Let's Talk Wyoming - Braving the Cold: Paul Harvey & the Rest of the Story & Calamity Jane!

As we wrap our minds around Wyoming's bone-numbing chill and the sting of rising auto insurance rates, we take a journey to understand how these factors impact us personally and collectively. From the frosty grips of Thermopolis's 28 below zero to the wisdom of Paul Harvey's prophetic insights, we grapple with the truths beneath the ice. My reflections on the financial freeze set the stage for a tribute to the indomitable spirit of the Wild West: Calamity Jane. Her life, etched between legend and reality, unfolds in tales of audacity and personal battles that resonate with the grit and tenacity of our own Wyoming heritage.

Step into the boots of an icon as we honor Calamity Jane, dissecting the mythos that cloaks her legend and the very real struggles she faced in a lawless frontier. Her choice to dress in men's garb for a military escapade and her skirmishes with alcoholism paint a portrait of a woman as complex as the lands she roamed. We'll celebrate her audacity and the Code of the West she embodied, leaving us with a deeper appreciation for the enduring legacy and the unvarnished truth of this larger-than-life figure from American folklore. Join us as we traverse the rugged terrain of history and personal reflection where the legends of yesteryear meet the realities of today.

Transcript

Mark: 0:19

Good morning and welcome to let's Talk Wyoming. I'm Mark Hamilton, your host, and today we'll be taking a look at our Wyoming weather. We'll also talk about Paul Harvey and the rest of the story and finally we'll look at Calamity Jane, a character in the past of Wyoming. Thanks for joining us and we hope you enjoy the show. We're going to be taking a look at Wyoming weather and it's been shared by everybody in the country.

Mark: 1:07

I've never seen a weather pattern like we've had. We've got finally going to break out of it. It looks like the temperatures started to moderate yesterday, but we did have some unbelievable weather. I think the lowest temperature I saw here in Thermopolis, wyoming, was 28 below. Might hit 31 morning briefly, but it just didn't let up. One thing I can say we were lucky. We didn't have a lot of wind, which was the saving grace. Up in Montana I saw some wind chill at 65 below. Used to live years ago in Cut Bank, montana. There's a sign when you come into Cut Bank about being the coldest place in the United States. I don't know. I think I would give Chinook Montana the coldest, but it is definitely a cold snap that hit that we've probably never prepared for. We've had them before, but we don't like them. But it is breaking, looks like the temperatures are going to moderate and, hey man, it's one day closer to spring. I hope everyone is having a good start to 2024.

Mark: 2:16

A lot of things that we always talk about are happening in our world. Every day we turn and see something new that is taking place. It is a little bit perilous now. I got a bill yesterday for my auto insurance and it has gone through the roof. I also got another bill for an organization that I volunteer for for their insurance. It went up $150 a month and every time you look at these increases it's really tough outside. Being older, I grew up listening every day at lunch hour to Paul Harvey. A lot of people remember Paul Harvey and I want to read this transcript from Paul Harvey from 1965. And it was Paul Harvey's.

Mark: 3:02

If I Were the Devil, if I were the devil, if I were the prince of darkness, I want to engulf the whole wide world in darkness and I'd have a third of it real estate and four fifths of it population. I wouldn't be happy until I see the ripest apple on the tree, the. So I'd set about, however necessary, to take over the United States I'd subvert to churches. First, I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whisper to Eve, do as you please. To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what's bad is good and what is good is square. And the old I would teach to pray. After me are father, which are in Washington. And then I'd get organized. I'd educate authors in how to make the word literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I threatened TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I peddled narcotics to whom I could. I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.

Mark: 4:19

If I were the devil, I'd soon have families that wore with themselves, churches that wore with themselves and nations that wore with themselves until each in it turn was consumed, and with promises of higher ratings. I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglected discipline and motions. Just let them run wild. Until before you knew it, you'd have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade I'd have prisons overflowing. I'd have judges promoting pornography Soon I would evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress and in his churches.

Mark: 5:05

I would substitute psychology for religion and DFI science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money. If I were the devil, I'd make the symbols of Easter and egg and the symbols of Christmas a bottle. If I were the devil, I would take from those who have and give to those who want, until I have killed the incentive of ambition. What do you bet? I could get whole states to promote gambling as a way to get rich. I would caution against extremes and hard work and patriotism in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on TV is the way to be, and thus I would undress you in public and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil, I'd just keep right on doing what he's doing From Paul Harvey Good Day. And what's amazing about this? This was back in 1965, and how much of this is true today and it may be even worse than what was in the story. I guess we need a Paul Harvey in our lives today that we could listen to daily, maybe talk some sense into a lot of us.

