WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.819 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:02.819 --> 00:00:05.740 heading west. And I don't just mean geographically. 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:09.619 We are heading straight into the thick of the 00:00:09.619 --> 00:00:12.720 American frontier mythos. We really are. We're 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:15.480 talking about a figure so iconic that her name 00:00:15.480 --> 00:00:17.980 is practically a synonym for the Wild West itself. 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:20.339 You've definitely seen the movies. You've heard 00:00:20.339 --> 00:00:23.239 the songs. Yeah. Martha Jane Canary. But of course, 00:00:23.260 --> 00:00:26.460 no one knows her by that name. No. You know her 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:29.670 better as Calamity Jane. It really is a name 00:00:29.670 --> 00:00:32.390 that just conjures up a very specific, very vivid 00:00:32.390 --> 00:00:34.729 image, doesn't it? Oh, instantly. You immediately 00:00:34.729 --> 00:00:37.810 picture the Buckskins, the Winchester rifle in 00:00:37.810 --> 00:00:40.850 hand, riding alongside Wild Bill Hickok, maybe, 00:00:40.950 --> 00:00:43.070 you know, tossing back a shot of whiskey in a 00:00:43.070 --> 00:00:45.609 dusty Deadwood saloon. Right. It's the ultimate 00:00:45.609 --> 00:00:48.450 cowgirl rebel archetype. Exactly. She's the prototype 00:00:48.450 --> 00:00:51.210 for every, like, tough girl character in Western 00:00:51.210 --> 00:00:53.539 fiction. But here's the thing, and this is why 00:00:53.539 --> 00:00:55.359 I was so excited to dig into these sources with 00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:58.179 you today. The gap between the legend of Calamity 00:00:58.179 --> 00:01:01.380 Jane and the actual life of Martha Jane Canary 00:01:01.380 --> 00:01:04.420 is, well, it's about the size of the Grand Canyon. 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:07.000 It is. And frankly, the reality is a lot darker, 00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:10.060 grittier, and way more complex than the dime 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:12.200 novels ever let on. That is the perfect way to 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:14.939 frame it. And navigating that gap is so tricky 00:01:14.939 --> 00:01:18.540 because Jane herself was the primary architect 00:01:18.540 --> 00:01:20.640 of all the confusion. He was her own PR agent. 00:01:20.780 --> 00:01:23.859 100%. She was a storyteller, a relentless self 00:01:23.859 --> 00:01:25.859 -promoter, and just, you know, a bit of a chaotic 00:01:25.859 --> 00:01:28.379 force. She dictated her own legend while she 00:01:28.379 --> 00:01:30.700 was still alive, which means a lot of what we 00:01:30.700 --> 00:01:33.640 know about her comes from publicity stunts designed 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:35.939 to sell tickets. So our mission for this deep 00:01:35.939 --> 00:01:38.159 dive is to peel back those layers of fiction. 00:01:38.420 --> 00:01:41.200 We have stacks of historical records, census 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:44.959 data. contemporary newspaper reports, and my 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:48.640 personal favorite, her own 1896 autobiographical 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:51.480 booklet. Ah, yes. The pamphlet. With her having 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:53.459 read through it, I think we can charitably describe 00:01:53.459 --> 00:01:56.340 as creative nonfiction. That is a very, very 00:01:56.340 --> 00:01:58.540 polite way of putting it. It's basically a superhero 00:01:58.540 --> 00:02:00.760 origin story she wrote for herself. Right. But 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:03.329 today, we are going to look past that. We're 00:02:03.329 --> 00:02:04.870 going to look at the daredevil scout and the 00:02:04.870 --> 00:02:07.329 heartbroken lover she claimed to be and contrast 00:02:07.329 --> 00:02:09.169 that with the reality of a woman who struggled 00:02:09.169 --> 00:02:13.110 with severe alcoholism, poverty, and just the 00:02:13.110 --> 00:02:15.629 brutal hardships of the frontier. We want to 00:02:15.629 --> 00:02:18.250 find the human being underneath the buckskins. 00:02:18.810 --> 00:02:21.389 Let's start right at the beginning, because despite 00:02:21.389 --> 00:02:23.729 all the legends of her being born in a saddle 00:02:23.729 --> 00:02:25.710 or sprouting from the ground fully armed with 00:02:25.710 --> 00:02:29.009 a six -shooter, she had a childhood. And looking 00:02:29.009 --> 00:02:31.710 at the census data, It wasn't a charmed life. 00:02:31.930 --> 00:02:34.310 Not at all. It was a childhood defined almost 00:02:34.310 --> 00:02:36.849 immediately by misfortune. She was born Martha 00:02:36.849 --> 00:02:40.729 Jane Canary on May 1st, 1852, in Princeton, Missouri. 00:02:41.030 --> 00:02:43.650 And she even fudged that, right, in her own pamphlet. 