Mona Bell

Mona Bell (13 January 1890 – 1 June 1981) was an American rodeo rider and newspaper reporter. She was the mistress of Pacific Northwest entrepreneur Sam Hill.

Early life Born in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, 13 January 1890, for one year Mona Bell attended the University of North Dakota across the state line in Grand Forks, North Dakota; she apparently stood out there for her skills at basketball.

She was a fine horse rider and good with a rifle and a pistol. She was a rodeo rider (she rode broncs in male disguise). 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).

She moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1920 to be near him,

Eminent domain battle and afterward Three years after his death, the house Sam Hill gave Bell was demolished for the construction of the Bonneville Dam.