In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Annie Wilkins

Clever Journeys MAY 2, 2024 TEXANS JACK & DODIE Terminally Ill Annie Wilkins’ Incredible Journey Across America by Horse Mesannie Mabel Libby Wilkins was a resident of Maine, born in 1891. Considered somewhat of an eccentric loner, she spoke her mind and regularly wore pants at a time when the practice was not common with women and raised eyebrows. She also drew attention for riding a mule to her job at a shoe factory in Lewiston out of convenience and necessity. She also farmed. This behavior all served to have many of her neighbors eye her warily. In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness. Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Between 1954 and 1956, they (she acquired a pack horse, Rex, along the way) pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. During her stay in Waverley, Tennessee, she shared stories of sleeping in prisons and hotels, emphasizing the great kindness and generosity she experienced from the people she encountered. She also expressed pride in her new life as a “tramp of fate.” As news of Annie’s remarkable journey spread across the United States, she often received police protection while traveling to different cities. Journalists sought her out for interviews in parking lots. In May 1955, Annie was interviewed on two radio and television channels in Missouri. She also visited a local school to share her journey. During her travels, she sold self-portraits and postcards to raise money for her expenses. In August 1955, she reached Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she witnessed the annual Frontier Days, a renowned rodeo event. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns. Along the way, she met ordinary people and celebrities—from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers—a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher. Wilkins traveled for nearly two years, arriving in Reading, California, in mid-December. She experienced winter while staying in California and explored various locations in the state, finally witnessing the Pacific Ocean for the first time—an unforgettable moment in her life. Shortly before her planned journey to Hollywood to make an appearance on “Art Linkletter Show,” tragedy struck Wilkins. Her packhorse, Rex, accidentally stepped on a rusty nail, resulting in a fatal case of tetanus, and sadly passed away on March 1, 1956. Despite this setback, Annie remained in California for at least another year before eventually returning to her hometown in Maine in 1957. Surpassing her initial prognosis of only two years, Annie lived an additional 24 years. Wilkins, aged 88, passed away on Tuesday, February 19, 1980, in Whitefield, Maine. She was laid to rest in the Libby family plot at Maple Grove Cemetery in Minot, ME where her gravestone bears the inscription “the last of the saddle tramps.” In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when television’s influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world.