00:02:43.750 --> 00:02:46.090 Oh, yeah. She claims she was born later to make 00:02:46.090 --> 00:02:48.030 herself seem younger. It's a classic celebrity 00:02:48.030 --> 00:02:50.250 move, but the records are clear. She was the 00:02:50.250 --> 00:02:52.629 eldest of six children. And the family dynamic 00:02:52.629 --> 00:02:54.870 she was born into seems pretty unstable from 00:02:54.870 --> 00:02:58.250 the jump. Extremely. Her father, Robert Wilson 00:02:58.250 --> 00:03:01.590 Canary, he had a known gambling problem. Her 00:03:01.590 --> 00:03:05.349 mother, Charlotte, had six kids to manage. And 00:03:05.349 --> 00:03:07.830 like so many families in the mid -19th century, 00:03:08.110 --> 00:03:10.990 they got caught up in that post -Civil War westward 00:03:10.990 --> 00:03:14.569 ho fever. Right. Go west. In 1865, they packed 00:03:14.569 --> 00:03:17.129 up a wagon train and headed for Montana. And 00:03:17.129 --> 00:03:19.629 I think it's easy for us sitting here in comfort 00:03:19.629 --> 00:03:22.449 to just gloss over what heading to Montana by 00:03:22.449 --> 00:03:25.629 wagon actually meant in 1865. Oh, yeah. We picture 00:03:25.629 --> 00:03:27.830 a scenic road trip. Maybe we think about playing 00:03:27.830 --> 00:03:30.330 the Oregon Trail video game. Right. But the reality 00:03:30.330 --> 00:03:33.229 was just grueling. It was months of walking, 00:03:33.469 --> 00:03:36.770 dust, disease and real danger. And for Martha 00:03:36.770 --> 00:03:38.629 Jane, it was the beginning of the end of her 00:03:38.629 --> 00:03:41.229 childhood. Her mother, Charlotte, she died of 00:03:41.229 --> 00:03:42.969 pneumonia along the way in Blackfoot, Montana. 00:03:43.289 --> 00:03:45.569 Oh, wow. On the trail. On the trail. So they 00:03:45.569 --> 00:03:48.710 finally arrive in Virginia City in 1866, motherless. 00:03:49.050 --> 00:03:51.110 Robert, the father, takes the six kids on to 00:03:51.110 --> 00:03:53.229 Salt Lake City, supposedly to start farming. 00:03:53.370 --> 00:03:56.909 But within a year, by 1867, he's dead too. So 00:03:56.909 --> 00:03:58.569 let's just pause and really look at that picture. 00:03:58.669 --> 00:04:01.889 By 1867, Martha Jane is 14 years old. Just 14. 00:04:01.949 --> 00:04:04.419 Both of her parents are dead. And she is suddenly 00:04:04.419 --> 00:04:07.419 the matriarch of a family of five younger siblings 00:04:07.419 --> 00:04:10.340 in a territory that is incredibly unforgiving. 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:13.979 It is a nightmare scenario. At 14, she didn't 00:04:13.979 --> 00:04:16.199 have the luxury of grieving or, you know, being 00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:18.040 a teenager. She was the head of the household. 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:21.279 And this is the crucial turning point. This is 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:24.879 where the Calamity Jane grit is forged. She loaded 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:27.560 up their wagon herself and moved the entire family 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.079 to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and then on to Piedmont. 00:04:30.220 --> 00:04:33.769 That level of responsibility is just... How does 00:04:33.769 --> 00:04:35.990 a 14 -year -old girl even support a family of 00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:39.470 six in 1860s Wyoming? The economy wasn't exactly 00:04:39.470 --> 00:04:41.589 overflowing with opportunities for young women. 00:04:41.709 --> 00:04:44.389 She did whatever was necessary. And this is where 00:04:44.389 --> 00:04:46.850 we see her start to break those Victorian gender 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:49.310 norms, not necessarily out of a desire to be 00:04:49.310 --> 00:04:52.230 a social rebel or to make a statement. But out 00:04:52.230 --> 00:04:54.310 of sheer survival. Out of sheer survival. The 00:04:54.310 --> 00:04:57.050 sources list her jobs during this period. Dishwasher, 00:04:57.069 --> 00:05:00.769 cook, waitress, dance hall girl, nurse. But those 00:05:00.769 --> 00:05:02.680 jobs didn't pay well enough. Not to support five 00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:05.720 other kids? No. So she shifts. She starts working 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:09.800 as an ox team driver. Driving oxen? That's heavy, 00:05:09.939 --> 00:05:12.079 dangerous labor. Yeah. I mean, you're wrestling 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:14.379 with massive animals dragging freight through 00:05:14.379 --> 00:05:18.000 mud. It is. And by 1874, she's claiming to work 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.540 as a scout at Fort Russell. And this is when 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:23.160 she begins wearing men's attire regularly. See, 00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:25.310 that's such an interesting distinction. In the 00:05:25.310 --> 00:05:28.230 movies, she wears pants because she's a tomboy 00:05:28.230 --> 00:05:30.250 or an action hero. But you're saying it started 00:05:30.250 --> 00:05:33.079 just because she was doing men's work? To survive. 