The Legend of Calamity Jane

One of the legends of Calamity Jane is that she was married to Wild Bill Hickok...is that true?

Martha Jane Canary, aka Calamity Jane,was a bold, loud-mouthed, vulgar woman with an obvious contempt for gender roles and social convention.  She was a  hard-drinking, tobacco-chewing, cigar-smoking, pistol-packing, buckskin-wearing woman.  She was also known to be kind and generous to a fault. 

In her life she worked as a bawd, broke horses, drove wagons, rode dispatch...riding relentless and shooting with the best of them.  She enjoyed smoke-filled bars, cursed like a trooper and was a poor gambler.  But what about Wild Bill?

Calamity Jane found her way to Deadwood, South Dakota where she worked as a teamster, transporting machinery and supplies to miners in the camps.  She carried the United States mail between Deadwood and Custer, a dangerous job because of the Indian situation. On a 50-mile run one way over a very rough trail through the Black Hills, she made her runs without complaint and in good time.

It was in Deadwood that she met Wild Bill Hickok.  Jane claimed that Wild Bill was the love of her
life, and that they were married and had a child together.  The facts disagree.  First Bill liked fine apparel and bathed on a regular basis, something that Jane didn't appreciate.  He liked his women frilly, feminine, and sweet smelling. In Deadwood, they may have drank some whiskey and played cards, but it is doubtful that they ever "played house". 

In her "official autobiography", Jane tells of how she chased down Wild Bill's killer, Jack McCall, and would have shot him if she hadn't left her Colts on her bedpost.  She says she had him trapped in a butcher shop when the townspeople took him off to jail before she could rip him to pieces.

Deadwood  had a soft spot for the drunken cowgirl - her last wish, to be buried next to Wild Bill Hickok, was honored in 1903. 

Next time...What made the horse Comanche a legend?

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On this Day in History:  On March 31, 1895,  Vardis Fisher, a gifted novelist who dealt with both the myth and reality of the American West, is born in Annis, Idaho.  Writers such as Fisher were the reason for the popular legends of people like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.