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When we think of the Wild West, we usually picture cowboys, rangers, and formidable gangsters who followed their own laws. However, women also left their mark on this piece of American history.
In the 1800s, the way of life in the American West demanded tough character from both men and women. In order to survive and thrive, they had to be cunning, quick-witted, and often merciless. Not to mention skilled at shooting firearms.
In this article, we pay tribute to the most prominent female pioneers of the Old West. These legendary womenwere fierce, bold, and lethal in ways unimaginable by modern society.
Here are ten Notorious Outlaw Women, Cowgirls, and Gunslingers Who Ruled the Wild West:
Annie Oakley (1860 – 1926)
You can’t talk about the ladies of the Wild West without Annie Oakley.At the height of her fame, Annie was a headliner in Buffalo Bills’ Wild West Show.
Widely known as “Little Sure Shot” Oakley, she was an incredible sharpshooter and world-renowned master of dangerous trick shots. She could shoot a cigar from the lips of willing participants, and hit targets over her shoulder using only a mirror to aim.
A true pioneer for “Girl-Power”, Annie Oakley was an advocate for women fighting in combat. Throughout her lifetime, she passed on the art of shooting to more than 15,000 women.
Her desire to teach the ladies of the day how to “…handle guns as naturally as they know how to handle babies” was more than a century ahead of its time.
Calamity Jane (1856 – 1903)
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show also featured another, much less agreeable cowgirl known as Calamity Jane.She often performed with Wild Bill Hickock, with whom she associated on a personal level.
Martha “Calamity” Jane Cannary was a frontierswoman who earned her nickname after rescuing a military Captain involved in a Native American ambush.
With questionable character, boldness, and the ability to captivate, Calamity Jane was a woman-of-all trades. Following the military from fort to fort on the frontier, Jane was no stranger to the Wild West.
Far from a blushing rose, Jane’s life story is peppered with wild tales that still inspire filmmakers and writers to this day. She was even known to claim children in her company as her own, only to never be seen with them again.
Calamity Jane was certainly not a figure of class, courtesy, or politeness. However, thanks to Buffalo Bill’s ability to develop appealing characters in his show, the masses remember her fondly to this day.
Belle Starr (1848 – 1889)
Possibly the most notorious female outlaw and gunslinger of the Wild West was Belle Starr.
Born in 1848, Belle was a classically-educated young lady whose life turned upside down following a Union soldier attack in the early American Civil War. Soon after the attack, her family moved to Texas where Belle reunited with childhood friends none other than notorious Jesse James and the Younger brothers.
Soon, she was proficient in various forms of organized crime. She mastered the arts of fencing, rustling, bootlegging, thievery, and bribery, to name a few. Interestingly, her involvement with criminals and murderers didn’t deter her from looking like a highborn lady at all times.
Among other things, Belle was arrested for horse theft twice but convicted only once. Ultimately, her felonious lifestyle led to the loss of her husband in a gunfight. His death brought an abrupt end to her role as an outlaw queen.
Incredibly, Belle Starr’s death was just as infamous as her life. While riding home from a friend’s house, she was shot multiple times in the back, neck, shoulder, and face. According to official records, her murder remains an unsolved mystery to this day.
Pearl Hart (1876 – 1955)
Another of the infamous ladies of the Wild West was a cowgirl named Pearl Hart. She made a name for herself as the only female stagecoach robber in the history of Arizona.
Born on Canadian land in 1876, this nineteenth-century outlaw is most well-known for committing some of the last stagecoach robberies in the United States.Hart liked to dress as a man, with hair shorn, and arm herself with a .38 revolver.
Together with her accomplice “Joe Boot”, Hart committed crimes like there was no tomorrow. On one occasion, Hart and Boot were on the run when the sheriff caught them sleeping by the posse and took them into custody. According to eyewitness accounts, Hart fought like a cat but to no avail.
The so-called “Bandit Queen” was charged with stagecoach robbery and eventually convicted of interference with the U.S. mail. She served a five-year sentence for her infamous crime.
After she was released, Pearl Hart performed re-enactments of the horrors she faced within the Yuma Territorial Prison in her own show. She later joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show under an alias.
Laura Bullion (1876 – 1961)
Laura Bullion was a notoriously wicked woman of the Wild West. Alongside other great names like “Black Jack” Ketchum, Kid Curry, or The Tall Texan, she was also a member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch gang.The Wild Bunch were a loosely organized group of bank and train robbers based in Wyoming.
With her lover Ben Kilpatrick at her side, Laura acquired several nicknames such as “Della Rose”, “The Rose of the Wild Bunch”, “Desert Rose” or “Wild Bunch Rose”. Her rather feminine aliases made a sharp contrast with her masculine face and tendency to wear a man’s attire.
Eventually, the law caught up to Laura in Saint Louis, Missouri, where she was convicted of playing a part in the Great Northern robbery. For her crime, Laura served three years in prison.
After her release from prison, the fearless outlaw led a surprisingly quiet life. Following her passing in 1961, her tombstone in Memphis, Tennessee was engraved to forever dub her “The Thorny Rose”.
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Elanor Dumont (1829 – 1879)
Elanor Dumont or “Madame Moustache” was a gambler and prostitute on the American West during the great California Gold Rush.