00:05:33.379 --> 00:05:35.899 Precisely. I mean, think about it. Long Victorian 00:05:35.899 --> 00:05:38.600 skirts are a massive safety hazard when you're 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:41.620 driving oxen or navigating rough terrain or riding 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:43.699 horses all day. It's just practical. I think 00:05:43.699 --> 00:05:45.839 that makes sense. She was living a rough outdoor 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:48.720 existence. The sources also mentioned she likely 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:51.139 worked as a prostitute occasionally at the Fort 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:54.139 Laramie Three Mile Hog Ranch. So it paints a 00:05:54.139 --> 00:05:56.980 picture of a young woman using every single tool 00:05:56.980 --> 00:05:59.720 at her disposal. her strength her appearance 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:02.699 her labor to keep herself and her siblings alive 00:06:02.699 --> 00:06:05.220 in just a brutal environment right she wasn't 00:06:05.220 --> 00:06:07.079 playing a character yet she was just trying to 00:06:07.079 --> 00:06:10.800 survive so she's tough she's undeniably resilient 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:13.689 but at some point She transitions from Martha 00:06:13.689 --> 00:06:16.069 Jane, the hardworking orphan, to Calamity Jane, 00:06:16.230 --> 00:06:18.790 the legend. Everyone loves a good superhero origin 00:06:18.790 --> 00:06:21.449 story, and Jane certainly wrote a great one for 00:06:21.449 --> 00:06:23.949 herself. She certainly did. If you believe her 00:06:23.949 --> 00:06:27.569 1896 pamphlet, the name was bestowed upon her 00:06:27.569 --> 00:06:30.709 in a moment of glorious heroism that rivals anything 00:06:30.709 --> 00:06:33.970 in a blockbuster movie. I love this story, even 00:06:33.970 --> 00:06:36.860 if it's fake. Lay it out for us. So Jane claims 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:39.279 this happened during the Indian campaigns of 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:44.110 1872 or 73 near Goose Creek, Wyoming. She says 00:06:44.110 --> 00:06:46.470 she was with a detachment under a Captain Egan 00:06:46.470 --> 00:06:48.829 and they were ambushed. Captain Egan is shot 00:06:48.829 --> 00:06:51.329 and starts reeling in his saddle about to fall 00:06:51.329 --> 00:06:54.089 off and likely be killed. And Jane creates the 00:06:54.089 --> 00:06:56.350 cinematic moment. Right. She claims she turned 00:06:56.350 --> 00:06:58.949 her horse, galloped back into the line of fire, 00:06:59.069 --> 00:07:01.290 caught the captain just before he hit the ground 00:07:01.290 --> 00:07:03.810 and pulled him onto her horse to safety. Very 00:07:03.810 --> 00:07:06.129 dramatic. And supposedly once they got back to 00:07:06.129 --> 00:07:08.170 the fort and the captain recovered, he laughingly 00:07:08.170 --> 00:07:10.649 told her, I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine 00:07:10.649 --> 00:07:13.930 of the plains. I name you. Calamity Jane, the 00:07:13.930 --> 00:07:17.769 heroine of the planes. It's so profound. It rhymes. 00:07:18.089 --> 00:07:21.029 It's catchy. It's perfect branding. It's a great 00:07:21.029 --> 00:07:23.430 line. Is there any truth to it? It is highly 00:07:23.430 --> 00:07:25.990 unlikely. I figured as much. The rhyme is just 00:07:25.990 --> 00:07:28.259 a little too convenient. The historical record 00:07:28.259 --> 00:07:31.480 pushes back on this quite hard. A contemporary 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:34.180 of hers named Captain Jack Crawford, who actually 00:07:34.180 --> 00:07:36.939 served under Generals Crook and Miles, the generals 00:07:36.939 --> 00:07:39.439 Jane claimed to serve with. Okay, so a credible 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:42.120 source. A very credible source. He gave a pretty 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:45.279 scathing rebuttal in a 1904 interview. He claimed 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:47.459 Jane never saw service under those generals, 00:07:47.579 --> 00:07:50.160 never fought Indians, and never even saw lynching. 00:07:50.620 --> 00:07:55.100 He called her simply a notorious character, dissolute 00:07:55.100 --> 00:07:59.019 and devilish. Ouch. Dislutant devilish. That's 00:07:59.019 --> 00:08:02.319 a far cry from Heroin of the Plains. It is. So 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:04.740 if Captain Egan didn't christen her after a daring 00:08:04.740 --> 00:08:07.480 rescue, where did the name come from? There is 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:10.160 a more grounded, more psychological theory mentioned 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:12.319 in the sources. Which I feel is probably closer 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:15.139 to the truth. I think so too. It suggested that 00:08:15.139 --> 00:08:17.379 the nickname came from her warning men that to 00:08:17.379 --> 00:08:20.120 offend her was to court calamity. That honestly 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:22.480 sounds much more in character for someone surviving 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:25.060 in mining camps. You know, like, don't mess with 00:08:25.060 --> 00:08:27.279 me or it'll be a calamity. It's a defense mechanism. 