Bridget Evoy: Trailblazer in the California Goldrush Economy

Join us for an author talk with Craig S. Harwood, author of Bridget's Gambit: A Saga of Family Enterprise in Gold Rush California, and discover the remarkable life of Bridget Evoy.

Bridget Evoy was a pioneering woman who, together with her daughters, built a potent business empire and "broke glass ceilings in the fields of real estate and commerce" during the tumultuous years of the California Gold Rush. Harwood shares the compelling story of Bridget's journey: from escaping the Irish famine and leading a wagon train across the Overland Trail, to her emergence as a fiercely independent business leader breaking barriers for women in the patriarchal world of “El Dorado.”
As the publisher states, Harwood's spirited biography of an audacious, persistent woman brings to the forefront the largely unheralded contributions of women in the forming of California statehood—and restores a lost chapter to the history of the American West.

Registration is recommended, but not required. 

About the author:
Craig S. Harwood is the multi-award-winning author of two university-published biographies. His newest book, Bridget's Gambit, received the 2026 Silver Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, a prestigious national honor. A professional geologist, Craig works throughout California's Central Coast and Bay Area. He is a fourth-generation Californian who grew up in the area and lives in Santa Cruz County.

The views and opinions expressed by presenters in Santa Cruz Public Libraries programs are their own and do not constitute an endorsement by Santa Cruz Public Libraries or its member jurisdictions. 

Los puntos de vista y opiniones expresadas por los presentadores de programas en las Bibliotecas Públicas de Santa Cruz son propias y no constituyen en un respaldo o reflejo de la postura de las Bibliotecas Públicas de Santa Cruz ni de sus jurisdicciones miembro.