Bar Lazy J Ranch

Parshall, Colorado

Tucked away in the picturesque landscapes of Colorado, Bar Lazy J Ranch beckons fly-fishing enthusiasts to a hidden gem where the art of angling meets the charm of the Western wilderness. This family-owned ranch offers an immersive fly-fishing experience on private stretches of the Colorado River, surrounded by the breathtaking beauty of the Rocky Mountains. Guests can cast their lines in pursuit of rainbow and brown trout while enjoying the tranquil ambiance that defines Bar Lazy J Ranch. With seasoned guides, well-appointed accommodations, and a commitment to preserving the natural environment, the ranch creates an ideal setting for both novice and seasoned anglers seeking an authentic Western fly-fishing retreat.

barlazyj.com | 970-725-3437

Brush Creek Ranch

Saratoga, Wyoming

Located in the midst of the untamed landscapes of Wyoming, the fly-fishing experience at Brush Creek Ranch is a captivating and immersive journey into the realm of angling excellence. Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Sierra Madre, the legendary Brush Creek takes center stage, celebrated for its crystal-clear waters and a diverse population of trout that beckon anglers from far and wide. Brush Creek Ranch is an Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Lodge, and serves as a gateway to this pristine environment, offering guests an exclusive and privileged access to the iconic watercourse. Here, anglers can cast their lines into the cool, flowing currents in pursuit of elusive trout species— notably the tenacious rainbow and the elusive brown trout. The experience is heightened by the symphony of nature, with the rugged mountains framing every cast and the tranquility of the wilderness enhancing the thrill of each catch. Brush Creek Ranch, with its commitment to preserving this natural sanctuary, provides an unmatched opportunity for anglers to forge lasting memories amid the untamed beauty of Wyoming’s landscapes.

brushcreekranch.com | 307-327-5284

Paradise Guest Ranch

Buffalo, Wyoming

Paradise Guest Ranch, nestled in the captivating landscapes of Wyoming, is renowned for its exceptional fly-fishing opportunities, inviting enthusiasts to immerse themselves in the peacefulness of angling along the Little Wind River. The ranch stands out for its guided excursions to prime fishing spots, providing anglers with the chance to pursue the coveted cutthroat, brook, and rainbow trout species that inhabit the pristine waters. Beyond the fishing experience, Paradise Guest Ranch exudes rustic charm, creating an authentic Western atmosphere that complements the natural surroundings. The commitment to preserving the natural environment further distinguishes Paradise Guest Ranch as a standout destination. Here, the harmonious blend of outstanding fly-fishing, rustic elegance, and environmental stewardship creates an unforgettable retreat for anglers seeking not only a superb fishing adventure but also a genuine connection with Wyoming’s wilderness. Paradise Guest Ranch stands as a testament to the timeless allure of fly-fishing in the heart of the American West.

paradiseranch.com | 307-684-7876

The Resort at Paws Up

Greenough, Montana

The Resort at Paws Up is situated on a vast 37,000-acre ranch in Montana that stands as a seamless fusion of luxury and exceptional fly-fishing opportunities. Enveloped in the pristine beauty of the Blackfoot River, immortalized by Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It,” and surrounded by other nearby waterways, the resort offers a haven for avid anglers. With expert guides, top-tier equipment, and a myriad of fishing experiences, ranging from tranquil float trips to exclusive access to private streams, Paws Up ensures an immersive angling adventure. The resort’s commitment to excellence extends beyond the waters, as guests can retreat to well-appointed luxury homes or safari-style tents after a day of fishing, completing a perfect marriage of wilderness exploration and lavish comfort. The Resort at Paws Up stands as a premier destination for those with a discerning taste for a refined fly-fishing experience, making it a beacon for enthusiasts seeking to bask in the heart of the Montana wilderness in an atmosphere of unrivaled luxury and adventure.

