Calamity Jane

NAME Martha Jane Canary (also spelled Cannary in some sources) was her birth name, though she became widely known as Calamity Jane throughout the American West and in popular culture. She was occasionally referred to as Martha Jane Canary-Burke after her marriage.

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Calamity Jane was famous as an American frontierswoman, sharpshooter, and storyteller. She was known for her association with Wild Bill Hickok, her time as a scout, and her appearances in Wild West shows. She also had a reputation for exhibiting compassion, particularly towards the sick and needy

BIRTH Martha Jane Canary was born on May 1, 1852, in Princeton, Missouri. This date comes from her own autobiography, though like many details of her life, some historians question its accuracy.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Martha was born to Robert Wilson Canary, who reportedly had a gambling problem, and Charlotte M. Canary. She was the eldest of six children, having two brothers and three sisters. The 1860 census listed the family as living about 7 miles northeast of Princeton in Ravanna, Missouri. Her parents were reportedly of modest means, with some sources suggesting they were involved in petty crime and often financially destitute.

CHILDHOOD In 1865, when Martha was around 13 years old, the family joined a wagon train heading from Missouri to Virginia City, Montana, likely seeking fortune in the goldfields. Tragedy struck during this journey when her mother died of pneumonia in Blackfoot, Montana in 1866. Following this loss, Martha's father took the children to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he briefly worked as a farmer.

Further hardship came when her father died on May 1, 1867, leaving 14-year-old Martha in charge of her five younger siblings. Showing remarkable resilience, Martha loaded the family's belongings onto a wagon and moved them to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and later to Piedmont, Wyoming. During these difficult early years, Martha spent much of her time hunting with men and developing the outdoor skills that would later define her reputation. (1)

EDUCATION Martha received little to no formal education during her tumultuous childhood. Despite this lack of schooling, historical accounts indicate she was literate, as evidenced by her ability to dictate her autobiography later in life.

CAREER RECORD  After becoming responsible for her siblings, Martha worked various jobs to support her family. Her employment history included roles as a cook, dishwasher, waitress, dance hall girl, nurse, ox-team driver, and allegedly as a prostitute at the Fort Laramie Three-Mile Hog Ranch beginning in 1874.

In 1870, she reportedly became a scout for General George Custer at Fort Russell, Wyoming, adopting the uniform of a soldier-a significant departure from women's traditional roles of the era. By 1875, she had traveled with a U.S. Army troop into the Black Hills of South Dakota and subsequently drifted to Deadwood.

In Deadwood, she worked as a bullwhacker, hauling goods and machinery to outlying camps. Her fame grew substantially in 1895 when she joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, where she performed sharpshooting skills and toured throughout the Midwest. 

On January 20, 1896,  Calamity Jane made her first documented stage engagement at the Palace Museum, Minneapolis, under Kohl and Middleton’s management.

She later appeared at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, although reports indicate she was fired for erratic behavior and alcoholism.

APPEARANCE Historical accounts describe Martha as an attractive woman with dark eyes. What made her appearance particularly notable for her era was her preference for men's clothing, which she adopted both for practicality in her frontier lifestyle and as an expression of her independent character. (2)

Calamity Jane 1880

FASHION Calamity Jane's distinctive style centered on her preference for men's attire, which was highly unusual for women of her time. She regularly wore men's work clothes, which suited her active outdoor lifestyle and various occupations. Period descriptions and later portrayals typically feature her in elements such as:

Suede fringe jackets

Brown derby or bowler hats (common in the actual Wild West)

Waistcoats or vests

Bandanas

Bullet belts (bandoliers)

Jeans or khakis

Plain men's work shirts or plaid shirts

This masculine dress helped her blend into the predominantly male environments where she worked and lived. (3)

CHARACTER Calamity Jane possessed a complex character that combined toughness with compassion. She was widely known for her daredevil ways, independence, and determination to live as she chose in a man's world. She had a pronounced fondness for adventure and outdoor activities and worked hard to fit into frontier society, which was predominantly male.

