Chris Enss Contributions COWGIRL LIFE Wild Women Of The West: Jessie Hayman Jessie Hayman turned the flame down in the gas lamp sitting on a giant fireplace mantle in the parlor of her well-known brothel. Apart from the lit, red lantern hanging off the porch, the room was blanketed in darkness. It was approaching four in the morning and all of the home’s boarders were settled in... COWGIRL LIFE Wild Women Of The West: Minnie Smith A tall, hump-shouldered man with gray, bushy hair and a hangdog look on his long, lumpy face pulled a stack of chips from the middle of the poker table toward him. Minnie Smith, the gambler who had dealt the winning hand, scowled at the player as he collected his earnings. “You’re sure packin’ a heavy... COWGIRL LIFE Wild Women Of The West: Jennie Rogers A blood orange sun shone down on the dusty, main thoroughfare in Denver, Colorado. Miners and townspeople scurried about with their daily activities, pausing every so often to talk with friends and acquaintances. A sudden commotion at the end of the street drew attention away from their regular routine. An open, horse-drawn coach carrying a... COWGIRL LIFE Wild Women Of The West: Kitty LeRoy A grim-faced bartender led a pair of sheriff’s deputies up the stairs of Deadwood’s Lone Star Saloon to the two lifeless bodies sprawled on the floor. One of the deceased individuals was a gambler named Kitty LeRoy, and the other was her estranged husband, Sam Curley. The quiet expression on Kitty’s face gave no indication... COWGIRL LIFE Wild Women Of The West: Madam Eleanora Dumont Historians believe the scandalous Eleanora Dumont was one of the first madams to arrive in Deadwood Gulch in 1876. Her time in the Black Hills was brief. She was in her late forties, and much of her life as a prostitute and gambler had already been lived by the time she traveled to Deadwood. “Madame... COWGIRL Editorial COWGIRL Iconic: Fanny Sperry Steele “If there aren’t any horses in heaven, I don’t want to go,” World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider Fanny Sperry Steele told a New York public relations consultant in 1980. Fanny’s love for horses began at the age of three when she tried to lasso a pinto with her mother’s scarf. By the time she was... COWGIRL LIFE Wild Women Of The West: Madam May Brown And The Tragic Life & Death Of Maud Lee Ottoman and Johanne Gotsch never knew what led their daughter Anna to a life of prostitution in the Black Hills. Born on December 2, 1859, in Saxony, Germany, she was a precocious child who enjoyed spending time with her five brothers and four sisters and possessed a talent for painting. The Gotsch family moved to... COWGIRL LIFE Wild Women Of The West: Thelma Campbell Minnie Henderson, a prostitute working at Madam Annie Woods’ brothel in Lead, South Dakota, crawled to a corner of her room, sobbing loudly and writhing in pain. Her face was a fountain of blood. The sporting girls who worked across the hall from her were on either side of the distressed woman trying to help.... COWGIRL LIFE Wild Women Of The West: Madam Belle Haskell And The Demise Of Maggie Broadwater From the beginning, there was a section of Deadwood into which respectable citizens would seldom venture, and, if they did, it was only under cover of darkness. That area of town was known as the “Bad Lands.” Chinese residents were relegated to that section of Deadwood Gulch, as well as most dance halls, saloons, and... << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 … 63 >>