Brothers Jason, Joshua and Jeremy Bolt ran a logging camp in Seattle in 1870. Labor problems arose when their male workers, frustrated at the lack of women in the Seattle area, threatened to leave. With the aid of their rival Aaron Stempel, the Bolts recruit 100 women, or "brides", to move to Seattle from the East. The hitch was that if any of the brides returned to the East within one year, Stempel would become the rightful owner of the Bolts' mountain. Needless to say, Stempel did everything possible to make life miserable for the women of Seattle.
—Marty McKee <mmckee@soltec.net>