CALAMITY RISING
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't”. -Mark Twain People are often surprised to learn that Calamity Jane, the heroine featured in so many motion pictures, TV shows and dime novels is not a fictional character. The real Calamity Jane is far more fascinating. She was audacious, rowdy and rough around the edges. She was accepted by and worked alongside men as a miner, bullwhacker and scout. She drank heavily and swore proficiently. She was a fixture in the west before it became known as “The Old West.” But who was she? What kind of life experiences could have shaped and molded a young girl into this indelible icon of the American west? She was born in Princeton, Missouri in 1852. Her given name was Martha Canary and she was the eldest of five children. In 1864, at age twelve, the family traversed the Oregon Trail to Montana Territory in search of gold and fortune. Calamity had a kindred spirit in her mother, who was described as “flamboyant and outspoken.” So it was undoubtedly a blow, when she died two years after their arrival. Her father, dejected, packed the family up and retreated to Salt Lake City. However, within a year, he was dead as well. In 1867, still known as Martha, Calamity had the unimaginable hardship of being a 15 year old orphan, stranded in a new city with 4 younger siblings to care for. And thus begins our journey…
The Journey This adventure seeks to follow in the footsteps of young Martha Canary and experience the places that she passed through on her journey to become the storied Calamity Jane. The journey starts in Salt Lake City, where she was orphaned at age 15, and ends in Deadwood, South Dakota, where she famously arrived on July 15, 1876 at age 24 in a posse with new friend Wild Bill Hickok. INDEPENDENCE
OMAHA
The journey will follow the path shown here on this map. Some of these places, have grown into modern cities, while others have are either preserved as historic national sites or are designated as ghost towns. Due to the remote locations, and limited access, this trip can only be attempted between the months of May and October, and some off-roading will be required.
Through this journey, I expect to gain a better understanding of who Martha was, and how these cities and this landscape transformed her from young Martha to the wild, strong and confident Calamity Jane. It is my hope that through this journey, I too can incorporate her confidence, strength and audacity into my own life, and the life of my friends, family, and co-workers at HMC. Please continue to the following pages to learn more about how each of these places played their part in the life of Calamity Jane.
1866-1867 Salt Lake City, was an city of over 12,000 residents when Martha and her family arrived in 1866. It was undoubtedly the largest city she and her siblings had ever seen. Nineteen years prior to their arrival, Brigham Young, arrived at a vista above this broad valley and stated “This is the right place!” He and his fellow Mormon Pioneers who had risked everything by entering into what was then Mexican territory, ended their journey to escape religious persecution. When the Canary family arrived in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young served as the president of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Martha would have been able to wave hello to him as he sat on the porch of his Beehive House, while across the street look on as workers constructed the Salt Lake Temple
This bird’s eye map illustrates what Salt Lake City looked like in 1870, 3 years after Martha left. One inaccuracy shows a completed temple building, which was actually under construction during this time. Today, Salt Lake City is a major modern US city with an metropolitan population of 1.2 million people.
In 1867, upon the death of her father, Martha, perhaps made uncomfortable by the city’s rigid morality gathered up her 4 siblings and moved on.
1867 Fort Bridger was established in 1842 by Jim Bridger as a fur trading outpost and became a fundamental resupply station along the Oregon Trail. In 1858 a military outpost was established to increase protection to the travelers passing through.
In 1864, when the Canary family first passed through, the United States vacated the military outpost sending the troops east to battle in the Civil War. By 1867, the military had returned, and Fort Bridger was flooded with tens of thousands of laborers constructing the Transcontinental Railroad. Perhaps recognizing this as an opportunity, 15 year old Martha Canary worked as a laundress and a prostitute to support herself and her siblings. She would have encountered people from all parts of the United States as well as Chinese immigrants.
Upon the advent of rail road, Fort Bridger became obsolete as a trading post and supply station and was abandoned in 1878. The military outpost was closed in 1890. The town of Fort Bridger remains with approximately 300 inhabitants. However, many of the original buildings have been restored, and are administered by the state of Wyoming as the Fort Bridger State Historic Site.
Before the year was over, Martha was on the move again, this time on her own. There is no further record of her siblings.
1868 Inspired by the tales told by the laborers she encountered in Fort Bridger, it is believed Martha next traveled to Cheyenne to capitalize on the rail road boom. From there she likely followed the crews as they worked their way west. Cheyenne would have been founded only one year prior to her arrival, the site being chosen by the Union Pacific as a supply and repair outpost. The Union Pacific hoped to settle the area and profit from the sale of real estate. The population grew to 4000 inhabitants almost overnight, and was designated territorial capital when Wyoming Territory was founded in 1869.
This birds-eye view depicts Cheyenne, WY as it looked in 1883. Today, Cheyenne continues to serve as the State Capitol of Wyoming with a population of over 60,000. The Union Pacific Rail Road continues its presence in the city, as the home of its steam shop, dedicated to maintaining the few remaining steam engines in the Union Pacific line.
1869 In 1869, Martha shows up in the Wyoming Territory census records in Piedmont, a short-lived town of about 9,000 people, that existed mainly to entertain soldiers and Union Pacific Laborers. In 1869, celebrations were being planned to honor the completion of Transcontinental Railroad. Union Pacific, nearing financial collapse had discharged most of the laborers in Piedmont without pay. Martha would have been there to witness, or maybe even participate when the special Union Pacific train, packed with dignitaries, on its way to Promontory Point was stopped and held hostage for 3 days until payment was secured.
Piedmont managed to stay afloat until 1910 when the Aspen Tunnel was completed, and the rail line was re-routed a few miles north. Today, Piedmont is classified as a ghost town. Most of the buildings have been dismantled, with a few remnants of homes and foundations remaining. Pictured above are charcoal kilns that still remain onsite. These kilns built in 1869 would have been under construction during Martha’s time in Piedmont.
