The American Frontier, The Old West. What kind of image do people have about these concepts? The idea of The Old West is often experienced as a romanticized folklore with only very few connections to the real life. To put it briefly, the idea of The American Frontier in reality was a forward wave of an American expansion in to the western parts of the continent. This era of massive migration and settlement began in the 17th century and is seen as finished in 1912.
The frontier life was hard, extensive land areas of the west were unknown and uncharted. It was continuous struggle and surviving in inhospitable borderlands. The circumstances were full of dangers and people often lawless, but at the same it was an opportunity for those with love of adventure. The cowboys and the frontiersmen were the symbols of the era and among them were some courageous women as well - one of them, Martha Jane Canary, alias Calamity Jane.
This thread is a short summary of the life of Calamity Jane, frontierswoman and a professional scout in The Great Plains. Martha Jane Canary could have been a true celebrity of The Old West, but it didn't happen in the true meaning of the words and Calamity Jane is better known for her hazardous way of life, but still she is a noted figure of the era.
![132660_orig[1].jpg](https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/330385/132660_orig[1].jpg "132660_orig[1].jpg")
Martha Jane Canary was born into poverty in 1852. She was the eldest of six children in the family, her father was a farmer with a gambling problem and her mother worked as a prostitute. In 1865 the family moved from Missouri to Montana by wagon train but Jane's mother died along the way. Shortly after arriving Montana the family moved again to Salt Lake City, Utah. Jane's father started farming there but only after a year also he died in 1867.
Now Jane in charge, the wagon was loaded once again and they traveled ending eventually in Wyoming Territory. Jane had to take whatever jobs she found to provide for her five younger siblings. She worked as a dishwasher, cook, waitress, dancegirl, nurse, etc. In 1874 Jane found herself a job as a scout, it's also claimed that at the same time she started her on-off employment as a prostitute.
Many of Jane's own claims linked into her life cannot be proven. According to Jane, she was involved in several campaigns in the military conflicts with American Indians and she also claimed, that's where she got her nickname, Calamity as well. However this event has been under considerably speculation and historians have dismissed Jane's story. According the people who were familiar with Jane, it's more likely she got her nickname because she was always getting into a trouble and smashups and had to pay the damage she caused. Jane's style was reckless and she was disposed to alcohol already in her youth. Anyhow, it's likely that Calamity Jane experienced frontiersmen life and she was a scout, could deal with guns, she had a habit wearing men's attire - she was a woman in a men's world.
Calamity Jane in her youths
Calamity Jane, probably in the early 1880s
Rumors of this frontiers woman spread out and aroused interest among contemporaries. Surely the rumors were embellished and truth was mixed with tales, but anyhow in the 1880s Jane found herself a job in stage plays telling the adventures of The Old West, she was a figure in dime novels at the time and newspapers published stories of her life - it sounds she truely was a celebrity of her time. In 1893 Calamity Jane appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Tours as a storyteller and again in 1901 she appeared in the Pan-American Exposition.
This life however had its disadvantages, Jane found herself alien in this new environment and got bored. At some point of this sponsors provided life alcoholism was getting overwhelming. And day after day she posed for tourists on a horse in her buckskins, in her "memoirs" Calamity Jane says, that she could soldier on if she just could get a drink.
A sort of rock bottom was, when after her payday at the Pan-American Exposition, she was found at the gates of the area, reeling from side to side and didn't appear to know where she was. Newspapers reported: "The original Calamity Jane of Wild West fame and who has been with the Indian Congress at the Exposition during last month, spent last night behind the prison bars". This episode gives quite good view of all Jane's doings in almost all the stages of her life. She couldn't save the money she earned, everything was spent, most of the earnings just for liquor.
In the last years of her life Jane spent as a vagrant. She returned to the West, but she was "on the road", moving again and again, living in small town lousy hotels, trying to earn money by selling her photos and the dime novels. Once famous Calamity Jane was destitute. The publicity forgot her quickly, the only proceedings in the newspapers were dismissive-style, mocking at the reclusive woman. In 1903, after drinking heavily while on board a train Jane got sick to her stomach. The conductor carried her out of the train and she was secured a room in a hotel near Deadwood. A doctor was summoned for her, but despite that she died almost immediately from inflammation of the bowles and pneumonia.
These are the posters of the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Tour and the Pan-American Exposition where Calamity Jane appeared
![calamity_jane_getty_images[1].jpg](https://forumcontent.paradoxplaza.com/public/330452/calamity_jane_getty_images[1].jpg "calamity_jane_getty_images[1].jpg")
Calamity Jane posing bored and serious in Pan-American Exposition
Only little can be proved as a fact of the story about Calamity Jane. Many claims by Jane herself are unquestionable false and at least overstated. What is known about her is that she was illiterate, an itinerant alcoholic and an occasional prostitute. If we forget about these unpleasant traits of her for a moment, she is yet to be noted as a major figure in the sunset of The Old West. To say at least, she can be compared to another notable female person of the era - Annie Oakley. Perfectly different by their personality and temper, these dames showed the world that if the men can do it, so can the women. These two dames were also almost world famous already in their own lifetimes. The world was approaching the modern era and such advances Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley represented were shaping the earlier images of people. The work done by Jane and Annie encouraged many in the efforts for women's rights and women's suffrage, which were eventually granted in the early 20th century.
