Female Cowboys Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rose Dunn

Rose Dunn was a minor outlaw, assisting Doolin's gang to rob stagecoaches and banks while totally infatuated with Newcomb. Her brothers, who had also been minor outlaws, went straight towards the end of the "Old West" and became bounty hunters who collected the $5000 bounty of Newcomb's head when they killed him in 1895 as he arrived at the family home to visit Rose.

In a reminder that the Wild West wasn't that long ago, Rose died as recently as 1955, aged 78 in Washington.

Answer: Stagecoach robberies

Hart, along with lover Joe Boot, robbed a stagecoach in 1899 after a gold mining venture failed. The robbery was completed successfully, as it had been so many years since this stagecoach in Arizona had been robbed that a guard was no longer employed. Hart and Boot escaped with a sum in the region of $450, although Hart did give $1 back to each of the passengers for their inconvenience, but they were caught less than a week later while sleeping.

At their trial, Hart was found not guilty after convincing the jury that she needed the money in order to visit her sick mother, but was rearrested as she left the courthouse on a charge of tampering with U.S. mail, a charge on which she was convicted and sentenced to five years.

Interestingly, while awaiting trial on the stagecoach robbery, she was interviewed by "Cosmopolitan" magazine who ran a feature, complete with prison photographs on her.

Answer: Belle Starr

Born Myra Maybelle Shirley, Belle grew up with the James brothers and the Younger brothers in Missouri and regularly rode with the gang. While living in Texas, she got to know the Starr clan, a Cherokee Indian family and married Sam in 1880. Although the Starrs had a reputation for horse theft, cattle rustling, bootleg whiskey, Belle with her meticulous planning took it to another level, becoming so successful that the gang often had enough money to bribe officials should a gang member be arrested.

Although she was arrested several times herself, she always managed to beat the charges, until 1883 when she was convicted of horse theft and served nine months. She was fatally shot in 1889, in a case which has never been solved.

Answer: Calamity Jane

There are so many myths, legends and conflicting stories about Calamity Jane, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. It is known that she had a long standing friendship with "Wild" Bill Hickok, the notorious gunfighter and gambler and she did appear in "Buffalo" Bill Cody's Wild West Show, but it is not certain how she acquired the Calamity nickname to go along with her middle name of Jane.

She herself said on one occasion that the name was given to her by Captain Egan, after she rescued him during a battle with native Americans, but she also stated that in order to be accepted in a man's world she warned men that "to disappoint me, is to court calamity". Yet another tale tells how she swam a river and then rode 90 miles while cold and wet in order to deliver important documents and became seriously ill as a result and gained the nickname this way.

Answer: Annie Oakley

After her father died in 1866, Annie took over hunting duties to feed and clothe her family and soon established herself as an excellent marks-woman, something which was further evidenced by the winning of a shooting match against travelling marksman Frank E. Butler when she was just 15.

At a time when many frontier women favoured male attire, Oakley always wore feminine clothes, often fashionable, flowing dresses, in which it is estimated she taught 15,000 women how to use a gun. The Irving Berlin musical is his 1946 production "Annie Get Your Gun".

Answer: Dale Evans

Evans has two stars on The Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her contribution to radio and one for her long TV career and summed up the cowgirl way of life perfectly when she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by saying, "'Cowgirl' is an attitude really. A pioneer spirit, a special American brand of courage. The cowgirl faces life head-on, lives by her own lights, and makes no excuses. Cowgirls take stands; they speak up. They defend things they hold dear."

Thanks to Wikipedia for the quote.

Answer: Sacagawea

When she was around 13 years old, Sacagawea was sold into a non-consensual "marriage" to Toussaint Charbonneau or won by him in a gambling game. She was approximately 16 and had recently given birth when Lewis and Clark employed her in early 1805 and she and her infant son, named Jean Baptiste, acted as a white flag of peace to Native Americans they encountered, since a female would not have been permitted on a war party.

She also proved knowledgeable about plants that could be eaten on the trail and assisting in securing horses from native tribes.

In 2000, the United States Mint issued a dollar coin in her honour, depicting her with her son.

Answer: Bonnie McCarroll

McCarroll was riding a bronc called Black Cat which threw her. While she was on the ground, Black Cat turned a somersault on her and although she was rushed to hospital, she died shortly afterwards from her spinal injuries.

Answer: Big Nose Kate

Big Nose Kate was born into an affluent family in Ersekujvar, in the Kingdom of Hungary,(now Nove Zamky in Slovakia) and her parents emigrated to USA in 1860. By 1865, they had both died and shortly after, 16 year old Kate ran away from her foster parents' home and started living life as a prostitute, which is how she met Holliday in 1877.

She remained his companion through a turbulent, often violent relationship, which included being present at The Gunfight At The O.K. Corral until Holliday's death in 1887, often supporting Holliday's gambling habits by working as a prostitute.

In 1931, aged 80, she became one of the first female residents of the Arizona Pioneers' rest home, where she was an outspoken campaigner for the rights of the elderly up until her death in 1940.

Answer: The Wild Bunch

Bullion joined Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch in the 1890s when she became romantically involved with Ben "The Tall Texan" Kilpatrick. She became a fence for the gang, selling on stolen goods and was an accomplished horse thief as well as joining the gang on many train robberies. Following her release from prison for the Great Northern train robbery, she relocated to Memphis where she gave up the outlaw life and worked as a seamstress and dressmaker.