A woman stepped off the train in Oakes, North Dakota, traveling alone, on her way to Jamestown. Her name was Mary Jane Canary. She was better known as Calamity Jane. On this date in 1902, the Oakes Republican reported on her unexpected visit.
Calamity Jane was a celebrity and a most unusual woman. She was described as being able to shoot like a cowboy and drink like a fish. Born in Missouri in 1852, she loved the outdoors and became an accomplished horsewoman. Her family traveled to Virginia City on a wagon train. She spent her time on the journey riding and hunting. She proved herself to be fearless and was a crack shot.
Calamity Jane drove a stagecoach, drove mule and bull teams, was a Pony Express rider between Deadwood and Custer, kept a saloon, performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, and always dressed like a man. She even claimed to have signed on as a scout with George Custer in 1870.
She was just shy of her 50th birthday when she stopped in Oakes. The newspaper reported that the morning after her arrival, Jane went to one of the hotels for breakfast. She returned to the depot where she spent most of the day reclining on a couch in the men’s waiting room, calmly smoking a cigar. Unfortunately, she was in no condition for an interview. Before arriving in Oakes she had spent thirty dollars in an Aberdeen saloon where, as the paper put it, she made “a good fellow of herself.” She offered to buy rounds in Oakes if anyone could show her where that could be had, but with North Dakota being a dry state, the best she could do was the cigar. She remarked that Oakes was not the town she thought it was – where “a decent woman could not buy all she was willing to pay for.” Calamity Jane left Oakes on the midnight train.
The following year, on August 3rd, Calamity Jane passed away in Terry, South Dakota. She’s buried in Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cemetery next to Wild Bill Hickok.
Dakota Datebook written by Carole Butcher
Sources:
Oakes Republican. “The Cow Lady of the Black Hills Pays Oakes a Short Visit.” Oakes, ND. 11 April 1902. Page 1.
Legends of America. “Calamity Jane.” https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-calamityjane/ Accessed 10 March 2010.
