Calamity Jane

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Calamity Jane at the age of 33. Photo by H.R. Locke.

Martha Jane Canary-Burke, better known as Calamity Jane (May 1, 1852 (?) – August 1, 1903), was a frontierswoman most well known for her association with Wild Bill Hickok, after first gaining fame fighting Native Americans.''

Calamity Jane while working at Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.

She was born Martha Jane Canary in Princeton, Missouri. Her mother died in 1866 and her father died in 1867 (in Utah). In 1870, she signed on as a scout with George Armstrong Custer, and adopted the uniform of a soldier. It is unclear whether she was actually enlisted in the U.S. Army at the time. She was involved with a number of campaigns in the long-running military conflicts with Native Americans. One story has her acquiring the nickname "Calamity Jane" in 1872 by rescuing her superior, Captain Egan, from an ambush near Sheridan, Wyoming. Another story says that she acquired it as a result of her warnings to men that to offend her was to "court calamity." Calamity Jane accompanied the Newton-Jenney Party into the Black Hills in 1875, along with California Joe and Valentine McGillycuddy.

In 1876, she settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills region where she was close friends with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter, all having traveled in Utter's wagon train. She later claimed to have been married to Hickok at some time prior to Hickok's death in 1876, and that Hickok was the father of her child (born September 25, 1873, and later placed for adoption); however, this story is viewed with skepticism, Hickok having been newly married at the time and by all accounts completely infatuated with his wife. In 1876, Jane nursed the victims of a smallpox epidemic in the Deadwood area.

In 1884, Jane moved to El Paso, Texas, where she met Clinton Burke; they soon married in August 1885 and had a daughter in 1887. The marriage, however, did not last, and by 1895 they were officially separated.

In 1896, Jane began touring with Wild West shows, which she continued to do for the rest of her life. Jane died from complications of pneumonia in 1903. In accordance with her dying wish, Calamity Jane is buried next to Wild Bill Hickok in Mount Moriah Cemetery, overlooking the city of Deadwood.

Several films have been made about the life of Calamity Jane, the most famous being the musical of the same name starring Doris Day. The TV series Deadwood gives a more realistic and unglamorous — albeit still somewhat inaccurate — depiction of Jane.

References to Calamity Jane in fiction

Wild ARMs features a character named Calamity Jane; however, she is, at best, very loosely inspired by the historical figure.
Calamity Jane appears briefly in Thomas Berger's Little Big Man
Another freely adapted version of the lady appears in a couple of Lucky Luke albums. (In one of these she apparently admits to being one of the sources of the conflicting information about herself — when Luke finds her telling some other characters the story of her life, he wants to take a rain check because he's heard it before, but she urges him to sit down and listen because "this is a new version!")
J.T. Edson features Calamity Jane as a character in a number of his books, as a stand alone character and also as a romantic interest of the character Mark Counter
Jane is a central character in HBO's series, Deadwood.
An incredibly short-lived animated adaptation of Calamity Jane's life, entitled The Legend Of Calamity Jane[link], was produced in 1997. Although praised for its characterisation of Jane and distinctive style, it was pulled from its 13-episode run after a mere 3 episodes for reasons unknown.

External links

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Calamity Jane

See also

References to Calamity Jane in fiction

External links