Contemporaries described her as cantankerous, loud, profane, and often drunk. She was known for being foul-mouthed and rough in demeanor. Despite this exterior, those who knew her recognized a soft side-she was loyal and exhibited genuine compassion toward the sick and needy, particularly during a smallpox epidemic in Deadwood.

A defining characteristic was her tendency to exaggerate the tales of her life, contributing significantly to her own legend. (4)

SPEAKING VOICE While no recordings of the actual Calamity Jane exist, portrayals in media suggest she had a distinctive speaking style. In the HBO series Deadwood, she was depicted with a deep, sometimes difficult to understand voice. The character was portrayed as "perpetually drunk and always yelling," which may reflect historical perceptions of her speaking manner. Her coarse language and distinctive frontier vocabulary were also notable aspects of her verbal communication.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Historical accounts and later portrayals suggest Calamity Jane possessed a sharp, earthy sense of humor. In the Deadwood TV series, which drew on historical accounts, she's characterized as "always clowning people so hard" with a biting, sarcastic wit. She was known for humorous references to bodily functions and delivering cutting remarks. Her humor appears to have been brash and unrefined, matching her frontier persona and helping her navigate the harsh realities of her life.

RELATIONSHIPS Calamity Jane's personal relationships are among the most myth-laden aspects of her biography. She was known to be an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, though most historians discount the romantic relationship often portrayed in fiction. Despite this historical assessment, she requested to be buried beside him, which Deadwood businessmen honored upon her death.

Calamity Jane at Wild Bill Hickok's Gravesite, Deadwood, Dakota Territory, 1890s

Her verified relationships included a marriage to Clinton Burke (sometimes referred to as Edward or Charley), a hack driver, in 1891 after they had lived together for seven years. Some accounts suggest she was married several times throughout her life.

Regarding children, sources indicate she had between one and four offspring. A woman named Jean Hickok McCormick claimed to be Jane and Wild Bill Hickok's daughter (born in 1873), but this was later disproven. Another claimed daughter was Maude Weir, supposedly born in 1881. Jane's first verified child was a boy born in November 1882, whom she called "Little Calamity". (5)

MONEY AND FAME Despite her considerable fame, Calamity Jane died in poverty. Her notoriety grew substantially in the late 1870s when she captured the imagination of magazine writers who covered the early days of Deadwood. One dime novel dramatically dubbed her "The White Devil of the Yellowstone".

Her fame increased further when she joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1895. During her tours, she sold copies of her exaggerated autobiography to fans for pennies, suggesting she struggled financially despite her celebrity. By the end of her life, despite her legendary status, she had returned to Deadwood in a state of poverty and poor health.

CALAMITY JANE The origin of the nickname "Calamity Jane" is one of those splendidly American mysteries—half history, half hokum, and wholly entertaining. Like so many things from the Wild West, it comes to us swaddled in anecdote, bravado, and the kind of myth-making that could only thrive in a land where anyone with a horse and a good lie could be famous by sundown.

According to Calamity Jane herself—never a woman to let the truth spoil a good story—she earned the moniker heroically in the early 1870s while gallivanting with the military near Goose Creek, Wyoming. In her 1896 autobiographical pamphlet (a delightfully self-serving little booklet she distributed with great flair), Jane recounts how she saved the life of a wounded Captain Egan by scooping him up mid-fall like a cavalry Florence Nightingale and carrying him back to safety. So grateful was the captain, she claimed, that he declared her henceforth "Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains"—which, you have to admit, is quite a nickname to pull from thin air if it didn’t happen.

Naturally, not everyone bought the Goose Creek episode, and alternative explanations abounded. One had it that Jane warned all would-be troublemakers that to cross her was to “court calamity”—which, frankly, sounds more like something invented by a dime novelist than a frontier scout. Another, far less gallant, suggested that Jane simply caused calamity wherever she went—like a human dust storm with a fondness for whisky and the occasional gunfight.