00:08:27.540 --> 00:08:30.699 Exactly. It's armor. It's a warning. And we know 00:08:30.699 --> 00:08:35.059 the name stuck early on. By July 1876, when she 00:08:35.059 --> 00:08:37.399 arrived in Deadwood, the local newspaper, the 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:39.820 Black Hills Pioneer. Ran a headline. They ran 00:08:39.820 --> 00:08:42.940 a headline. Calamity Jane has arrived. So the 00:08:42.940 --> 00:08:45.080 brand was already established regardless of the 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:47.460 origin. She walked into town as a celebrity. 00:08:47.779 --> 00:08:50.679 You mentioned Deadwood. And you simply cannot 00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:53.259 talk about Calamity Jane and Deadwood without 00:08:53.259 --> 00:08:55.279 talking about the other half of that legendary 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:58.580 duo. Wild Bill Hickok. Wild Bill Hickok. This 00:08:58.580 --> 00:09:01.600 is maybe the most persistent myth in the entire 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:05.360 American West. This idea that Jane and Wild Bill 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:08.429 were lovers. or secret spouses or soulmates. 00:09:08.529 --> 00:09:10.250 It's the great romance of the frontier. I mean, 00:09:10.269 --> 00:09:12.149 in the Doris Day movie, they end up getting married, 00:09:12.250 --> 00:09:14.389 don't they? It's the ultimate power couple fantasy, 00:09:14.570 --> 00:09:16.350 the king and queen of the Wild West. It is, but 00:09:16.350 --> 00:09:19.009 the historical reality is just much, much colder. 00:09:19.149 --> 00:09:21.070 The sources are very clear on this. They were 00:09:21.070 --> 00:09:23.610 acquaintances. Just acquaintances. That's it. 00:09:23.789 --> 00:09:27.570 They met in 1876 at Fort Laramie and joined the 00:09:27.570 --> 00:09:30.210 same wagon train to Deadwood. But they weren't 00:09:30.210 --> 00:09:33.049 longtime partners. And in fact, Hickok had famously 00:09:33.049 --> 00:09:35.509 just married another woman, Agnes Thatcher Lake. 00:09:35.929 --> 00:09:38.149 right before he headed to Deadwood. So he was 00:09:38.149 --> 00:09:40.409 a newlywed when he met Jane. He was. But wait, 00:09:40.470 --> 00:09:42.909 I've definitely heard about a diary and a daughter. 00:09:43.149 --> 00:09:45.590 Wasn't there a woman in the 1940s who came forward 00:09:45.590 --> 00:09:48.350 claiming to be their child? I feel like I've 00:09:48.350 --> 00:09:50.529 seen this reference in documentaries. Yes, this 00:09:50.529 --> 00:09:53.370 is the McCormick claim, and it is a fascinating 00:09:53.370 --> 00:09:57.950 rabbit hole of, well, fraud. In 1941, a woman 00:09:57.950 --> 00:10:00.250 named Jean Hickok Burkhart McCormick applied 00:10:00.250 --> 00:10:03.029 for old age assistance. To prove her identity, 00:10:03.210 --> 00:10:05.610 she produced a Bible signed by ministers and 00:10:05.610 --> 00:10:08.110 a whole bundle of letters. Letters from Calamity 00:10:08.110 --> 00:10:10.570 Jane. Allegedly written by Calamity Jane to her 00:10:10.570 --> 00:10:12.509 daughter, Jean. And I'm guessing in these letters, 00:10:12.649 --> 00:10:15.250 Jane confesses her undying love for Bill. You 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:17.809 got it. The letters claimed Jane and Bill were 00:10:17.809 --> 00:10:20.490 married in Montana in 1873 and that Jean was 00:10:20.490 --> 00:10:22.929 born that same year. They were very emotional, 00:10:23.149 --> 00:10:25.490 very poetic letters explaining why she had to 00:10:25.490 --> 00:10:27.289 give the baby up for adoption. And it convinced 00:10:27.289 --> 00:10:30.409 some people. It did at the time. But when historians 00:10:30.409 --> 00:10:33.250 really looked closer, the whole thing just fell 00:10:33.250 --> 00:10:36.350 apart. How so? Was it the timeline? The timeline 00:10:36.350 --> 00:10:39.539 was messy, yes. Jane was supposedly scouting 00:10:39.539 --> 00:10:41.320 somewhere else during the time of the alleged 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:44.299 birth. But the real smoking gun is the literacy 00:10:44.299 --> 00:10:46.299 issue. Right. We talked about her upbringing, 00:10:46.539 --> 00:10:50.220 driving oxen, constantly moving. She wouldn't 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:52.700 have had a formal education. Could she even write? 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:55.779 The consensus among series historians is that 00:10:55.779 --> 00:10:59.899 Jane was functionally illiterate. Census records 00:10:59.899 --> 00:11:02.519 concern this. And her own autobiography that 00:11:02.519 --> 00:11:04.740 we talked about. It was dictated to someone else. 