White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-10-14
CALAMITY JANE,
OF BLACK HILLS,
NEVADAP
BY Charles Sughroe
o Western Nsw7>Pa Uaioo

Calamity Jane is o name with
which many people of maturity are
more or less familiar, but of recent
years it is seldom heard of. The
owner of the name was a Nevadan,
and she fiourished mostly in the
Black Hills during the great boom
of the latter '70s, where, according
to information received by the White
Pine News she masqueraded as a
man and was an enlisted soldier in
the regular army.
w. R. McFadden, travelling audi
tor of the Nevada industrial commits
sion, who spent the week in Ely, wa
in the Black Hills excitement and
saw Calamity Jane there a number
Of times. He says she was a good
looking young woman, wore a sol
dier's uniform, but her sex was dis
covered. In story Calamity Jane is
J supposed to have worn a buckskin
suit mostly.
Calamity peak, close to Custer
City, is named after her, and there
are numerous traditions there of her
exploits and escapades.
In the Ward Reflex of May II,
1877, appears the following regard
ing her nativity and antecedents:
A BLACK HILLS CHARACTER
Calamity Jane is a Black Hills
character who reminds one strongly
of Bret Harte's h%ercines. AS the
sits astride her horse there is moth
ing in her attire to distinguish her
sex, save her small, neat fitting
/ CATERS and sweeping black locks.
She wears buckskin clothes, gaily
beaded and fringed, and a broad
brimmed Spanish hat. She come
from a Virginia City, Nevada, fam
lily of responsibility and intelli-
:, gence. Downing male attire in the
mining regions, where no restraints
we're imposed for such freaks, she
took the road" and has ever since
been nomadic in her habits-now
one of a hunting party, then in a
mining stampede, again moving
with a freighting train, and, it is
said, she has rendered service as 4
scout. She has had experience as
a stage driver, and can draw the
reins over six horses, and handles
a revolver with the dexterity and
fires it as accurately as n ranger.
She is still in early womanhood,
and her rough and ~dissipaated
career has not altogether "swept
away the lines where beauty lin
gers"
Mr.. McFadden was in Deadwood
the night Wild Bill Hickok was
killed and describes it as the wild
est night he ever experienced in a
mining camp, and he has been in all
the camps from that day to this. Ac-
cording to his recollection Calamity !
Jane was there that night, but while
the names of the two characters
were often associated as the most
noted male and female of the Black
Hills, they had nothing in common,
AS Calamity James consort was a sol
der ard Wild Bill married Madame
Lake, widow Of a noted circus man
The latter woman was a great per-
former and rider.
Wild Bill was shot in the back
Willie Ill d pOhSI CANT ny d HAL
named Mccoy or Mccullough. 1t was
Bills habit when playing poker to
sit with his back to the wall. This
time he had returned from supper
and found his chair occupied. Nc
Coy was tried by a miners court
and acquitted. Later he was ar
rested and convicted at Yankton, but
Mr.. McFadden does not remember
whether or not he was hanged. Nc
Coy's defense was that Wild Bill had
seduced his sister. but the belief was
afterwards that tho noted gunman
had beaten him in a poker game,
Wild Bill had fifteen or twenty
notches on his gun. which was his
reason for sitting with his back to
the wall.
That same night, with the town
in a %furore, a Mexican rode in with
an Indians head aloft. The Sioux
braided their hair in beaver tail
fashion, with two braids hanging
down before each shoulder from the
side of the head. The Mexican had
found the dead Indian where some
person had shot him in the vicinity
of Crook City, since called Fort
Meade, and cut the head off, thus
taking it into town.