

This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Colin Sommers, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle).

You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss.

Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website.

Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode.

If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Futility Closet Podcast, forgotten stories from the pages of history.
0:15.0	Visit us online to sample more than 11,000 quirky curiosities from reversible kidneys to a persistent building. This is episode 282.
0:24.2	I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. In 1896, Norwegian immigrant Helga Estby faced the
0:31.2	foreclosure of her family's Washington farm. To pay the debt, she accepted a wager to walk across
0:36.7	the United States within seven months.
0:39.4	In today's show, we'll follow her daring bid to win the prize, and its surprising consequence.
0:45.1	We'll also toast Edgar Allan Poe and puzzle over a perplexing train.
0:59.8	And just a quick programming note, we'll be off next week,
1:02.9	so we'll be back with a new episode on February 10th.
1:14.0	The economic depression of 1893 closed 15,000 U.S. businesses and 500 banks. Seven of those banks were in Spokane County, Washington, and the wave of foreclosures there particularly threatened the family of
1:18.6	Helga Estby, a Norwegian immigrant who had recently moved there from Minnesota with her husband
1:23.5	Ulla and their eight children. In the wake of the crash, demand had dried up for Ula's services as a carpenter, and a horse
1:30.2	accident had left him unable to do heavy physical work, so he couldn't develop the farm.
1:35.0	Even before the panic, the SBs had fallen into a cycle of debt, taking out new loans to
1:39.7	pay old ones.
1:41.0	With their income now diminished, they borrowed another $1,000 in July 1894 and were
1:46.4	in danger of losing the farm altogether when Helga learned of a unique opportunity. Many of the
1:52.1	details have been lost to us now, but it appears that a wealthy Eastern woman connected with the
1:56.6	fashion industry had offered $10,000 to the first woman who walked across the United States.
2:02.5	Newspapers of the time claimed that no unescorted woman had ever accomplished this.
2:06.7	It seems that the sponsor wanted to demonstrate women's physical endurance in an era that still
2:11.0	considered them frail and dependent. Helga was 36 years old and crossing 12 states on foot was
	...

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