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:07.309 And get this, in the pamphlet. Her last name 00:11:07.309 --> 00:11:10.429 is spelled Canary, with two Ns. Her father's 00:11:10.429 --> 00:11:13.129 census records use one N. If she couldn't even 00:11:13.129 --> 00:11:15.409 spell her own name consistently, she certainly 00:11:15.409 --> 00:11:17.990 wasn't writing long, poetic, introspective letters 00:11:17.990 --> 00:11:20.590 to a secret daughter. That really seals it. It's 00:11:20.590 --> 00:11:23.399 a complete hoax. Stepping back from the Wild 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:25.539 Bill fantasy for a second, did she have children 00:11:25.539 --> 00:11:28.120 at all? Or was that part entirely made up too? 00:11:28.179 --> 00:11:29.899 No, she did have children. The sources say she 00:11:29.899 --> 00:11:32.559 had possibly two, maybe even four children. But 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:35.899 the fathers are all unknown. And there's a heartbreaking 00:11:35.899 --> 00:11:38.159 story that really illustrates her struggle with 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.539 motherhood. It's much more telling than any of 00:11:40.539 --> 00:11:43.080 the fake romance letters. This is the Benefit 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:46.100 Night story, right? Yes. So in the late 1880s, 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:49.139 Jane returns to Deadwood with a child, a little 00:11:49.139 --> 00:11:51.559 girl. And she wanted the girl to get a good education. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:54.919 at a Catholic boarding school nearby. Okay, so 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:57.700 a good intention. The great intention. And the 00:11:57.700 --> 00:12:00.360 town, despite knowing Jane's rough edges and 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:03.580 her drinking, they pitched in. They held a benefit 00:12:03.580 --> 00:12:06.059 at a local theater and raised a large sum of 00:12:06.059 --> 00:12:08.379 money for the tuition. That's a beautiful community 00:12:08.379 --> 00:12:10.919 moment. They wanted to help her break the cycle. 00:12:11.139 --> 00:12:14.100 It starts that way. But that same night, Jane 00:12:14.100 --> 00:12:16.259 took a portion of that money, got incredibly 00:12:16.259 --> 00:12:19.240 drunk and spent it. The next day she packed up 00:12:19.240 --> 00:12:22.299 the child and just left town. Oh, wow. That is 00:12:22.299 --> 00:12:24.759 that's tragic. It really just highlights the 00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:27.419 instability she was living with. It does. A local 00:12:27.419 --> 00:12:29.600 woman who wrote about it, Esteline Bennett, she 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:31.679 didn't think Jane was trying to scam them. She 00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:34.200 really believed Jane honestly wanted that education 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:36.879 for her daughter, but she just she couldn't curb 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:39.840 her impulses or execute a long term plan. It's 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:41.740 a classic sign of the addiction she was battling. 00:12:41.860 --> 00:12:45.460 Exactly. It shows a woman who wants to be a mother, 00:12:45.559 --> 00:12:48.279 who has these good intentions, but is just completely 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:51.500 consumed by her demons. It's so interesting because 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:54.820 you have this notorious, dissolute character 00:12:54.820 --> 00:12:58.320 who fails at these domestic things, who drinks 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:00.740 away her daughter's tuition. But then you have 00:13:00.740 --> 00:13:03.100 these other stories that paint her as a saint. 00:13:03.159 --> 00:13:05.559 Right. We have to talk about the smallpox epidemic. 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:07.899 Yeah. Because this seems to be the one thing 00:13:07.899 --> 00:13:10.019 everyone agrees on. This is the heroine of the 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:12.259 pest house chapter of her life. And unlike the 00:13:12.259 --> 00:13:14.480 marriage to Hickok, this one is completely verified 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:17.259 by locals. Set the scene for us. Why was this 00:13:17.259 --> 00:13:21.129 such a big deal? Okay, so. Late 1870s, Deadwood. 00:13:21.470 --> 00:13:23.809 A smallpox outbreak hits the camp. Now, you have 00:13:23.809 --> 00:13:26.789 to understand, in the 1870s, smallpox was terrifying. 00:13:27.129 --> 00:13:29.250 Yeah, it was a death sentence for many. Absolutely. 00:13:29.330 --> 00:13:31.629 It wasn't just a sickness. It was highly contagious, 00:13:31.970 --> 00:13:34.909 disfiguring, and often fatal. When someone got 00:13:34.909 --> 00:13:36.870 sick, they were usually quarantined in what they 00:13:36.870 --> 00:13:39.870 called a pest house, basically a shack on the 00:13:39.870 --> 00:13:42.789 edge of town, and just ignored. People were too 00:13:42.789 --> 00:13:45.110 afraid to go near them. It's the ultimate isolation. 00:13:45.769 --> 00:13:49.250 Exactly. Except for Jane. She stepped up. She 00:13:49.250 --> 00:13:51.450 nursed the victims. She stayed with them in the 00:13:51.450 --> 00:13:54.610 pest house. She cleaned them, fed them, administered 00:13:54.610 --> 00:13:57.210 whatever medicine they had. And this wasn't for 00:13:57.210 --> 00:14:01.990 glory. This was dirty, dangerous work. Incredibly 00:14:01.990 --> 00:14:04.629 dangerous. And it showcased this massive, generous 00:14:04.629 --> 00:14:07.730 streak that made the locals forgive so many of 00:14:07.730 --> 00:14:10.610 her drunken escapades. She might, you know, shoot 00:14:10.610 --> 00:14:12.470 up a saloon sign one night, but she would hold 00:14:12.470 --> 00:14:15.370 a dying man's hand the next. That is a fascinating 00:14:15.370 --> 00:14:17.950 duality. It's like she had this immense capacity 00:14:17.950 --> 00:14:20.669 for care, even if she couldn't consistently care 00:14:20.669 --> 00:14:22.889 for herself. Yeah. There's also the story about 00:14:22.889 --> 00:14:25.250 the stagecoach rescue. This one feels like an 00:14:25.250 --> 00:14:27.009 action movie again, like the Goose Creek story. 