Reviewed by: Life on Muskrat Creek: A Homestead Family in Wyoming by Ethel Waxham Love and J. David Love Patty Kessler Life on Muskrat Creek: A Homestead Family in Wyoming. By Ethel Waxham Love and J. David Love. Edited by Frances Love Froidevaux and Barbara Love. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 2018. vii + 250 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliography. $40.00, cloth. Amid hardship, heartache, and survival against all odds, the story of Ethel and John Love's proving up on a homestead in westcentral Wyoming is retold in rich detail in Life on Muskrat Creek: A Homestead Family in Wyoming. The stories told here are primarily gathered from a collection of writings by Ethel Love and her son, David. The book interweaves Ethel's reminisces with those of David, which provides clarity to events that would otherwise lay shrouded in mystery. It is also an intergenerational approach that provides varying perspectives on a similar event. It takes some time to get used to the format devised by the editors to transition from various narratives. The editors' remarks are italicized and introduce the stories as told from the perspective of family members and friends, again mostly by Ethel and her son, David. In addition, an index would be helpful for researching events that would be of historical significance, and there are occasional snippets of stories that beg further development but remain unfinished. These things, however, do not detract from the book's charm and its value in telling the story of homesteading on the plains of Wyoming. A substantial part of the book relates the story of the human condition and survival in the face of an unforgiving land. The Loves' story is that of the families who sought to put down roots in the Great Plains and failed in the face of a multitude of factors that defined an entire generation. Floods, blizzards, bank foreclosures, and Spanish influenza are a few examples of the hardships endured by those who attempted to tame the land in this region in the early 1900s. Their indominable spirit is reflected here. In chapter 3, "Roll, Jordan, Roll," David recounts the deep commitment his parents had to the land and to one another after a devasting flood brought ruin to the family. The bank foreclosed on a previous loan, and the buyers took everything that remained. John told Ethel that he would not blame her if she left him. "With complete honesty she looked him straight in the eyes and said slowly and distinctly in little more than a whisper: 'I've thought a lot about leaving you … I didn't know if I could bear to live here anymore. Now I think I can. We're not quitters. My place is here with you and with our son.'" It was this depth of commitment and devotion that led the Loves to remain together on Muskrat Creek for almost forty years. Their story also helps to explain how difficult it was for many other families to keep that commitment and who chose, instead, to move on rather than to endure further hardship. The final chapter recounts the story of the boys, David and Allan, being shepherded off to attend high school in Lander, Wyoming, in 1925. An echo of the Loves' earlier commitment [End Page 326] to one another is heard in John Love's advice to his sons, "No matter how difficult it gets, we Loves aren't quitters. Remember who you are." Patty Kessler History Program/Math and Social Sciences Laramie County Community College-Albany County Campus Copyright © 2021 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln