Who was Calamity Jane?
There are many myths and legends surrounding Calamity Jane, most of them created by her, and many of them in conflict. She claimed to have been married at one time to Wild Bill Hickok, the only evidence of which is a bible which contains their names and those of witnesses, produced many years after Hickok’s death. She claimed to have been a scout for the army, a claim refuted by officers who were on the same campaign, who denied she had any involvement with the army, other than working at a comfort camp near Fort Hays, Kansas. She was married twice, and evidence is that she had two daughters, but the letters allegedly from her to her daughters are disputed as it is evident that she could neither read nor write.
What is known is that she died after becoming ill on a coal train to Terry, South Dakota. She was taken to the Calloway Hotel in Terry by the train’s conductor, who paid for the room since Jane was destitute. After she died her funeral arrangements were undertaken by four men, though another account claims her funeral and burial arrangements were prearranged by Calamity herself. In death as in life myth and falsehoods are mixed irretrievably. Jane was buried in Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cemetery, alongside James Butler Hickok. The full truth about Calamity Jane will likely never be known, and for many people her legend is too entertaining to consider any alternative.