Calamity Jane’s Last Years
Over at HistoryNet.com this month, there’s a terrific piece by author William Secrest titled “The Calamities of Calamity Jane.”
Born Martha Jane Cannary in Missouri around 1852, she became a notorious resident of Deadwood in the Dakotas during the Gold Rush of the 1870s. By the 1880s, the legend of “Calamity Jane” had spread to the east coast in the form of dime novels, newspaper accounts and stage plays.