pawsup.com | 877-580-6343

Firehole Ranch

West Yellowstone, Montana

With its commanding presence  on 640 acres of pristine wilderness, Firehole Ranch emerges as a haven for fly-fishing enthusiasts, embodying the essence of an angler’s paradise. This historic ranch, dating back to 1890 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, offers unparalleled access to famed rivers such as the Madison, Yellowstone, Gallatin, and Henry’s Fork. An Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Lodge, Firehole Ranch presents endless possibilities for anglers, tempting a diverse variety of trout with wet or dry flies, nymphs, or tandem rigs. The fishing experience is further enriched by the flexibility of wading, floating, or casting from the banks. Limiting its capacity to 20 guests at a time ensures an intimate and exclusive retreat. The ranch’s cabins, steeped in rustic Yellowstone-style luxury, provide a charming blend of comfort and authenticity, offering a tranquil haven after a day of exploring the abundant fishing opportunities that define Firehole Ranch as a timeless and cherished destination for fly-fishing.

fireholeranch.com | 406-646-7294

CM Ranch

Dubois, Wyoming

Nestled within the awe-inspiring landscapes of the Wind River Valley, CM Ranch in Wyoming stands as a historic haven for outdoor enthusiasts, particularly those seeking outstanding fly-fishing opportunities. This storied dude ranch offers guests the chance to cast their lines in the crystalline waters of the Wind River and nearby mountain streams, where native cutthroat and rainbow trout abound. The angling experience is elevated with seasoned guides who possess an intimate knowledge of the waters, ensuring both experienced and novice anglers alike can make the most of their time on the river. Well-maintained equipment and a genuine Western atmosphere further contribute to an authentic fly-fishing adventure. At CM Ranch, the serenity of the Wyoming wilderness, the rush of the river, and the legacy of the West converge to create an unforgettable angling experience that resonates with the spirit of the great outdoors.

cmranch.com | 307-455-2331

Bar W Guest Ranch

Whitefish, Montana

Settled at the base of Spencer Mountain in Montana, Bar W Guest Ranch unfolds as a haven for both novice and seasoned fly fishers, offering a serene escape into the heart of angling paradise. The ranch provides a gateway to nature’s abundance, with guided trips to nearby rivers such as the Stillwater and Flathead, renowned for their teeming trout populations.  Immersing guests in a Western embrace, Bar W Guest Ranch enhances the fly-fishing experience with charming Western-style cabins that dot the landscape. These rustic retreats provide a comfortable haven after a day spent casting lines in the pristine waters. The warm hospitality of the ranch permeates the atmosphere, creating a welcoming and communal ambiance for anglers to share tales of their day’s exploits.

thebarw.com | 406-863-9099

Darwin Ranch

Jackson, Wyoming

Guests come to discover the essence of pristine fly fishing at Darwin Ranch in the captivating landscapes of Wyoming. This exclusive retreat offers anglers a haven in the heart of nature, with private access to the renowned Gros Ventre River and nearby mountain lakes. The rhythmic flow of the Gros Ventre sets the stage for an impressive angling experience, where enthusiasts can cast their lines for native of trout species. Guided by seasoned experts, guests at Darwin Ranch can refine their skills amidst the stunning views of the Teton and Wind River Mountains. The personalized approach of the ranch, coupled with comfortable accommodations, farm-to-table food, and panoramic scenery, makes it a sought-after destination for those seeking an authentic Western fly-fishing adventure.

darwinranch.com | 307-203-3040

Nine Quarters Circle Ranch

Gallatin Gateway, Montana  

Perfectly placed within the breathtaking landscapes of Montana’s Gallatin National Forest, Nine Quarter Circle Ranch stands as a cherished family-owned retreat, inviting adventurers to partake in exceptional fly-fishing escapades. With exclusive access to the unspoiled waters of the Taylor Fork, a tributary of the Gallatin River, anglers are presented with an idyllic setting to test their skills against the elusive cutthroat and rainbow trout. The ranch, with its commitment to sustainable practices, not only preserves the natural beauty of the surroundings but also enhances the overall Western experience. Cozy cabins dot the landscape, providing a warm and inviting retreat after a day of angling. At Nine Quarter Circle Ranch, the harmonious blend of pristine waters, majestic scenery, and a dedication to environmental responsibility ensures that each fly-fishing adventure is not merely an excursion but a journey into the heart of Montana’s wilderness.

ninequartercircle.com | 460-995-4276

C Lazy U Ranch

Granby, Colorado

Positioned in the heart of the Colorado Rockies, C Lazy U Ranch stands as an iconic destination for those seeking an unparalleled fly-fishing experience. This luxurious ranch combines rustic charm with world-class amenities, offering guests exclusive access to private stretches of the Willow Creek and the Colorado River. C Lazy U Ranch is an Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Lodge, where anglers can test their skills against native cutthroat and rainbow trout in the shadow of the majestic Rocky Mountains. With expert guides, well-maintained equipment, and a commitment to environmental stewardship, C Lazy U Ranch ensures that every fly-fishing adventure is not just a pursuit of fish but a journey into the soul of the Colorado wilderness. The ranch’s upscale accommodations, gourmet dining, and Western hospitality complete the experience, making it a haven for both avid anglers and those seeking a tranquil escape in nature.

clazyu.com | 970-887-3344

Fly-Fishing Resources

Dude Ranchers’ Association

Dude and guest ranches offer an all-inclusive vacation experience like no other destination, with many specializing in fly-fishing activities.  

duderanch.org

Orvis

Orvis is synonymous with quality fly fishing gear, equipment, and apparel. The company offers a comprehensive range of fly fishing products, including fly rods, reels, lines, leaders, and flies. Orvis operates fly fishing schools and offers guided trips to help enthusiasts improve their skills and experience some of the best fly fishing destinations. 

orvis.com

They certainly enjoy the beach vacation trail ride, but the super famous California family also enjoys owning and riding horses. From Kim and Kanye’s herd of 14 majestic horses to Kendall’s “horse girl” self description, are the Kardashian family some sort of kowgirls?

Kimye (Kim Kardashian West & Kanye West)

14 Friesians call the Kardashian/West’s Wyoming ranch their home. Yes, 14!! 

Kim Kardashian Just Shared North’s Friesian and wow. In a June 2020 tweet from Kim, she showed off one of North’s beautiful “Freesians.” Spelling error aside, you can’t help but think, why 14? My guess, because they can. 

Meet North’s Freesian horse. We have 14 gorgeous Freesians on the ranch. pic.twitter.com/TO87I25YKJ

— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) June 29, 2020

For us horse lovers, Friesians have always been on our radar. Elegant, powerful and EXPENSIVE. According to the website U.S. Friesian Referral, the average cost of a Fresian ranges from $7,000 to $600,000. And knowing the luxurious Kardashian/Wests’ lifestyle, all 14 horses are probably top of the line. 

Friesians are originally from Friesland, one of twelve provinces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Holland). The flashy horses were highly desired by knights for their strength and athleticism during battle. Later, Friesians were used in high level European riding schools, raced, and shipped worldwide. Today, these horses are a multi-functional medieval breed.  Now, 14 live on a ranch in Wyoming with the Kardashian/West family. What a world we live in. 

Kylie Jenner

Every little girl dreams of getting a pony, and Kylie Jenner’s daughter’s (pricey) dreams have been answered. Stormi, Kylie’s two-year-old girl, is the newest owner of “Frozen.” 

The beautiful light grey (almost white) pony was purchased for a whopping $200,000 by Jenner in July 2020. Frozen arrived in Los Angeles, freshly imported from the Netherlands and is currently being quarantined before he moves to his new California stable.

The pony’s breeder, Stal Wilten, seems to have confirmed the sale via Instagram. This new addition to the Kardashian horse herd is a cutie!

Khloe Kardashian 

Although not a horse collector (yet) Khloe has actually been riding for many years. She took lessons in her youth and even has continued to ride intermittently through the past few years. 

Kourtney Kardashian

Even the eldest Kardashian/Jenner sister has logged some hours in the saddle. While visiting Kanye and Kim’s Wyoming ranch, Kourtney and daughter Penelope took to the trails. The pair was all business as they rode their sorrels across the range.

Kendall Jenner

Kendall Jenner calls herself a “horse girl.” In an interview with The Cut in 2019, Jenner described her childhood with horses and her first pony, “Megan.” 

“I’m a horse girl, literally. I grew up riding horses,” she said, “So for my whole entire life I would beg my parents to please get me a pony. I wasn’t just some little girl who was like, ‘I need a pony for no reason.’ It was my life… And I wanted one so bad.” On the first year Jenner didn’t ask her parents for the specific pony she wanted, an equine named “Megan,” she woke up on Christmas morning to find a “concession” gift waiting for her: a saddle atop an electric dirt bike. But at the bottom of the drive way was what she really wanted, Megan. “I was like, ‘No, fucking way.’ Well, I didn’t say that. I was 12. But I ran outside, and as I ran out the pony whinnied.” As she told the Cut, “I’m very lucky. In our family, we all spoil each other.”

Since Megan, the supermodel Jenner sister has taken riding lessons, used horses in photo shoots and has even gone for a ride or two across the globe.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhHZUqaAnjm/

So with all these Kardashian horses, when do we start calling it a k-herd? The “K” is silent of course.

After graduating from Oberlin College in 1847, Stone became a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, one of the leading abolitionist organizations of its time. Stone became convinced that parallels existed between the positions of women and slaves. In her view both were expected to be passive, cooperative, and obedient. In addition, the legal status of both slaves and women was inferior to that of white men. Stone persuaded the society to allow her to spend part of her time speaking on the topic of women’s rights. In 1850 she organized the first national Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts.

In 1855 Stone married Henry B. Blackwell, an Ohio merchant and abolitionist. The couple entered into the marriage “under protest”; at their wedding they read and signed a document explicitly protesting the legal rights that were given to a husband over his wife. They omitted the word “obey” from the marriage vows and promised to treat each other equally. Stone also announced that she would not take her husband’s name and would be addressed instead as Mrs. Stone. This action drew national attention, and women who retained their maiden names were soon known as “Lucy Stoners.”

After the Civil War, Stone and Blackwell shifted their energies to women’s suffrage. Although Stone was in agreement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony on the goal of women’s suffrage, she differed as to the best way to secure the vote for women. In 1869 Stone helped form the AWSA. The AWSA worked for women’s suffrage on a state by state basis, seeking amendments to state constitutions. Stanton and Anthony established a rival organization, the NWSA, which sought an amendment to the U.S. Constitution similar to the Fifteenth Amendment that gave nonwhite men the right to vote. Whereas the AWSA concentrated on women’s suffrage, the NWSA took a broader approach, lobbying for improvements in the legal status of women in areas such as family law as well as for suffrage.

Stone also helped found the Woman’s Journal, a weekly suffrage journal, in 1870. She edited the journal for many years, eventually turning the task over to her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, in 1882. As editor, Stone focused on the AWSA’s goal of suffrage.

In 1890 the AWSA and the NWSA merged into the NAWSA. Stone became the chair of the executive committee, and Stanton served as the first president.

Start off your search with Historic Trails West in Wyoming. This company offers 5-day, overnight, and daytime treks along the same trails that the pioneers traveled. You can opt for a wagon or trail ride! Enjoy the sounds of creaking leather, wagon wheels crushing the sandy trail, and the smell of warm sage in the air. It’s one thing to read about history, but it’s a whole different thing to live it!

For the overnight experience, learn how to pitch your own tent and enjoy cooking on the dutch oven. There’s nothing quite like eating and sleeping in the wide open. Climb aboard the historic wagons and see the actual ruts of the Oregon, California, Pony Express, Mountain men, and historic Military Trails.

Check out some of these cool pictures from previous vacationers.

Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime? The Oregon Trail awaits you!

Check out ‘Your Dream Vacation is Waiting!‘ for more trip ideas.

In spite of the newspaper articles in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in the late 1890s, which firmly reported that Alaska’s frigid terrain was “no place for women,” Ethel believed she was strong enough to withstand the brutal trip. The outing to the area where Clarence was panning was a nine-week venture from its starting point in Skagway. 

In 1896, the quickest way to reach the remote Bonanza Creek from Skagway was to trek the Inside Passage of Alaska, over a rugged channel that led to British Columbia and Lake Bennett, then travel by boat downstream along the Yukon River, some five hundred miles.  Next would be a hike to the town of Dawson and hiring a dog sled team to go to the panning site. 

For more than two months, Ethel slept on the ground in a wolf fur-lined sleeping bag and dined primarily on sandwiches made of sticky flapjacks and cold bacon. When she arrived at the camp, Clarence escorted his bride to their primitive new home and left her there to unpack while he worked out on the creeks. The crude structure had no door, windows, or floors, and it wasn’t until a hole was cut in the front wall frame that she could even go inside. 

As Ethel surveyed the shelter, she remembered a warning she’d received from an elderly prospector she met in Portland, Oregon: “Gold seekers in the heart of Alaska must put up with living in drafty cabins, tents, or caves. Their chief food in winter is bear-fat, and a bath or change of clothing is death.” 

The words echoed inside her head and for a single moment she contemplated returning to her parents’ home in central California. 

Love for her husband and a severe case of gold fever prompted her to stay and make the best of the difficult living conditions. In an interview several years later, Ethel described the initial hardship she and Clarence faced while setting up house. “We had all the camp-made furniture we needed, a bed and stove – a long, little sheet-iron affair, with two holes on top and a drum to bake in. The fire would burn up and go out if you turned your back on it for a minute. The water we used was all snow or ice, and had to be thawed. If anyone wanted a drink, a chunk of ice had to thawed and (the hot water) cooled again.” 

Ethel Bush Berry was born in 1873 in Selma, California, where the average low temperature in the winter was thirty-nine degrees. Her parents were farmers, and although she was raised to endure hard labor and long hours of work, nothing could prepare her for the frozen north. 

Clarence spent days away from Ethel searching for a profitable claim. The hope that he could locate a rich stake and provide his wife with the luxury he felt she deserved kept him going back to the frigid creek beds and icy mines. 

Ethel occupied her time tending to their home. She cleaned and cooked and made flour sack curtains for the windows. The sacks were eventually taken down and cut into strips to use to sift pay-dirt in order to find chunks of gold. Ethel took her daily baths by lamplight in a washtub used for collecting pay-dirt.

Clarence’s early, but determined attempts to find gold were unsuccessful. While waiting for the big strike he worked tending bar in Bill McPhee’s saloon in Forty Mile to provide an income for his wife and himself. The longest stretch of time Ethel was left alone to fend for herself was five weeks. She knew the separation from her husband was necessary, however. Someone had to stay on their land to keep claim jumpers from overtaking their property. 

The time apart from Clarence seemed like an eternity. “I missed him terribly and there was absolutely nothing to do,” she later wrote in her memoirs. “No one who has not had a like experience could appreciate even half the misery contained in those words – nothing to do. Just imagine sitting for hours in one’s home doing nothing, looking out a scrap of a window and seeing nothing, searching for work and finding nothing. At times when I felt I could not bear another minute of the utter blackness of such an existence; I would walk to a little cemetery nearby for consolation.”  

With the arrival of spring, Ethel found plenty to occupy her time. When the ice melted and the rocky mountains began to crumble away from the shifting snow packs, she had new places to pan for gold. While examining chunks of bedrock one day, Ethel unearthed a handful of nuggets from their claim. Not long after her find, Clarence returned with rumors about a major discovery a few miles from their present location. The pair quickly packed their belongings and headed for the spot at Eldorado Creek. Clarence reasoned it was better to have two claims making money than one. Given Ethel’s talent for prospecting, she could see to the Bonanza Creek claim and he would work the one at Eldorado Creek, provided they found gold. 

The first pan Ethel dipped into the clear, cold water produced favorable results. Layers of gold rock reached from the point where Ethel was panning in the creek to a nearby craggy ledge. The Berrys had hit the mother lode. They sank a shaft deep into the ground and began stockpiling gold-bearing gravel. A stampede to the Klondike followed the news of their discovery and of a few other miners working the creek bed downstream from them. 

Almost overnight Ethel went from living in solitude to regularly entertaining numerous miners for dinner. The Berry home was always filled with cold, tired, hungry prospectors who enjoyed Ethel’s cooking and her company. 

In July 1897, a jubilant, but exhausted Ethel boarded a steamer bound for Washington. Clarence had decided to remain behind to secure the claim and complete the digging. Ethel was sent ahead with $100,000 in gold dust and nuggets tucked inside a moose-hide bedroll. After she deposited their find in a bank, she was going to California to visit her family. 

When the ship docked in Seattle, she was bombarded by reporters who had heard about the Alaska Gold Rush and were anxious to interview the brave men and women who were the first to prospect in the frozen territory. Adorned in weathered garments that were kept in place with one of Clarence’s belts, and wearing shoes with holes in them, Ethel was the only woman miner among the plethora of men. 

Journalists called her “The Bride of the Klondike” and her candor in answering the questions posed to her made headlines. A feature article about her exploits circulated around the world and included the advice she would give to women who were thinking about going north. 

 “Why, to stay away,” she said with a slight chuckle. “It’s no place for a woman. I mean for a woman alone – one who goes to make a living or a fortune. Yes, there are women going into the mines alone. There were when we came out; widows and lone women to do whatever they could for miners, with the hope of getting big pay. 

“It’s much better for a man, though, if he has a wife along. The men are not much at cooking up there, and that is the reason they suffer with stomach troubles and some say they did, with scurvy. After a man has worked all day in the diggings, he doesn’t feel much like cooking….”

Although Ethel spoke a great deal about the hardship of living in the glacier wilderness, some newspaper reporters choose to focus more on the riches to be had in Alaska than the difficulties of getting to the fortune. The bold type across the California Alta News July 17, 1897, edition read, “Woman Keeps House, Picks Up $10,000 in Nuggets in Spare Time.” The headline overshadowed Ethel’s comments about the hazards of traveling across the region on a dog sled. “I put on my Alaskan uniform first…the heavy flannels, warm dress with short skirt, moccasins, fur coat, cap and gloves, kept my shawl handy to roll up in case of storms, and was rolled in a full robe and bound to the sled, so when it rolled over I rolled with it and many tumbles in the snow I got that way.” 

Ethel and Clarence’s Klondike claim was one of the richest ever found in Alaska. More than $140,000 was pulled out of the mine in a single day. The couple wisely invested their discovery, developing claims throughout the Yukon, further adding to their wealth. The couple used their money to purchase a sprawling farm near her parents’ home in Selma. Reporters interested in learning how Clarence and his wife managed to survive the Artic frontier and return with such a large treasure were surprised by his answer: “I question seriously whether I would have done so well if it had not been for the excellent advice and aid of my wife. I want to give her all the credit that is due to her, and I can assure you that it is a great deal.”

