HISTORICAL WOMEN OF THE WEST. PART 2 In honor of #WomensHistoryMonth, we continue to celebrate some of the trailblazing women who inspire us every day. Born Martha Jane Canary in northern Missouri in 1852, Calamity Jane traveled west via wagon train with her family when she was thirteen, losing her mother to pneumonia en route and her father shortly after arriving in Salt Lake City. With her five younger siblings in tow, she made her way across Wyoming from Fort Bridger to Piedmont, working as a dishwasher, bullwhacker and odd job she could manage to survive. She arrived with “Wild” Bill Hickok’s wagon train in Deadwood, South Dakota in 1876, where she became known for her men’s clothing, colorful language and even more colorful exploits. Separating the facts of her life from the “print the legend” variety is difficult—and that includes the origin of her nickname. Whether it was from rescuing a U.S. Army captain mid-fall on horseback as she claimed, or that she was a “calamity to any many who crossed her” as was her reputation, this much is certain: her resilience, through the wilds of a calamity-filled country, embodied the spirit of the American Frontier.