With only her faith and Pa’s wisdom to guide her, Laurin desperately sought survival. Her quest led her through the early mining camps of the Central and Southern mines of the Mother Lode during those days leading up to California statehood. Along the way, a metamorphosis took place as Laurin became Hardluck Lin, innocence became awareness, and the youthful girl became the woman.
The Thorald homestead was located near the banks of St. Peter’s River in the southern portion of Wisconsin Territory. One day this region would become part of the great state of Minnesota; the river would be renamed the Minnesota River; and near the old homestead, a city would rise and identify itself after Chief Mankato of the Mdewakanton Sioux.
Pa and the twins worked hard to turn that rich black earth into life and subsistence for his wife and five young’uns. When the unpredictable weather fought his labor and sweat and the land turned against him, survival rose to new heights. And Pa caught the dream of the new land …
It was 1848. Pa followed his dream; he was taking his family to the Promised Land, a land called California …
Pa taught his family that God will not shut a door without opening a window. He said it was God’s Way of leading His Children. And during these hard times, Pa added that it was the North wind that made the Vikings.
What he didn’t tell Laurin, his 17 year-old-daughter, was how small and difficult “getting through” that window might be or how long and strong that North wind might blow …
Laurin, like her father, dreamed big …
…until tragedy struck!
When cholera claimed the lives of her parents and older brothers in the Humboldt Sink, she had to find that window … set her own sail against that staunch wind …
Only she remained to do it!
She had to find a way not just to survive the trek over the Sierra and into California, but to survive and be safe, once they arrived in this untamed land. It wasn’t for herself but for her younger brother, age 7, and sister, age 4 … they were her responsibility … their future; their very lives depended upon her. They couldn’t go back; there was no “back”!
She loved them … she had to find a way …