[1] Hobbs made international news when Governor West sent her to implement martial law in the small Eastern Oregon town of Copperfield.

The event was considered a strategic coup for West, establishing the State's authority over a remote rural community and cementing his reputation as a proponent of prohibition.

There, she put her younger brother and sister through school, while studying stenography and working for a living,[1] initially as a governess in a Portland home.

[1] While West was a prominent supporter of woman suffrage, Hobbs was quoted opposing the policy early in her career.

[9] She negotiated successfully with congressional committees and the U.S. Department of the Interior to untangle ownership issues around various parcels of land.

[2][4] Copperfield, located on the Snake River in Baker County, had grown up around construction projects for a railroad tunnel and power plant.

[2] Fifteen hundred jobs in the area came from the railway project of E. H. Harriman or the power generation facility.

[2] Over half the residents of the town had signed a petition, addressed to West, alleging that saloons owned by the mayor and City Council members were selling liquor to minors and staying open later than their posted hours.

County officials did not take care of the problem, so West sent Hobbs, hoping the presence of a woman would prevent any outbreak of violence.

[5] The saloon keepers, who received word that Hobbs was accompanied by law enforcement officers only shortly before her arrival,[12] greeted her by dressing up the town with bunting, blue and pink ribbons, and flowers.

[11] Soon the town was disarmed and order restored, with the gambling equipment and weapons confiscated, and the saloons closed down.

Governor West requested a hearing, seeking Rand's temporary removal from office, and appointed Hobbs to represent the State as special counsel.

On advice of a judge, the mayor of Cove stated that he was unable to determine whether the saloon was legal or not, but expressed deference to the governor's wishes.

In early 1915, West appointed Hobbs to the Oregon Industrial Accident Commission in January 1915, just prior to the end of his one term as governor.

Hobbs' departure from that post later in the year was not without controversy; she offered her resignation to the Oregon State Senate as a bargaining maneuver, in exchange for its support of a contentious workmen's compensation bill.

[2] The Oregon writer Stewart Holbrook interviewed her in the early 1950s, a few years after her retirement, observing that she "still weighs 104 pounds.

"[24] Holbrook noted during his interview that "the subject of Copperfield bores her" and concluded his account of her as follows: She had much rather talk of her two years with the Red Cross in World War I, in France, and with the American Army of Occupation in Germany.