In spite of her initial hesitation to go back to the mines at Eldorado and Bonanza Creek, Ethel did return in the spring of 1898. Her sister accompanied her on the second journey over the treacherous Chilkoot Pass. In addition to cooking and caring for her husband and the other prospectors in the area, Ethel carried out various mining duties. She oversaw the diggings at two of the major claims the Berrys owned. 

In 1907, the enterprising Berrys began a successful, large-scale dredging operation in the Circle Mining district in the north central region of Alaska. The operation was an excavation activity carried out, at least partially, underwater. Dredging scraped the gold sediment off the seabed and further increased Clarence and Ethel’s strike. 

In 1909, Ethel loaned $70,000 in gold nuggets she had found for a display in the Alaskan Yukon Pacific Exposition held in Seattle. After the exposition, Clarence collected the nuggets and sent them on to Tiffany & Co. where the gold was melted down and transformed into a dresser set for his wife. 

For more than thirty years, Ethel and Clarence traveled back and forth between their farm in California and their home in Alaska. Clarence passed away during one of those trips in 1930. Ethel then moved to Beverly Hills and died at her home there in 1948 at the age of seventy-five.

Quantrill was suffering from a serious injury.  He’d been shot in the back while trying to flee the scene.  A bullet struck the left side of his body near his left shoulder blade and smashed downward into his spine.  The impact of the bullet knocked him off his ride face down in the mud. He struggled to get to his feet but found he was completely paralyzed below his arms.

Quantrill winched in pain when he opened his eyes and attempted to reposition himself in the crude, narrow bed where he had been placed.  The thin bandage placed over his wound did not stop the blood from oozing through the bullet hole and soaking through the top cover of dirty sheets.  Seventeen year old Sarah King was seated next to him on the bed trying to keep him still. She was a sturdy, buxom girl with striking features and raven-colored hair.  She flashed a smile at the dying man, reached out and gently took his hand in hers. The twenty-seven year old patient was pale but his features were still sharp and handsome.  With great effort he lifted his head to search the room for members of his loyal band of followers. The room was lighted by smoking kerosene lamps and the place was swarming with flies.  Quantrill’s eyes came to rest on the form of a man lying in a blood-soaked bed next to him. The man was crying like a child. Quantrill didn’t recognize him. He did know Sarah however.  

When Quantrill looked at Sarah tears of pain rolled down his face and a sweat broke out on his forehead.  She kissed his cheek. He was comforted by his wife’s presence. Sarah explained to him that a priest had stopped by the boarding house she operated in St. Louis and let her know that “he had been wounded in a scuffle on a farm and was not expected to live.”

Tears welled up in Sarah’s eyes and spilled onto Quantrill’s hand.  With as much strength as he could manage he brushed the tears from her cheek.  Stretcher barriers came and transported the dead man lying next to the couple away.  The appalling conditions at the hospital as well as the sounds of the wounded swept over Sarah and for a moment she sat frozen with the horror of the picture.

A priest graciously interrupted and in a low voice instructed Sarah to let him have some time with her husband.  Quantrill was dying and the clergyman wanted to pray with him and encourage him to get his heart right with the Maker.  Sarah overheard a little of Quantrill’s confession and watched him be baptized into the Catholic faith.  

Quantrill’s child bride watched him languish in terrible pain for more than two days after she arrived.  The Confederate soldier referred to as “the bloodiest man in the annals of America” breathed his last breath on June 6, 1865.  

Sarah left town before her spouse of two and a half years was dead and buried in the Portland Catholic Cemetery in Louisville.  She suspected there would come a time when Union officers would look beyond her grieving and want to question her about what she knew of the property, jewelry, money, etc. her husband had taken from Lawrence, Kansas.  Quantrill and his men had attacked the town in August 1863, killing hundreds and looting the business, banks, and homes before burning the town to the ground. Quantrill had shared his spoils of war with his wife but told her to deny having any of the property if she was ever asked.  By the time authorities were ready to speak with Sarah about Quantrill’s raids on Kansas, she was long gone. Law enforcement officials would seek her out in much the same way they did her outlaw husband.

