Marie A. Riedeselle (née Landry, died April 26, 1915) was a Canadian-born American bicyclist, dress designer, osteopath, hiker and hermit.
Early life and education Riedeselle was born in Montreal and raised in New York state."A Courageous Widow Who Has Gone Alone to the Klondike" Courier-News (December 6, 1897): 6. via Newspapers.com She had a farm in Connecticut, and studied osteopathy in St. Louis, Missouri.Thomas I. Baker, "Seven Years in the Klondike: Marie Riedeselle's Search in the Frozen North" The Mineral Collector (April 1905): 21-24.
Career In 1893, Riedeselle won $50 in a New York Herald contest for designing the best practical bicycling dress. Her design included billowy trousers gathered below the knee, flat boots, and a bodice with gathers and smocking, to hold the fabric close to the torso while riding.Helen L. Manning, "Health Habits: Health and Beauty in Dress" Good Health (July 1894): 198."Rational Dress for Women" The Review of Reviews (March 1894): 291. She used dark navy fabric, with "dashes of red Chinese silk" and long tassels fastened at the waist."Women in Bloomers" The Inter Ocean (June 3, 1894): 37. via Newspapers.com
In 1897, after some months of physical training and study,Rich Mole, Rebel Women of the Gold Rush: Extraordinary Achievements and Daring Adventures (Heritage House Publishing 2011). and sewing her own wardrobe for the cold,"Mrs. Riedeselle's Outfit" Seattle Post-Intelligencer (December 26, 1897): 8. via Newspapers.com she went to Alaska. She stayed in the mining camps of the Klondike,"Seven Years in the Klondike: A Woman's Story of Her Hardships and Her Triumphs" Detroit Free Press (January 8, 1905): 46. via Newspapers.com practicing as a healer for humans and sled dogs. She opened a sanatarium at Dawson City in 1900,Otto Carque, "Female Explorer in Alaska" Los Angeles Herald Sunday Magazine (June 19, 1910): 16. via California Digital Newspaper Collection offering massages, baths, haircare, rest, and healthful meals to exhausted or injured miners.Charlotte Gray, Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike (Counterpoint Press 2010): 224.
After making a reported fortune in Alaska,"Woman Finds Wealth in Frozen Alaska" Philadelphia Inquirer (March 10, 1900): 1. via Newspapers.com she moved to Southern California, where she lived alone as a "hermitress" in a cabin in Santa Anita Canyon. "It is the life of a free woman," she assured a visiting reporter, "unchecked and freed from the trammels of a sordid civilization which binds its devotees to the petty conventionalities of life.""Once a Belle, Now a Hermit" Willmar Tribune (December 4, 1907): 9. via Newspapers.com In spring 1909, she was the only woman participating in the Los Angeles Athletic Club's annual hiking race up Mount Wilson; she completed the hike in 2 hours and 30 minutes."Dietrich Leads in Hill Climb" Los Angeles Herald (April 16, 1909): 13. via Newspapers.com She returned to Alaska from California in summer 1909, and described her plans to move to Minnesota next."Woman Hermit to Leave Santa Anita Canyon for Alaska" Los Angeles Herald (June 5, 1909): 8. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Riedeselle was a vegetarian from 1889, and was described as a widow. She died in 1915, from dysentery, while on a pilgrimage at an ashram in Dehradun, India: "In her struggle against cooked food, which she always disliked, she swallowed nothing but water of the holy Ganges," explained an acquaintance who was with her in the end."The End of an Ascetic" Brain and Brawn (July 1915): 52.
References