In 1896, two women walked from Washington state to New York to prove the endurance of their gender and win a $10,000 wager that would save their family farm.

When they reached their destination after a 232-day trek, their travel journals were destroyed and they never spoke of their adventures. Now 115 years later, Carole Estby Dagg tells their story in “The Year We Were Famous.”

On July 31, at 7 p.m., on the San Juan Island Library, Dagg will appear in costume with a traveling satchel full of realia and displays of news clippings, route map, family photos and period postcards that inspired scenes in the book.

“I kept promising myself that one day I would write about great-aunt Clara and her mother, my great-grandmother Helga,” said Dagg. “Typical librarian, I procrastinated doing the actual writing with research.”

Dagg spent several years poring over maps, newspaper articles and other information from the Victorian period. Then she spent 15 years writing and revising the story in a woodshed on Garrison Bay.

She wrote 29 drafts that were rejected by publishing companies. Then in April, everything changed when Clarion published the story, which is Dagg’s first book.

“I felt as if I had not won a victory for myself, but for them,” wrote Dagg on her website after signing a book contract about her daring relatives.

For more information, visit www.caroleestbydagg.com.

Griffin Bay Bookstore and the San Juan Island Library are co-sponsoring a program.

Griffin Bay Bookstore will have copies of the book available for sale and autographing.