What we do know—because newspapers tend to be marginally less poetic than personal legend—is that by 1876 she was showing up in the Deadwood press as "Calamity Jane," already a known quantity, already wrapped in myth. As for the actual, definitive origin of the name? It’s probably a muddle of fact, exaggeration, and good old-fashioned frontier marketing.

And that, in the end, is perfectly fitting. After all, if there’s one thing the Wild West excelled at, it was turning chaos into legend and colorful characters into immortals—preferably before anyone had a chance to check the details.

FOOD AND DRINK The most documented aspect of Calamity Jane's consumption habits was her notorious drinking. Multiple sources describe her as a heavy drinker who suffered from severe alcoholism, particularly in her later years. She was described colloquially as one who "drank like a fish". This drinking contributed to her erratic behavior and ultimately to her poor health and early death.

MUSIC AND ARTS Calamity Jane's appearances in Wild West shows-including those associated with Buffalo Bill Cody and other similar productions-were highly performative in nature. The shows themselves were theatrical spectacles, blending staged reenactments of frontier life, sharpshooting exhibitions, dramatic rescues, and romanticized portrayals of cowboys, Native Americans, and legendary figures like Jane herself.

Performers, including Calamity Jane, were celebrated for their riding and shooting skills, often exaggerating their abilities and personas for the crowd. Jane was billed as a "notorious frontierswoman," and her reputation as a skilled horsewoman and marksman was central to her act.

LITERATURE Calamity Jane's most significant literary contribution was her autobiographical booklet, which she dictated in 1896. This short work was created primarily for publicity purposes to help attract audiences to her touring appearances. Historians note that much of the information in this pamphlet is exaggerated or completely inaccurate, reflecting Jane's tendency to embellish her life story.

In this autobiography, she mentioned her fondness for adventure and outdoor exercise, providing some authentic insight into her character despite the document's overall unreliability as a historical source.

NATURE Calamity Jane had a pronounced affinity for the outdoors. Her autobiography specifically mentions her "fondness for adventure and outdoor exercise". From childhood, she loved the outdoors and natural settings of the American frontier. This connection to nature shaped her life choices, skills, and the masculine clothing she adopted for practical purposes in outdoor settings.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Calamity Jane's primary recreational activities centered around frontier skills that later became essential to her survival and legend. She had a special fondness for horses and began riding at an early age, eventually becoming an expert rider "able to ride the most vicious and stubborn of horses". A considerable portion of her early life was spent riding, and she became known as a remarkable equestrian.

Hunting was another significant activity, which she engaged in from a young age during the family's journey west. She was also renowned for her shooting abilities, earning a reputation as an excellent markswoman. These skills-riding, shooting, and hunting-served both as hobbies and practical necessities in frontier life.

1885 photos of Calamity Jane

SCIENCE AND MATHS She accompanied the Jenney expedition between May 25, 1875 and October 14, 1875, which was led by government geologists investigating mineral resources in the Black Hills of South Dakota. While her role was not scientific-Calamity Jane was likely a teamster or camp follower-her presence on such expeditions was unusual for a woman of her time/

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Calamity Jane is repeatedly described as exhibiting deep compassion and generosity, especially toward the sick and needy, often giving away her belongings to those who needed them more. Her actions-such as nursing smallpox victims and helping the destitute-reflect a kind of practical morality rooted in empathy rather than doctrine.

Some contemporary reflections see in Jane's life a kind of "fierce, table-flipping passion" for others, a love that was not quiet or conventional but active and sacrificial. While she was often viewed as amoral due to her drinking, swearing, and unconventional lifestyle, accounts suggest she knew right from wrong and sometimes expressed regret for her choices, seeking acceptance and respectability (6)

SCANDAL Calamity Jane's entire lifestyle was considered scandalous by the standards of her era. Her habit of wearing men's clothing was particularly shocking for the time, directly challenging 19th-century gender norms. Her drinking, swearing, and general behavior further contributed to her scandalous reputation.

Western dime novel authors capitalized on her notoriety by publishing "saucy tales" about her, further embellishing her already colorful life story. Many of these sensationalized accounts focused on alleged romantic relationships, particularly with Wild Bill Hickok, though historians generally dispute these claims.

