[3] It was in the days when everywhere in the Western United States, real estate was "booming", and Houghton achieved a remarkable success, at one time owning property valued at considerably more than a US$100,000.

She was a prudent financier, her business methods were good, and her tact enabled her to compete with men in the arduous field of brokerage.

[5] For some time prior to the panic, she had been in Chicago, representing Washington as chair of its board of lady managers and superintendent of the woman's department of her State at the World's Columbian Exposition (1893).

Here she had made many friends who had learned to appreciate her business talent,[5] while she took an active and conspicuous part in preparing various novel displays for the exposition,[1] her work as Lady Manager being characteristic of her usual progressive spirit.

Having once more achieved financial independence, she chose Denver, Colorado for her new home, not only for its many advantages as a residence city, but regarding it as the mining center of the West.

She had interests at several points of Colorado, California, and in the Klondike, while she was instrumental in enlisting large sums of money for mining investment.