00:14:27.190 --> 00:14:30.009 Does this one hold water? It does, and it's corroborated. 00:14:30.429 --> 00:14:32.610 There was an overland stagecoach being pursued 00:14:32.610 --> 00:14:35.490 by Plains Indians. The driver, a man named John 00:14:35.490 --> 00:14:37.710 Slaughter, was shot and killed. So the coach 00:14:37.710 --> 00:14:39.909 is out of control. It's careening out of control, 00:14:40.049 --> 00:14:42.870 passengers inside screaming. Jane, who was apparently 00:14:42.870 --> 00:14:45.389 nearby or on the coach, she grabbed the reins, 00:14:45.509 --> 00:14:47.250 settled the horses, and drove the passengers 00:14:47.250 --> 00:14:49.490 to safety in Deadwood. See, these are the moments 00:14:49.490 --> 00:14:51.830 where the legend feels earned. She really was 00:14:51.830 --> 00:14:54.129 capable of immense bravery. Absolutely. And I 00:14:54.129 --> 00:14:56.070 think that's why the myth took root so strongly. 00:14:56.250 --> 00:14:58.250 If she was just a drunk storyteller, she would 00:14:58.250 --> 00:15:00.870 have been forgotten. But she had these genuine 00:15:00.870 --> 00:15:05.490 moments of competence and compassion that grounded 00:15:05.490 --> 00:15:07.769 all the wilder tales. It gave people a reason 00:15:07.769 --> 00:15:10.049 to root for her. So we have the peak years, Deadwood, 00:15:10.169 --> 00:15:14.090 1876 to the late 70s. She's famous. She's a local 00:15:14.090 --> 00:15:16.049 character. But the frontier started closing. 00:15:16.289 --> 00:15:19.759 The Wild West started getting, well... Right. 00:15:20.139 --> 00:15:23.220 Railroads, laws, fences. What happens to a person 00:15:23.220 --> 00:15:25.399 like Calamity Jane when civilization catches 00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:28.700 up? The later years, sadly, were just a long, 00:15:28.759 --> 00:15:31.840 slow decline. This is Section 5 of our dive, 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.100 and it's really tough to read. She had a serious 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:38.799 case of wanderlust. In 1881, she bought a ranch 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:41.360 in Montana, tried to run an inn. And that failed. 00:15:41.500 --> 00:15:43.559 It failed. She moved to Boulder, tried innkeeping 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:46.220 again, failed again. She allegedly married a 00:15:46.220 --> 00:15:48.279 man named Clinton Burke, but that didn't stabilize 00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:50.360 her either. She just couldn't settle down. It's 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:53.120 like she wasn't built for a quiet life. No. And 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:55.480 as she got older, she realized her name was her 00:15:55.480 --> 00:15:58.379 only real asset. She became a celebrity commodity. 00:15:58.779 --> 00:16:01.980 In 1893, she appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild 00:16:01.980 --> 00:16:05.080 West show. That sounds glamorous, though. Traveling 00:16:05.080 --> 00:16:07.919 with Buffalo Bill. Playing to packed crowds. 00:16:08.220 --> 00:16:10.419 It sounds glamorous to us, but for her it was 00:16:10.419 --> 00:16:12.840 often humiliating. She wasn't a star, she was 00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:15.659 a curiosity. She was hired as a storyteller, 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:18.639 basically to go out and be Calamity Jane for 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:20.899 the tourists. Performing a caricature of herself. 00:16:21.100 --> 00:16:22.740 Yeah, that's a great way to put it. She sold 00:16:22.740 --> 00:16:24.960 that autobiographical booklet we mentioned at 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:27.779 dime museums. But the reality was, she was often 00:16:27.779 --> 00:16:30.220 poor, and her alcoholism was getting much, much 00:16:30.220 --> 00:16:32.750 worse. She was selling the myth of her youth 00:16:32.750 --> 00:16:35.429 to pay for the addiction of her middle age. The 00:16:35.429 --> 00:16:37.389 source material has a specific anecdote about 00:16:37.389 --> 00:16:39.809 a horse rental in Cheyenne that's, I mean, it's 00:16:39.809 --> 00:16:42.350 funny in a slapstick way, but also really indicative 00:16:42.350 --> 00:16:45.389 of how bad her problem had become. The Joyride 00:16:45.389 --> 00:16:47.250 incident. Yeah, this actually happened a bit 00:16:47.250 --> 00:16:49.450 earlier, but it really sets the pattern for her 00:16:49.450 --> 00:16:51.590 chaotic relationship with alcohol and travel. 