Mark: 6:19

Today we're going to look at a story from WyoHistoryorg. Calamity Jane, heroine of the West or an ordinary woman, by Rebecca Hine. Calamity Jane's life is two stories the facts of her biography and the nearly parallel rise of the romantic tales that today comprise the Clamity Jane legend Calamity was hard-drinking, swashbuckling female who could drive a mule team and fight Indians like a man? Or was she an alcoholic Prostitutes, stuck in poverty and forced to labor at menial jobs in life, both jury and mundane? The truth probably lies somewhere in between James McClared and Calamity Jane. The woman, and the legend Calamity that was an ordinary woman of her time with little inner life or behavior that would merit special interests. Yet certain notable traits reoccur in McClare's account Uncommon generosity, most often in helping sick or injured people, and a spunky spirit shown in her greeting to her friends, especially after a long absence.

Mark: 7:28

The emergence of Calamity Jane's legend. Fanciful tales such as her role as professional scout for General George Crook and others, or her supposed close relationship with Wild Bill Hillcock, probably inflated the true tales of her generosity and spirited behavior. Distantangling fact from myth is the heart of McClared's biography. You notice that, since Connory was illiterate and left no correspondence, documentation is mostly limited to contemporary newspaper accounts, reminiscent by acquaintances and witnesses, whether reliable or not, and a few legal documents, mostly county records and census figures. After Arraias is Celebrity, she published a booklet, the Life and Adventures of Clamity Jane, by herself, most likely with the help of a ghost writer.

Mark: 8:14

Nicolair notes that while this short account generally follows an historic record of events in the West during her lifetime, clamity Jane, while sometimes telling the truth, also exaggerated and disordered her role in many of these events. This further confuses the trail, creating a string of documented facts connected only by the best available information. In, a census taken in Mercer County, missouri reports that in 1860, robert and Charlotte Canary, living their Princeton and probably farming, had three children. Martha, aged four, was the oldest, so she was born sometime in 1856, possibly on May 1st as she claims in her Life and Adventures. The next documented fact, in 1869, the census taken in Carter, now Sweetwater County, wyoming territory, places Martha in Piedmont, a small Union Pacific town. Now it goes down 20 miles from the Utah line near present-day Evanston. This census correctly lists her birthplace as Missouri but reports her at the age of 15. She was actually 13, and there is no mention of her parents. Martha was almost certainly orphaned, sometimes between 1866 and 67. In her Life and Adventures she reported Mother died at Blackfoot, montana, 1866. I left Montana in the spring of 1866 for Utah. I remained in Utah until 1867, where my father died. Since her narrative correctly places her in Piedmont sometime after that, mclaren comments if there are any doubts that Martha's Life and Adventure include some reliable information, they should be stifled by the Carter County Census. From this point McLaren explains no contemporary documents exist to confirm or deny stories about the next five years. In the Life and Adventures, after mentioning her residence in Piedmont, she claims to have visited Fort Russell near Cheyenne in 1870, where she would have been 14. And Fort Sanders near Laramie, wyoming, in 1872.

Mark: 10:17

Clavity Jane first drew attention of the press in 1875, at the age of 19, when she accompanied the Jenny expedition from Fort Laramie, wyoming, to the Southern Black Hills. The US government had commissioned this expedition sending geologists Walter P Jenny and Henry Newton to investigate the mineral resources in the Black Hills. Year after custody, 1,000 troops had found gold there and press was building fowls to take the land away from the sewer. Jk Lane, acting assistant surgeon for the expedition, was also a correspondence for the Chicago Daily Tribune. Lane's June 19, 1875 article the Gold Hunters confirms Clavity Jane's presence with the expedition. This piece is also the first contemporary report again of Clavity Jane's soon to be famous nickname. Lane notes Column is dressed in a suit of soldier blue and straddles a mule equal to the professional black snake swinger in the army.

Mark: 11:16

After returning to Laramie, probably with a supply train, clavity Jane makes the company general George Crook on his 1876 expeditions into northern Wyoming territories to attack the Sian and the Sioux. Regarding the engineering myth that Clavity Jane was a scout for Crook and others, captain Jack Crawford in March 5, 1904 article for the journalist explains that he was well acquainted with every scout employed by the government. Clavity Jane was never employed as a scout by General Crook, who gave her no recognition whatsoever except to order her out of camp when he discovered she was a camp follower, at which Crawford almost certainly meant to imply that she was a prostitute. In June of 1876, clavity Jane rode into Deadwood, dakota Territories, with James Butler-Hickock, wild Bill and a conspicuous parade down the main street of the town. This episode began to rise to national fame.

