wild woman of the west

The angry hawk clenched its talons on the heavy leather gauntlet, stabbing the delicate wrist beneath.  Wings bated, the half-wild bird glared fiercely into the large, gray eyes of his captor.  Mary Anderson stared back with steely determination.  This unruly bird would be tamed, she resolved, and would become a living prop for her performance...

The polite but enthusiastic applause from 40,000 Londoners brought a huge smile to fifteen-year-old Lillian Smith’s face.  Her performance before England’s Queen Victoria was the highlight of her early time with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. It was the fiftieth anniversary of the queen’s rule, and the stands were filled with royalty from across Europe. ...

Helen Hagstrom is best known for her country and Western swing music and yodeling, as well as her appearances in numerous television specials, radio programs, and films under the name of Carolina Cotton. Nicknamed “The Yodeling Blonde Bombshell,” Hagstrom was an entertainer and teacher throughout her life. Helen Hagstrom was born on October 20, 1925, in Cash (Craighead...

In the late 1930s, entertainer Dorothy Page proved to movie goers that cowgirls were just as capable of riding and singing while catching bad guys on screen as their male counterparts. She brought to the roles she played a voice above those usually heard and a more sufficient acting ability. Studios hoped those talents would...

Twenty-one-year-old Gertrude Simmons sat in a stiff-backed chair in her small room at the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and stared out at the students hurrying to class.  The young men and women attending the institution were from Native American communities across the country.  None of them were wearing the traditional clothing of their...

The sound of children singing hymns filled the early morning sky above Natchez Winnemucca’s ranch just outside of Lovelock, Nevada.  The sun overhead was already a scorching ball of fire, and more than two dozen students took shelter from the ever-rising orb under a well-built, brush arbor.  A steady breeze like a hearth from a...

A half-dozen rosy-cheeked children, bundled in heavy coats and wearing woolen hats and gloves, tromped over the frozen ground toward the new schoolhouse in Laramie, Wyoming, on February 15, 1869.  Their teacher, thirty-six-year-old Eliza Stewart, happily greeted the pupils as they hurried into the building.  Their cold lips stretched into a smile as she ushered...

Yosemite’s Half Dome, the hooded monk in stone, brooding over its eastern end, rises thousands of feet from the ground below, so high that its summit is wreathed in clouds.  In October 1876, three men scaled the mountain face slowly working their way to the top.  All were dressed in woolen caps and trousers, thick...