00:16:51.809 --> 00:16:54.169 She rented a horse and buggy in Cheyenne for 00:16:54.169 --> 00:16:56.929 a one -mile drive to Fort Russell and back. Just 00:16:56.929 --> 00:16:59.970 a quick trip. One mile. Hard to mess that up. 00:17:00.049 --> 00:17:02.850 Or so you'd think. She got so drunk, she completely 00:17:02.850 --> 00:17:05.670 passed her destination. She didn't stop until 00:17:05.670 --> 00:17:08.309 she hit Fort Laramie. Wait, wait. I'm looking 00:17:08.309 --> 00:17:10.990 at a map. Fort Laramie is not close to Cheyenne. 00:17:11.130 --> 00:17:13.410 It's about 90 miles. She overshot her one -mile 00:17:13.410 --> 00:17:17.089 trip. By 90 miles. That is the level of chaos 00:17:17.089 --> 00:17:19.890 we are talking about. Imagine being so intoxicated 00:17:19.890 --> 00:17:22.089 you miss your turn and end up three counties 00:17:22.089 --> 00:17:25.069 over. Wow. And as she aged, you know, the body 00:17:25.069 --> 00:17:28.190 just couldn't take that anymore. By 1901, she's 00:17:28.190 --> 00:17:30.490 at the Pan American Exposition, but by 1903, 00:17:30.589 --> 00:17:33.190 she's back in the Black Hills and she's dying 00:17:33.190 --> 00:17:35.430 penniless. What was she doing for money at the 00:17:35.430 --> 00:17:38.390 very end? If the shows were over. She was cooking 00:17:38.390 --> 00:17:41.390 and doing laundry for the girls at Dora Dufresne's 00:17:41.390 --> 00:17:43.849 brothel. Wow. The heroine of the planes, the 00:17:43.849 --> 00:17:45.750 woman who claimed to scout for generals, was 00:17:45.750 --> 00:17:48.029 washing sheets in a brothel to earn her keep. 00:17:48.190 --> 00:17:50.970 It's just a stark, sad image. It is. And then 00:17:50.970 --> 00:17:54.049 comes the end, August 1st, 1903. She was on an 00:17:54.049 --> 00:17:57.670 ore train to Terry, South Dakota. She drank heavily 00:17:57.670 --> 00:18:00.049 on board, fell ill, and the conductor actually 00:18:00.049 --> 00:18:02.549 had to carry her off the train. She died shortly 00:18:02.549 --> 00:18:05.750 after at the Callaway Hotel. The cause was inflammation 00:18:05.750 --> 00:18:08.509 of the bowels and pneumonia. And she was only 00:18:08.509 --> 00:18:11.390 51. Just 51 years old. That's so young, even 00:18:11.390 --> 00:18:14.150 for then. Yeah. But her story doesn't end with 00:18:14.150 --> 00:18:16.809 her death. We have to talk about the burial. 00:18:16.930 --> 00:18:19.609 Because she is buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery, 00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:22.529 right next to Wild Bill Hickok. Yes, if you go 00:18:22.529 --> 00:18:24.990 there today, you see them, side by side. And 00:18:24.990 --> 00:18:27.170 for a century, people have looked at those two 00:18:27.170 --> 00:18:30.809 graves and sighed romantically. Together at last. 00:18:31.089 --> 00:18:33.150 You know, it validates the whole love story. 00:18:33.309 --> 00:18:35.450 Right. And here's where it gets really interesting 00:18:35.450 --> 00:18:37.869 and really cynical. This is what I call the final 00:18:37.869 --> 00:18:40.990 joke. Go on. Because this changes everything 00:18:40.990 --> 00:18:43.670 about that cemetery visit. So the romantic version 00:18:43.670 --> 00:18:45.910 is that it was her dying wish to be buried next 00:18:45.910 --> 00:18:48.369 to the man she loved. And the Society of Black 00:18:48.369 --> 00:18:51.250 Hills pioneers organized it to honor her wish. 00:18:51.869 --> 00:18:55.650 But. But? But four of the men who planned that 00:18:55.650 --> 00:18:58.119 funeral. later admitted the real truth about 00:18:58.119 --> 00:19:00.440 why they put her there. They said that Wild Bill 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:03.359 Hickok had, and this is a quote, absolutely no 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:05.759 use for Jane when he was alive. He couldn't stand 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:08.700 her. He found her annoying, loud, and uncouth. 00:19:09.299 --> 00:19:12.599 So these men decided to bury her next to him 00:19:12.599 --> 00:19:15.859 as a posthumous prank on Wild Bill. No way. Yes. 00:19:16.380 --> 00:19:19.220 They basically said, let's bury her here so she 00:19:19.220 --> 00:19:22.960 can annoy him for all eternity. That is dark. 00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:26.200 That is Wild West humor at its absolute darkest. 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:28.779 So the greatest romantic symbol of the frontier 00:19:28.779 --> 00:19:32.119 is actually a trolling attempt by her funeral 00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:34.240 committee. Essentially, they were playing a practical 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:36.359 joke on a dead man. But, you know, regardless 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:38.359 of the motive, the turnout for her funeral was 00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:40.619 massive. The church overflowed. Hope people did 00:19:40.619 --> 00:19:42.980 care. They did. You had the morbidly curious, 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:45.859 sure, but you also had old friends. Despite the 00:19:45.859 --> 00:19:48.160 drinking, despite all the lies, she meant something 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:50.440 to that community. She was a piece of their history. 