Fannie Quigley: The Legendary Alaskan Miner
Recently, I was looking for a decent, non-Food Network blueberry pie recipe when I stumbled across one written by a pioneering legend from back in the Klondike Gold Rush days. Knowing I wouldn't be able to copy every step exactly, probably because of a lack of some old-timey tool or ingredient or whatever, I proceeded to step one, undaunted:
“First, pick five gallons of blueberries as they ripen on the back of your mining claim.”
Oh, well it looks like we're making a lot of pies here and … wait— mining claim? I ... OK, five pounds of fresh blueberries from the farmer's market should be fine, right? Let's just move on. Next we have to …
“Then, in early fall shoot a good fat bear. Haul it a quarter at a time to your cabin.”
And that's when I knew this blueberry pie wasn't for me.
Pixabay
I typically try to avoid bears when preparing pies.
But goddamn, that recipe is so punk rock, and it was written by Fannie Quigley, a prospector who became famous throughout Alaska because of her sheer badassery.
Frances “Frannie” Quigley née Sedlacek was born in Nebraska in 1870, but left home at the age of 16 to see what was happening out West. As it turned out, railroads were being built in that direction, and she was able to make a living during her trek by cooking food for the workers along the way. Quigley did this for over a decade before ditching the railroad game for the Klondike Gold Rush, where she found that setting up shop at newly discovered gold deposits and feeding hungry, far-from-home stampeders was a damn good way to make a buck.
After a few years, Quigley decided she wanted to be a prospector herself rather than just feeding them all the time, so she staked her first mining claim in the Yukon Territory in 1900. Shortly thereafter, she married a guy named Angus McKenzie, but then left his ass after a few years and traveled to Alaska, eventually settling in the remote Kantishna Hills where she picked right back up on her cooking of food and staking of claims. Quite a few claims, actually—26 to be precise, between the years of 1907 and 1919.
Just prior to that, in 1906, she’d met fellow mining dude Joe Quigley, whom she eventually married. They were together for almost 30 years, two mining-peas in a pod, living off the land with their skillful hunting, trapping, and gardening. Unfortunately, Joe was injured in a mining accident in 1930, which brought an end to his career, as well as Joe's and Fannie's marriage. They ended up selling off all their mining claims and Joe moved away, but Fannie stayed firmly planted, determined to keep doing her thing.
Which she did until passing away at her home in 1944, but not before becoming an absolute legend to everyone in the area. Quigley had earned a reputation not only as a great hunter and cook, but also as a hard-drinking, oft-cussing badass who might threaten to shoot you if she thought you were intruding on her land, then offer you strawberries and meat from a recently-shot caribou when she was satisfied that you weren't.
And if her story consisted of only those things, it would already be pretty fantastic. But as it happens, in 1920, Quigley was also a nurse in Nenana, Alaska during the fourth wave of the 1918 influenza pandemic. On top of that, her fascination with learning more about nature saw her regularly sending animals to the Smithsonian Institute for evaluation, which included multiple species of birds and even seven black bears. I'm not really sure how one goes about submitting a freaking bear to the Smithsonian, but this is a woman who shot one anytime she wanted pie, so what the hell do I know?
Oh right, the recipe! See, pie-making isn't just about shooting bears and owning mining claims. You still need the basics like flour and sugar, which was definitely a part of Quigley's process:
“Then mush your dogs 125 miles to Nenana for 100 pounds of flour and 50 pounds of sugar.”
Pictured.
Holy crap. I don't know if there's an award for Most Hardcore Recipe of All Time, but if not, it should be created and given to Quigley immediately.
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