MILITARY RECORD While Calamity Jane claimed significant military service, historical evidence for these claims is mixed. She reportedly became a scout for General George Custer at Fort Russell, Wyoming, in 1870, adopting the uniform of a soldier. According to her own account, she participated in the "Indian Campaign" in Arizona.

She claimed to have been on the Newton-Jenny Expedition in 1875 and General Crook's expedition of 1876, purportedly dressing in soldier's uniforms to avoid detection as a woman. According to legend, she earned her nickname "Calamity Jane" during an Indian campaign where she rescued a Captain Egan, who upon recovering supposedly said, "I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains".

Historians note that many of these military accounts come from Jane's own telling and may be exaggerated or fabricated, as was common in frontier self-promotion.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS In her prime, Calamity Jane was exceptionally physically capable, known as an expert rider and markswoman. Her outdoor skills and physical resilience allowed her to thrive in the demanding conditions of frontier life.

However, her health deteriorated significantly in her later years due to her hard-living lifestyle, particularly her severe alcoholism. By the turn of the century, she suffered from poor health that contributed to her early death at age 51. 

Calamity Jane shares a drink with Teddy Blue Abbott, c. 1887.

Some accounts suggest she may have contracted smallpox as a child, which provided her with immunity that later enabled her to nurse smallpox victims.

HOMES Calamity Jane's itinerant lifestyle meant she rarely maintained a permanent residence. Born in Princeton, Missouri, she lived briefly in Virginia City, Montana following the family's wagon train journey. After her mother's death, she spent time in Salt Lake City, Utah, before moving to Wyoming where she settled her siblings in Piedmont.

Throughout her adult life, she moved frequently, spending significant time in Deadwood, South Dakota. In 1882, she reportedly bought a ranch on the Yellowstone River and kept a wayside inn, though this appears to have been a relatively brief period of stability. Her unsettled lifestyle reflected the transient nature of frontier existence and her own restless character.

TRAVEL Calamity Jane's life was characterized by constant movement across the American West. Her first major journey was the wagon train from Missouri to Virginia City, Montana in 1865. Following her parents' deaths, she traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah, and later to Fort Bridger and Piedmont, Wyoming.

Her travels continued throughout her life as she moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota and Deadwood. She toured the Midwest with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, went to California in 1883, and traveled to Texas in 1884. This perpetual motion reflected both the opportunities and challenges of frontier life and Jane's own restless spirit.

Calamity Jane once got so drunk she rented a horse and buggy for a one-mile ride and ended up 90 miles away at Fort Laramie.

DEATH Calamity Jane died on August 1, 1903, in Terry, South Dakota, near Deadwood. She was 51 years old according to most sources, though one account suggests she was 47. By this time, her health had severely deteriorated from years of hard living and alcoholism.

Following her death, Deadwood businessmen quickly retrieved her body and, honoring her request, buried her next to Wild Bill Hickok at Mount Moriah Cemetery in South Dakota. This final resting place alongside the legendary gunfighter helped perpetuate the myths surrounding their relationship and cemented both figures in Western folklore. (7)

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Calamity Jane's colorful persona has made her a recurring figure in depictions of the American West. During her lifetime, she appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition.

After her death, her life story inspired numerous portrayals, including the 1953 musical film Calamity Jane starring Doris Day. She was memorably portrayed in the HBO series Deadwood as a complex, foul-mouthed, but ultimately sympathetic character. A 2016 documentary, Calamity Jane: Wild West Legend, further explored her life and legacy. Her enduring presence in media reflects her status as one of the most fascinating and unconventional figures of American frontier history.

ACHIEVEMENTS Calamity Jane's achievements are tied to her persona as a frontierswoman, her sharpshooting skills, her ability to navigate the Wild West, and her enduring fame as a figure of that era.

Sources (1) History Hit (2) New World Encyclopedia (3) Dress Parade (4) Legends of America (5) History Answers (6) Image Journal (7) Deadwood.com