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:53.180 And she became a piece of our history, too. Session 00:19:53.180 --> 00:19:55.680 seven of our outline covers her pop culture afterlife. 00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:58.720 And man, she had a lot of lives. It seems like 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:01.200 every generation just reinvents her. It started 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:04.119 before she even died. The Deadwood Dick dime 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:07.680 novels in 1877 established her as a heroine. 00:20:08.089 --> 00:20:10.910 And she had no input on these stories, but the 00:20:10.910 --> 00:20:13.569 public just began to conflate the fictional superhero 00:20:13.569 --> 00:20:15.509 with the real woman. And then Hollywood got a 00:20:15.509 --> 00:20:18.049 hold of her. And the biggest shift was in 1953, 00:20:18.589 --> 00:20:21.269 Calamity Jane, the musical starring Doris Day. 00:20:21.470 --> 00:20:23.880 Whip crack away. I grew up watching that movie. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:27.220 Exactly. And that film portrays her as the sunny, 00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:30.380 singing, buckskin -wearing omboy who, you know, 00:20:30.380 --> 00:20:33.599 cleans up nice and marries Wild Bill. It is almost 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:35.700 entirely fictional. It completely scrubs away 00:20:35.700 --> 00:20:38.220 the reality. Completely. It scrubs away the alcohol, 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:40.619 the poverty, the children, the tragedy. It turns 00:20:40.619 --> 00:20:43.420 her into a Disney princess with a gun. And then 00:20:43.420 --> 00:20:45.200 you swing the pendulum all the way to the other 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:48.079 side with HBO's Deadwood. Robin Weigert's portrayal. 00:20:48.140 --> 00:20:50.480 And that is probably the closest we'll ever get 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:52.990 to the real Jane on screen. Right. She's gritty. 00:20:52.990 --> 00:20:55.349 She's filthy. She's an alcoholic. She's emotionally 00:20:55.349 --> 00:20:58.529 damaged. But she has this fierce loyalty. She's 00:20:58.529 --> 00:21:00.789 not singing songs. She's barely holding it together. 00:21:00.990 --> 00:21:03.569 It's amazing to see that range. She's in Fallout 00:21:03.569 --> 00:21:06.390 video games. She's referenced in Fortnite. She's 00:21:06.390 --> 00:21:10.599 in songs by Big and Rich. She's just... She is. 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:13.000 And what's so fascinating is how the fictional 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:16.200 Jane completely swallowed the real one. Most 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:18.400 people don't know about the laundry or the orphan 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:21.279 she had or the smallpox nursing. They know the 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:24.400 caricature. They know the buckskins. So, bringing 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:27.160 this all together, we have a woman who was illiterate 00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:31.660 but is famous for writing letters. A wife of 00:21:31.660 --> 00:21:34.140 Wild Bill, who was actually just an acquaintance 00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:36.599 buried next to him as a joke. A rough drunk who 00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:39.400 nursed the dying. She is a study in duality. 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:41.640 She represents the freedom of the West, but also 00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:44.599 the tragedy of it. She broke every single rule 00:21:44.599 --> 00:21:46.380 for how a woman was supposed to behave in the 00:21:46.380 --> 00:21:48.480 19th century. She wore pants, she drank whiskey, 00:21:48.579 --> 00:21:51.259 she drove oxen, but she paid a very, very steep 00:21:51.259 --> 00:21:53.099 price for that freedom. It makes you wonder, 00:21:53.180 --> 00:21:55.339 if she hadn't become Calamity, would she have 00:21:55.339 --> 00:21:57.460 even survived? That is the ultimate question, 00:21:57.559 --> 00:22:00.160 isn't it? Did she survive the West by becoming 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:03.140 a scout or did she survive history by becoming 00:22:03.140 --> 00:22:07.099 a story? The persona she crafted and had crafted 00:22:07.099 --> 00:22:10.680 for her ultimately consumed Martha Jane Canary. 00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:14.019 But without that persona, without the lies and 00:22:14.019 --> 00:22:16.299 the dime novels, we wouldn't be talking about 00:22:16.299 --> 00:22:19.819 her 120 years later. A survival strategy that 00:22:19.819 --> 00:22:22.259 worked a little too well. Indeed. That's going 00:22:22.259 --> 00:22:24.619 to do it for this deep dive into the life and 00:22:24.619 --> 00:22:27.180 legend of Calamity Jane. We hope you look at 00:22:27.180 --> 00:22:28.779 those old Western photos a little differently 00:22:28.779 --> 00:22:31.079 now. There's always more to the story. Thanks 00:22:31.079 --> 00:22:32.359 for listening. We'll catch you on the next one.