Peg Leg Annie: The Story of Anna Morrow

by Howard Frisk

A gripping work of historical fiction set in the gold mining camps of 19th-century Idaho, Peg Leg Annie tells the story of a woman who refuses to be broken by the frontier.

Annie McIntyre comes west with the promise of a better life, only to discover how quickly a dream can curdle into a nightmare. She marries to escape one cage and finds herself locked inside another—beaten, controlled, and ultimately separated from the children she loves most.

When tragedy strikes and leaves Annie permanently injured, she is forced to remake herself in a world that offers women few choices and even fewer mercies. Emerging as “Peg Leg Annie,” she fights to survive in the brutal underbelly of frontier Idaho—among boarding houses, brothels, saloons, and mining towns where the law is fickle and justice is rarely kind to women.

Taking on the only roles the American frontier allows her—dance hall girl, madam, bootlegger—Annie builds an unlikely sisterhood with other marginalized women, forming bonds of loyalty and protection in a male-dominated world shaped by greed, violence, and desperation. Together, they carve out a fragile independence in a society determined to take advantage of them.

Annie wants more than survival. She wants her freedom. Her dignity. And the chance to reclaim the life that was stolen from her. Amidst heartbreak and betrayal, Annie must decide how far she is willing to go—and what she is willing to risk—to seize a future on her own terms.

Peg Leg Annie is a powerful novel of pioneer women, resilience, and defiance in the American West—perfect for readers of women’s historical fiction, frontier novels, and stories rooted in Idaho history and forgotten mining camps.

371 pages, Paperback

Published February 11, 2026

About the author

My first book, The Seven Wonders of Washington State, was self-published. My second book, Abandoned Washington State, was published by Arcadia Publishing in 2023. Both are available on amazon, but if you purchase a copy directly from me, you get a signed copy. My series of five books on ghost towns and abandoned places in Idaho were published in 2025.

My debut novel, Peg Leg Annie, was published in February, 2026. Contact me if you would like a signed copy.

Click on the links below to order books directly from me:

Abandoned Washington State

The Seven Wonders of Washington State

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very engaging historical fiction book based on a true woman's life. The story is well told. Howard Frisk writes the realities of how life was in Rocky Bar. It wasn't easy for the miners and the others that lived in that remote area. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great historical fiction story! This is Frisk's first fiction book and I'm hoping he will write more, especially stories about Idaho history.

[Emme · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I lived an entire different life while reading this, it was SO easy to become immersed into the story. An outstanding blend of local legend and historical accuracy that provides a unique look into what Idaho frontier life might have been like for women, a testament to thier resilience, the challenges of finding connection, community, and even sisterhood in a vast, unforgiving landscape where the odds are too often stacked against them.
This telling of Peg Leg Annie showed a perfect glimpse of dusty, slow paced life in pioneer era Idaho that really shows how meaningful all of the most simple yet beautiful parts of life were back then, like dancing, laughing, warm meals, a place to sleep, and the comfort of true friends, and the extreme steps some women had to take to achieve those things.

[Jan Brattain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful fictionalized telling of the true story of one of the more colorful women of Idaho's history, Peg Leg Annie. She lived during the end of the 1800's into the early 1900's. So much tragedy to befall one person would be hard to make up and yet she lived through it all. Marriage to an abusive husband, loss of her beloved children, on to being a successful business woman even as she performed as a dance hall girl and prostitute. You can't make up a better story and Howard Frisk brings Annie fully to life as we follow her ups and downs from childhood to old age. All the side stories help to make that historical time come alive with all the scoundrels and down on their luck characters who come into Annie's orbit, the miners and hustlers and woebegone stragglers. The language is full of terms from that era. I'm still not sure what an Arbuckle is, I am going to look that one up right now. Oh! It's a slang word for coffee! If you enjoy historical true drama, you will enjoy this book.

[John Fetzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A creative story based on bits and pieces from the life of the real woman, filled with scenes that capture what was normal and real in Idaho of over ,a hundred years ago - miners in boomtown mining towns, riff-raff and lowlifes galore. Very believable.