Mona Bell

[1][2] By her own account, she appeared in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show (although her biographer John A. Harrison was unable to verify that).

[5] She moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1920 to be near him,[1] and in 1928, he bought her 35 acres (140,000 m2) on the Columbia River and built her a 22 room house to which she added an elaborate garden.

[6] Three years after his death, the house Sam Hill gave Bell was demolished for the construction of the Bonneville Dam.

[4] Some time before 1926, she swam the frigid Strait of Juan de Fuca, an achievement possibly exceeding Gertrude Ederle's famed 1926 feat of swimming the English Channel.

After winning the eminent domain case, Bell and 7 year-old Sam B. made a two-year round-the-world voyage that included six months in Africa.