Elise Furer Musser was a Utah state senator and prominent member of the Democratic Party. She was born in Switzerland on December 7, 1877, converted to the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon Church) in 1894, and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1897, initially working as a housekeeper. After a brief stay with a Mormon colony in Mexico, she returned to Salt Lake City where she married Burton W. Musser, an attorney, in 1911. They had one son, Bernard, in 1914. Musser later became the Utah State Chairman of Democratic Women. She died August 30, 1967, at the age of 90.
Elise Furer Musser traveled with her family on vacation in July 1928 from their home to a variety of places in Montana, Canada, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest. An articulate writer with a descriptive style, she composed six letters to her "Grammie" while on the journey. She traveled with her husband, Burton, her son, Bernard, and two other children, named Virginia and Jeanne. The party began their travels in an automobile, but later used boat and train transportation to reach the more remote parts of their journey. Their route took them through Farmington, Logan, and Bear Lake, Utah; Jackson and Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; Livingston, Bozeman, Glacier National Park, and Choteau, Montana; Cardston, High River, Calgary, and Banff, Alberta; Pend Oreille, Idaho; Seattle and Vancouver, Washington; Juneau and Skagway, Alaska; and Bennett, and Lake Tutshi, British Columbia. Elise's description of Yellowstone includes her dismay over the conditions of the road, complaints about the hotel food service at the Lake Hotel, and an encounter with a mother bear and her cubs at Canyon Junction. The letters also mention staying at Sargents' Inn at Daniel, Wyoming; St. George Hotel at High River, Alberta; and at a lodge kept by Otto and Kate Partridge at Lake Tutshi, Northwest Territory. Elise mentions meeting the Partridges and Dr. E. G. Peterson, president of the Agricultural College of Utah (Utah State University) during her trip.
This collection is open for research.
Elise Furer Musser's tourist letters from Yellowstone and Alaska were purchased by the Montana State University Library Special Collections from Theresa Franks of Phoenix, Arizona, on July 1, 2005.
This collection was processed 2009 May 28
[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT