CALAMITY JANE

Calamity Jane: Heroine of the Plains. Out of the Wild West Women most people can name, Martha Jane Canary most certainly tops the list. From her rough-and-tumble real-life exploits to the hyperbolic spin-offs, Calamity Jane has rightfully earned her place in American lore.
The subject of songs, books, comics, films, radio plays and more, Calamity Jane (the actual one) may have even raised an eyebrow at the amount of bullshit for which she's come to be known—or maybe she would've praised the imagination. Born in 1856 in Princeton, Missouri, she quickly found herself an orphan responsible for her five siblings, and early on scrambled together ways to pull herself up by her bootstraps.
She worked as a dishwasher, a cook, a waitress, a sex worker, drove oxen, danced. She was truly a jack of all trades, and knew how to hustle. Perhaps best known for her friendship with Wild Bill Hickok, Jane appeared in his traveling show as a sharpshooter and storyteller. She was good at telling stories, too. In fact, much of what we know about her—and how I'm able to write this now—is from her own autobiographical pamphlet she wrote in order to help garner audiences for the tour! And because it was a show, much of what she wrote about herself is highly exaggerated or completely false. Talk about building your own legend. Even the origins of the woman's own pseudonym are contested. She says she earned the name after saving a captain during a skirmish with Native Americans. Others say her reputation with men proliferated the narrative that if you were fancying Ms. Canary, you'd be "courtin' Calamity."
And let's talk about men for a second. (They're just not included enough in our media!) While many think Jane had a relationship with Wild Bill, historical evidence has proven otherwise. Letters between the two entertainers were made public after their deaths by a woman claiming to be their daughter. But, once that was agreed to be false, the validity of the letters was also called into question. It was also called into question because many believe Jane was gay! After all, her hard-drinking, bull-headed lifestyle, her proclivity for men's clothing—oh, and because in 1953, Doris Day played her in a biopic that many interpret as heavily queer-coded. Despite Jane becoming somewhat of an gay icon because of the film (that was in many respects ahead of its time), there's not evidence to support the lesbian lore. But that doesn't make it any less valid than her other mythos.
Jane's fictionalized self in the dime novel series Deadwood Dick also probably added more to her legend than any of her real-life escapades. Larry McMurtry's written about her, so has Michael Crichton—she's even referenced in one of the Fallout games! She's had adventures with Jesse James and Doc Holliday and yet never met either of those fellas. She's been portrayed by actress upon actress across decades and through story arcs as far-flung as the South Dakota plains she adventured through.
Even the famous quotes attributed to her have a wonderful grandiosity, a John Muir poeticism and suspended vagueness to them: Sometimes the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the wilderness; The world may try to tame me, but I refuse to be anything other than wild and free; Adventure awaits those who have the audacity to pursue it. Did she ever say any of this? And if so, did she believe it? Maybe she was just caught up in her own story. One thing's for certain: Calamity Jane's fiction has overtaken the facts. As a prolific storyteller, it's possible she preferred the character to her own reality. And that's all folklore is. A story for those who have the audacity to pursue it.
See you out there.