Mark: 12:09

Here are two stories illustrating her flair for life and her generosity, serviced from her time in and around Deadwood In the summer and fall of 1876,. At a reception for General Crook, who traveled to the Black Hills in early September after his defeat at the Battle of Rosebud, dr Valentine McGillicuddy, medical officer with Crook's army, reported that he danced with Clamity Jane. They converted through the half-drunken mob. Clamity shrieked at old pals and slapped them on the back as they passed. Later that fall, a minor named Jack McCartney broke his leg. He lived alone in an isolated cabin between Central City and Leed, south Dakota, who was unable to care for himself. Clamity Jane, then only 20, heard the story raised money by asking for checks and a set of drinks at the down-sall she frequented, then purchased supplies and engaged a packer at Deadwood. Arriving at McCartney's cabin around Thanksgiving, she cared for him there. Mclarede comments that this story may be true, adding that Clamity's flamboyant behavior, probably referring to her dance with McGillicuddy, as well as her habit of dressing as a soldier or a scout and thereby fooling some of the men in the Jenny and Crook expeditions made it possible for newspapers to ignore her. She made a good copy. On October 15th of 1877,.

Mark: 13:25

Clamity was featured heroine in Edward Wheeler's Dime novel Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road or the Black Rider of the Black Hills. This fictitious portrayal of Clamity Jane catapulted her into public eye. Fantastic stories proliferated, but no doubt inspired by the Dime novel episodes. These rumors, including her unerring aim of a gun, rocks whipped, fighting Indians and scut-hailing cliffs. Meanwhile, the grill Clamity Jane continued her ordinary existence, living under the Dakota Territories from 1878 to 1881, and in the Montanatory until the late 1884s. In November of that year Clamity returned to the area that is now Wyoming and she remained for the next ten years mostly in the western part. During this decade she married William Stears and also had a daughter, jessie, born possibly in Lander on October 28th of 1887. According to McLarede, her marriage to Stears is documented by a certificate of marriage in the Bingham County, idaho Territory dated May 30th of 1888.

Mark: 14:31

Clamity, also claimed as husband or by her name, was associated with Clinton Burke and a man named Corning and possibly King. Either relationship appears to have lasted, although the life and adventure is authored by Mrs M Burke. Most of the newspaper reports about her during her decade in Wyoming focuses on one or two themes drunken, disorderly or Clamity Jane's tall tales told by herself. An example of the later is in the Cheyenne Daily Leader on June 21st of 1887, which refers her as both Clamity Jane and Mary Jane Stears and quotes her story. At Bigsmart I was courted by a pretty little army officer who challenged another officer who spoke to me to fight a duel.

Mark: 15:17

A myth was gaining ground, directing the final nine years of her life towards the promotion of the life and adventure. Selling photographs of herself and appearing in the Wild West shows. Clamity apparently visited Yellowstone Park several times to sell her promotional material to the tourists. Will Frackleton in his 1941 memoir Sagebrush Dennis told of her first visit to his dental office in Sheridan, wyoming, adding I saw Clamity again in 1897 when I took a pack trip to Yellowstone Park. She was dressed in men's clothes and seemed a little older and much grayer, and Clamity learned that her pack horses were missing. She swore a blue streak.

Mark: 15:53

Clamity continued to exploit her increasing fame, appearing in the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, new York, in the summer of 1901, while in Buffalo she encountered a friend, wirt Newcomb, a Montana cowboy, visiting the Exposition with his Eastern relatives. When Martha saw Newcomb after a perform, she yelled Slim, old Slim from Myles City, damn my skin if it ain't. Newcomb stopped the flood of happy profanity, explaining that his relatives were church goers and he introduced them. Never was I more amazed that he changed in front of a person. Never could you imagine it could be the same person. She was as plight as one of the party and entertained them all, wealthy, for 15 or 20 minutes. After returning to South Dakota in November of 1901 and spending some time in Montana as well, clamity died two years later in Terry, south Dakota, on August 1st of 1903. She was 47.

Mark: 16:49

Heroic myths about Clamity Jane are so interwoven with her truer accounts of her generosity, audacity and high spirits that all stories of her life merit close examination. Yet one thing that seems certain, though Clamity Jane had an ordinary life, even sad life, dogged by drinking problems which almost certainly killed her. She was kind of friends and strangers alike, and her daring behavior, such as disguising herself as a man on a military and scientific expedition, was an unusual woman for her time. Thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoy our podcast. As per the Code of the West, we ride for the brand and we ride for Wyoming. You, you, you, you, you, you, you you.