Why calamity jane was famous

Galloping back, she lifted him onto her horse and got him safely back to the Fort. Afterward, she was ordered to Fort Custer , where she arrived in the spring of In the fall of that same year, they were ordered to Fort Russell where she remained until the spring of The troops were then ordered to the Black Hills to protect the settlers and the miners from the Sioux Indians where they remained until they arrived at Fort Laramie for the winter.

During this march, she swam the Platte River near Fort Fetterman to deliver dispatches from General Crook to a local outpost. Both being outrageous exaggerators and heavy drinkers, the two hit it off immediately. Although Jane and Hickok have often been said to have been romantically involved, there is little to support these stories.

Jane joined the train which arrived in Deadwood in June of During the month of June, she worked as a Pony Express rider carrying the U. She remained around Deadwood all that summer visiting the many camps of the area.

McCall claimed he had shot Wild Bill in revenge for killing his brother back in Abilene, Kansas , and maintained that he would do it all over again given the chance.

McCall headed out to Wyoming but less than a month later, the trial held in Deadwood was found to have had no legal basis, because Deadwood was located in Indian Territory. He was then was arrested in Laramie, Wyoming on August 29, , charged with the murder, and taken to Yankton, South Dakota to stand trial.

Calamity Jane remained in Deadwood, prospecting at the various mining camps in the area. When the smallpox plague struck Deadwood, she nursed many people back to health, with little more than a thank you. Even old Doc Babcock had to admit there was a little angel of some sort in the hardboiled woman. But, still, she was always up to some kind of antic. Jane became enraged at the end of the play and stood up and let fly a long stream of tobacco juice which hit the star square in the eye and dribbled down her dress.

The crowd went wild with delight. Calamity took her gun-slinging friend by the arm and they marched up the aisle together to the cheers of the crowd. Tom, unfortunately, did not see Jane again because he was cut down in a bank stick-up the following day.

One morning in the spring of , when she was riding towards Crook city, she met a stagecoach running from Cheyenne to Deadwood with Indians in hot pursuit. Illiterate and poor, she was forced to move from one place to another, taking any work available to survive.

She was surrounded by desperate people, also scrapping out a living, and not providing a nurturing environment for a young impressionable girl.

It is also believed that as a teenager she occasionally engaged in prostitution, as it was more lucrative and always in demand. In , Jane traveled with a U. At this point the legends surrounding her life become abundant and the facts harder to find. She is said to have had numerous affairs with some of the most notorious desperados of the time.

One such story was her relationship with Western legend Hickok, whom she probably did meet in Deadwood. Their alleged dalliance launched her name into the annals of Western folklore. Jane was also known for her softer side. In her autobiography, she takes credit for rescuing a runaway stagecoach fleeing from a Cheyenne Indian war party by bravely driving the coach to Deadwood with six passengers and a wounded driver. There are also accounts from several sources of her helping nurse patients during a smallpox epidemic in Deadwood.

The accounts have several versions and documentation of her role in the events is suspect, but the stories are plausible because the events did occur.

In addition to her alleged relationship to Hickok, there were saucy tales, creatively recorded by Western dime novel authors, of wild sex, a child born, and even marriage to Hickok. There are numerous stories, with varying levels of credibility, that Jane was a wife and mother one time. Around , she supposedly married a man named Burke Edward or Clinton and gave birth to a daughter in There are numerous accounts of her seen with a young girl in several small towns throughout the West in the s and s, but no marriage license or birth certificate exists.

Her job as a scout led her onto the Great Plains and a rough and surprisingly adventurous life for a woman of her time. She was involved in several military campaigns against the Native Americans in this area.

It was during one of these campaigns that she claims to have been given her nickname of Calamity Jane. The captain of that campaign gave her the nickname when she saved his life during the campaign and got him to safety at the nearest military fort, solely on her own. The captain, according to Jane, said the nickname indicated her heroism. After a few years of working on the Great Plains as a scout, she lost the good looks of her teen years due to the leathery, tanned skin she received, and the muscles she developed that gave her a masculine look.

She was known for seldom bathing or washing her hair. Those who knew her said she was infatuated with Hickock, though he had little use for her personally.

In Deadwood, Jane was a well-known resident. She had adventures there, including saving passengers in a stagecoach that was being pursued by Native Americans. The driver was killed in the pursuit, and Jane rode up on horseback, jumped on the coach, and took the reins, driving it to safety in Deadwood. She also acted as nurse to the victims of a smallpox outbreak in Deadwood in Jane is known to have had at least one daughter, and possibly two.

She married Clinton Burke in and gave birth to a daughter named Jane. This daughter was given up for adoption for unknown reasons. She brought another girl with her to Deadwood who she claimed to be her daughter, and the town had a fundraiser to give the girl a good education, but Jane spent most of the money on booze as soon as she received it.

Reports from the town claim the people there later heard her daughter, whose name was unknown, did receive the good education Jane wanted for her.