Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

Hello and welcome to the show. After talking about the Harvey Girls in the last episode,

Beckett and I got to thinking about other women of the Wild West.

We have covered some in our archives and today we're going to bring you three of those stories of legendary women of the Wild West.

Kalamity Jane, Bell Star, and Annie Chambers.

All three of these women were contemporaries of Fred Harvey, of the Harvey Girls. They were doing their business while Fred was doing his in the same area of the United States.

Annie does have a little ear swarming attached to her story while we don't say anything explicit, of course.

Annie was, in the words of Beckett Graham, borrowed from Sir Terry Pratchett, a woman of negotiable affections.

So her story may not be suitable for our youngest listeners, but parents and guardians, that choice is up to you.

And if you still are interested in more stories of women of the Wild West, we're going to direct you to our episode on Annie Oakley. That's episode number 92.

And now, on with the show.

And here's your 30-second summary.

Martha Jane Canary was orphaned in 11, raised her five siblings, worked as a prostitute in Indian Scout, a soldier in a stage coach driver.

She was a nurse during a smallpox epidemic. She loved and married Wild Bill Hickock, and she caught his murderer.

She always wore men's clothing, and got her nicknamed Kalamity Jane from a military captain whose life she saved in battle.

She was a star in Buffalo Pills Wild West show, wrote her autobiography, lived her life hard, and however she wanted.

Some of that's true. Most of that's a myth. Let's figure out which is which.

Let's talk about Kalamity Jane.

Martha Canary was born probably on May 1st, 1856, in Princeton, Missouri. She was the first of probably six children of Robert and Charlotte Canary.

Well, that's two sentences and two probably, it's going to be one of those stories, huh? Yes, yes it is.

Later in her life, Kalamity Jane would publish an autobiography, but by then she'd spent so many years lying, fabricating and embellishing everything from her birth year to how many husbands she had, and creating some very tall tales, even she may have begun to believe the myths.

George Costanza said it best. It's not a lie if you believe it, right? What makes her story even more mired in mystery is that it would be over 60 years after that autobiography before any serious study of her life began.

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