The frontier life was hard, extensive land areas of the west were unknown and uncharted. It was continuous struggle and surviving in inhospitable borderlands. The circumstances were full of dangers and people often lawless, but at the same it was an opportunity for those with love of adventure. The cowboys and the frontiersmen were the symbols of the era and among them were some courageous women as well - one of them, Martha Jane Canary, alias Calamity Jane.
This thread is a short summary of the life of Calamity Jane, frontierswoman and a professional scout in The Great Plains. Martha Jane Canary could have been a true celebrity of The Old West, but it didn't happen in the true meaning of the words and Calamity Jane is better known for her hazardous way of life, but still she is a noted figure of the era.
Martha Jane Canary was born into poverty in 1852. She was the eldest of six children in the family, her father was a farmer with a gambling problem and her mother worked as a prostitute. In 1865 the family moved from Missouri to Montana by wagon train but Jane's mother died along the way. Shortly after arriving Montana the family moved again to Salt Lake City, Utah. Jane's father started farming there but only after a year also he died in 1867.
Now Jane in charge, the wagon was loaded once again and they traveled ending eventually in Wyoming Territory. Jane had to take whatever jobs she found to provide for her five younger siblings. She worked as a dishwasher, cook, waitress, dancegirl, nurse, etc. In 1874 Jane found herself a job as a scout, it's also claimed that at the same time she started her on-off employment as a prostitute.
Many of Jane's own claims linked into her life cannot be proven. According to Jane, she was involved in several campaigns in the military conflicts with American Indians and she also claimed, that's where she got her nickname, Calamity as well. However this event has been under considerably speculation and historians have dismissed Jane's story. According the people who were familiar with Jane, it's more likely she got her nickname because she was always getting into a trouble and smashups and had to pay the damage she caused. Jane's style was reckless and she was disposed to alcohol already in her youth. Anyhow, it's likely that Calamity Jane experienced frontiersmen life and she was a scout, could deal with guns, she had a habit wearing men's attire - she was a woman in a men's world.
Calamity Jane in her youths
Calamity Jane, probably in the early 1880s
Rumors of this frontiers woman spread out and aroused interest among contemporaries. Surely the rumors were embellished and truth was mixed with tales, but anyhow in the 1880s Jane found herself a job in stage plays telling the adventures of The Old West, she was a figure in dime novels at the time and newspapers published stories of her life - it sounds she truely was a celebrity of her time. In 1893 Calamity Jane appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Tours as a storyteller and again in 1901 she appeared in the Pan-American Exposition.
This life however had its disadvantages, Jane found herself alien in this new environment and got bored. At some point of this sponsors provided life alcoholism was getting overwhelming. And day after day she posed for tourists on a horse in her buckskins, in her "memoirs" Calamity Jane says, that she could soldier on if she just could get a drink.
A sort of rock bottom was, when after her payday at the Pan-American Exposition, she was found at the gates of the area, reeling from side to side and didn't appear to know where she was. Newspapers reported: "The original Calamity Jane of Wild West fame and who has been with the Indian Congress at the Exposition during last month, spent last night behind the prison bars". This episode gives quite good view of all Jane's doings in almost all the stages of her life. She couldn't save the money she earned, everything was spent, most of the earnings just for liquor.
In the last years of her life Jane spent as a vagrant. She returned to the West, but she was "on the road", moving again and again, living in small town lousy hotels, trying to earn money by selling her photos and the dime novels. Once famous Calamity Jane was destitute. The publicity forgot her quickly, the only proceedings in the newspapers were dismissive-style, mocking at the reclusive woman. In 1903, after drinking heavily while on board a train Jane got sick to her stomach. The conductor carried her out of the train and she was secured a room in a hotel near Deadwood. A doctor was summoned for her, but despite that she died almost immediately from inflammation of the bowles and pneumonia.
These are the posters of the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Tour and the Pan-American Exposition where Calamity Jane appeared
Calamity Jane posing bored and serious in Pan-American Exposition
Only little can be proved as a fact of the story about Calamity Jane. Many claims by Jane herself are unquestionable false and at least overstated. What is known about her is that she was illiterate, an itinerant alcoholic and an occasional prostitute. If we forget about these unpleasant traits of her for a moment, she is yet to be noted as a major figure in the sunset of The Old West. To say at least, she can be compared to another notable female person of the era - Annie Oakley. Perfectly different by their personality and temper, these dames showed the world that if the men can do it, so can the women. These two dames were also almost world famous already in their own lifetimes. The world was approaching the modern era and such advances Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley represented were shaping the earlier images of people. The work done by Jane and Annie encouraged many in the efforts for women's rights and women's suffrage, which were eventually granted in the early 20th century.