Excited by the opportunity to reinvent herself on the untamed frontier, Elanor claimed to be French when she first arrived to California in 1854. She was actually of French-Creole descent with family roots in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
This queer lady soon became an accomplished card dealer and skilled at winning the hard-earned cash of men. Wasting no time, Elanor opened a gambling hall called “Vingt-et-un” on Broad Street, Nevada City. The classy establishment was a huge success and attracted customers from up and down the country.
Known for keeping admirers at a distance, Madame Moustache was not only a remarkable gambler, but also a talented businesswoman. She was able to sell and rebuild gambling establishments as the local economies changed, dictated by the flow of gold.
What’s more, Elanor was also the owner of various brothels. She marketed her women by parading them through the towns, showcasing their beauty in broad daylight.
Sadly, Elanor was swindled out of her entire fortune by her love, Jack McKnight. He left her empty-handed in 1872. After the incident, more bad luck followed. Upon losing a bet with a higher loss than she could afford, Madame Moustache was found dead of suspected suicide by morphine overdose.
Goldie Griffith (1893 – 1976)
One of the toughest, albeit lesser-known cowgirls of the Wild West was Goldie Griffith.Goldie joined a small group of showgirls working with Buffalo Bill.
Hired without knowing how to ride a horse, Goldie soon learned to bust broncos for the show. Fuelled by her newfound skills, she also began working as an actress and stunt rider in Western movies.
On one particular Wild West Show, an astonishing crowd of 8,000 witnessed her tie the knot with Hiram Joseph Sterling. The couple had one child, although their marriage found a gruesome end.
When Goldie’s husband crossed her one day, she opened fire on him with her show gun in public. As the police carted her off, she continued to yell about how much she wanted him dead.
Once she was free again, Goldie pursued a life of ranching, restaurant ownership, and canine training for the war effort. Throughout her life, she was constantly breaking barriers. She even made history by becoming the first female applicant for the San Francisco Police Department!
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Mary Fields(1832 – 1914)
Mary Fields was a pioneer of the Old West as the first female African-American Star Route mail carrier.Born in Tennessee, she is also known as “Black Mary” or “Stagecoach Mary”.
When slavery ended in the United States, Mary found work as a chambermaid on a Mississippi River steamboat. However, she soon moved to Ohio as her family circ*mstances changed.
At the age of sixty, Mary Fields applied to work for the US Postal service. She impressed the recruiter by being the fastest to hitch up her six-horse team and was hired.
Not long after starting work, Mary gained a reputation for being hard-working and reliable. In eight years, she did not miss a single day’s delivery. There were even occasions when she carried the mail on her back in poor weather to maintain her route.
During her travels, Mary befriended a nun who resided in Montana. When the nun fell ill, Mary rushed across the country to nurse her back to health. In the years that followed, she remained within the convent and eventually earned the position of forewoman.
A true role model for empowered women, Mary even tried her luck at restaurant ownership. Unfortunately, she went bankrupt within a year as she would serve anyone food whether they could pay for the meal or not. Mary also became one of the only women permitted in Montana saloons thanks to a special boon granted by the Mayor of Cascade.
Rose Dunn (1878 – 1955)
Rose Dunn was a famous outlaw who learned to rope, ride, and shoot from her two older brothers. They also inadvertently introduced their formally-educated sister into a life of crime.
In her early teens, Rose met a friend of her brothers named George “Bittercreek” Newcomb. From the start, the romantic tension between the two was obvious. With constant and fierce defense of Dunn at all times, Newcomb won the girl’s unwavering loyalty.
As the years went by, Rose’s older brothers turned to bounty hunting. Meanwhile, Rose became a loyal accomplice of Newcomb’s Wild Bunch gang and regularly ran errands for the group.
In September of 1893, the gang was cornered by a posse of US Marshalls. It is said that after Newcomb was shot in the street, Rose ran to the rescue with ammunition and a Winchester rifle in hand. Thanks to her cover fire, both Rose and Newcomb managed to escape.
The bloody battle wounded three members of the gang and killed three deputy marshals. As a result, Rose remained in hideout with Newcomb for two months, who also had a $5,000 bounty on his head, dead or alive.
In a twist of fate, Rose’s two older siblings, the Dunn Brothers were ready to collect the bounty. In a tragic event, they shot and killed George Newcomb as he dismounted in front of the Dunn house to visit Rose.
Katherine Haroney “Big Nose Kate” (1849 – 1940)
The tale of theGunfight at the O.K. Corralwould not be complete without Doc Holliday and his common-law wife Katherine Haroney.
“Big Nose Kate”, as she was known, was a prostitute by choice. In her words, she didn’t want to belong to one man or one house. Paradoxically, she later became the long-time partner of the legendary gunslinger and gambler Doc Holliday.
Doc proclaimed her an intellectual equal, although their relationship was volatile. Sadly, the constant fighting between the two almost resulted in Doc’s downfall.
After a particularly violent clash, enemies of Doc in Tombstone, Arizona manipulated Kate into signing an affidavit implicating her partner in murder and attempted robbery. As a result, Judge Wells Spicer immediately issued an arrest warrant for Doc Holliday.
Luckily, witnesses were found who could provide an alibi for Doc. With Kate admitting she did not understand what the documents were about, the plot was revealed and the Judge set Doc Holliday free.
Following the trial, Doc tried to keep Kate away from Tombstone. However, fiery and stubborn as she was, Kate returned to his side during the final days before the shootout. Her letters contain details from that fateful event that prove she witness the entire gunfight.
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