1869-1870 Gold was discovered in South Pass City, a little village about 100 miles north of the Union Pacific tracks, in 1867. Like so many mining towns, it was an isolated and cut-throat place, an unlikely setting for its role in the battle for women’s rights and gender equality.
The black and white photo above was taken in 1870, coinciding with Martha’s time in South Pass City.
Wyoming became a territory in 1869, the year Martha Arrived in South Pass City. When the new legislature met for the first time, the city’s representative, William Bright, introduced a bill to allow women the right to vote and hold office. At first, his fellow legislators did not think he was serious, but surprisingly it passed.
South Pass City is now designated as a Ghost Town. Gold deposits in the town were greatly underestimated, and from the time Martha departed until the by the mid 1870’s the city , the city went from 2000 to 100 residents. The last family left the town in 1949. Many of the original structures, though in disrepair, remain. In 1970, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today visitors can tour the South Pass City Historic Site, thanks to the Wyoming State Parks Association.
The following year, Martha would have been present when Esther Hobart Morris was sworn in as the Justice of the Peace, becoming the first woman in the country to serve in a judicial role.
Transformation 1870-1874 From 1870 to 1874 there is no documented evidence of Martha’s whereabouts. According to her own autobiography, she claims that she joined the US Army serving under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. However, her autobiography, which was written as a promotional pamphlet to draw crowds during her later years touring with wild west shows, has been repeatedly proven to be an unreliable source. It is possible that she did join the army disguised as a man, as this was not uncommon. There are several documented cases of soldiers throughout the civil war being exposed as women, which would lead one to assume that many were never exposed. However, because there is no documentation of any women being exposed as soldiers during any of Custer’s campaigns. It is more likely that she travelled alongside the army unofficially, serving as a cook, nurse or scout. What we do know is that when she reappears in 1874 she has shed her given name Martha. From this point on, she is known only as Calamity Jane, feeling, as she described it, “perfectly at home in men’s clothes.”.
The Jenney Expedition & The Black Hills 1874-1875, 1876 Fort Laramie was founded as a private fur trading post in the 1830’s, then purchased by the US Army to offer protection to wagon trains passing through on the Oregon Trail. When gold was discovered in the nearby black hills, the fort regained strategic importance. Calamity Jane arrived in 1874 and soon joined the Jenney Expedition, deemed as scientific exploration of the Black Hills to map the area and assess its gold and mineral deposits. Per the Sioux Treaty of 1868, the Lakota people were guaranteed ownership of the Black Hills, yet the Jenney Expedition proceeded in direct violation of this treaty. This action is set Black Hills War in motion, resulting in the death of Lieutenant Colonel Custer and his troops at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Often confused with the city of Laramie, Fort Laramie is located 120 miles northeast of the home of the University of Wyoming. The fort’s importance waned when as the transcontinental railroad eliminated the need for overland travel on the Oregon Trail. The fort itself was decommissioned in 1890. Today, the National Park Service operates the fort as an historic site. The adjacent town of Fort Laramie has about 250 inhabitants.
After 5 months in the field, the Jenney Expedition returned to Fort Laramie. Calamity drops out of sight again. It is rumored that she traveled north to the Big Horn Mountains to fight. However, she returns to Fort Laramie in the summer of 1876 barely missing the Battle of Little Bighorn. .
1876-1879 Wild Bill Hickok
Calamity’s arrival in Deadwood on July 15, 1876 in a posse of over 200 that included Wild Bill Hickok, Colorado Charlie Utter, is considered one of the landmark moments in the storied American West. All three of these people had already made names for themselves throughout the frontier, and their arrival caused quite a stir, even in this outlaw town that did not even exist two months prior. Calamity didn’t initially plan to join the group. But after another one of her drunken outbursts in Fort Laramie, the quartermaster arranged her release from the guardhouse only if she accompany them out of town. The legends of the American West often associate Calamity and Wild Bill, but in reality they only knew each other for a month and a half. Three weeks after their arrival, Wild Bill was famously gunned down by Jack McCall while playing poker on a Main Street Saloon. She remained in or around Deadwood consistently for the next 3 years, working as a bullwhacker, hauling food and supplies between Deadwood and the railroad towns such as Cheyenne and Sidney, NE.
The photo above was taken 1876, and captures how Deadwood would have appeared upon Calamity’s arrival. The city was destroyed in a fire in 1879, and was rebuilt in brick. Today, Deadwood is a popular tourist destination, capitalizing on its historic role played in the American West.
If any city could ever be considered Calamity’s Home, Deadwood would be that place. She decided to move on soon after a rail line connected the town. But by then, she had put down enough roots that she visited the city often. She died in 1903 at age 51 during one of these return trips to the Black Hills. Friends and admirers flooded into Deadwood to pay their respects. After her funeral, she was buried next to Wild Bill Hickok in Mount Moriah Cemetery, overlooking the city, and then the celebration began. The party lasted throughout the night.
Books: Jucovy, Linda. Searching for Calamity. Philadelphia: Stampede Books, 2012; Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane. By Herself. 1896 (No Publisher, No Place of Publication); Reps, John W. Bird’s Eye Views, Hisoric Lithographs of North American Cities. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 1998; Websites: www.nps.gov www.visitsaltlake.com www.Southpasscity.com www.Wikipedia.org wyoparks.state.wy.us/ www.wyohistory.org www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com Photo Credits: Jackson, W.H. 301 jwh00301 - U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library, high resolution photo., Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19311330 Anna-Katharina Stöcklin - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17826009 Anna-Katharina Stöcklin - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17826004 Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125749 Library of Congress – Digital Archives – www.loc.gov Wyoming State Parks Website - http://wyoparks.state.wy.us/