My article, "Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, Architect," was published in the December/January 2011 issue of the Western Writers of America magazine, RoundUp. Colter was assertive, to say the least. Born in 1869, she was a precocious child,  graduating from high school when she was 14. She knew she would be involved in art, and went for it.  She became a designer, then worked for an architect, but her lucky break came when she went to work for the Fred Harvey Company. It was a very successful restaurant and hotel business built along the Santa Fe Railroad routes. That was when train travel was the way to go.  

Although she designed shops and restaurants in Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis and Los Angles, her most notable successes were in Arizona.  She designed and participated in every phase of her earthy buildings at the Grand Canyon, and designed the beautiful La Posada hotel in Winslow, Arizona. She seemed to feel an ownership to the hotel.

The entire article can be read online at: westernwriters.org/2010_DEC_Colter.pdf.