Sarah Catherine King met William Clarke Quantrill at her father’s farm near Blue Springs, Missouri in the winter of 1861.  She was thirteen years old and he was twenty-six. More than a hundred of Quantrill’s men had set up camp around Robert King’s homestead.  While Robert and Quantrill were standing on the farmer’s porch discussing the progress of the Civil War, Sarah arrived home from school and hurried to her father’s side.  She was instantly smitten by the charming Confederate officer. He was handsome, had blue eyes, was well built, and carried himself with sincere self-assuredness. Quantrill admired Sarah as well.  According to the May 23, 1926 edition of the Kansas City Star, Sarah was “lively and jolly; a disposition which years of turmoil and suffering since had not changed.  Old-timers who knew her remembered that she was pretty beyond question. She was raised on a farm. Her time, spent mostly outdoors and a great deal of that time spent horseback riding, had given her health and vigor and rosy cheeks.  She could ride a horse like one born to the saddle. Ever since she was old enough to hold a rein her father had provided her with a mount, one that she could call her own.” 

Quantrill made frequent visits to the King homestead after his introduction to Sarah.  He dined with her and her family and they took long horseback rides together. Sarah’s mother and father were concerned about the age difference between the two and just as the friendship was evolving into something more, Mr.  & Mrs. King forbade Sarah from seeing Quantrill any longer. The strong-willed teenager and the insubordinate militia leader refused to obey. Their relationship continued in secret. Sarah snuck out of the house to meet Quantrill and the pair enjoyed spending time talking about their lives and possibilities for the future.  Decades after Quantrill had been gone; Sarah told reporters at the Kansas City Star that he was candid with her about his difficult upbringing and trouble with authorities.

Quantrill’s family came from Hagerstown, Maryland.  He was born at Canal Dover, Ohio on July 31, 1837. “I was a quiet, reserved boy,” he told Sarah who later told the Kansas City Star.  “I would fight if drawn into a brawl and felt I was obliged to defend myself, but it was not my choice to start trouble.” Quantrill shared with Sarah that he was an exceptional marksman.  “Watch me make a pig squeal,” I would tell our neighbor Mr. Scott. Then I’d draw my gun and put a clean round hole through the ear of the pig twenty yards away.” Tales of his childhood antics gave way to stories of becoming a teacher and potential land owner.  “I was too young to enter an agreement with a bank to purchase property so neighbors did purchased the property on my behalf,” he explained to Sarah. “After all the hard work I put in on the homestead the neighbors refused to turn the deed over to me. I was infuriated over the matter.”  Quantrill sought his revenge against the people who ultimately “took the land meant for him by stealing some of their livestock.” He confessed to Sarah that he was arrested for the theft. 

Shortly after his legal troubles ended he moved to Kansas and taught school.  When Sarah asked him about the war he told her that he had been friends with John Brown and that the two disagreed with slavery.  They made midnight raids across the border into Missouri and stole slaves away from their owners and sent them into freedom. Sarah pressed to find out way he fought for the South if that were the case.  “An act of treachery,” he relayed. He and three Confederate had planned to make a midnight raid on Morgan L. Walker, a rich farmer in Jackson County, Missouri not far from Sarah’s family’s homestead. Quantrill and the three with him were going to steal slaves and other property.  Quantrill rode out ahead of the others to make sure the way was clear. When he entered Walker’s house the family kindly welcomed him and gave him dinner. The Walker’s hospitality caused him to reconsider his actions. Instead of returning to his comrades and carrying out the raid, Quantrill revealed the whole plot to Walker and his sons, even telling them where the men were hiding out.  Heavily armed, Walker and one of his sons crept up on the raiders. The Walkers opened fire and one of the raiders was killed. The other two temporarily escaped. They were eventually found and murdered.    

Afterwards Quantrill, Morgan Walker and his sons joined forces.  “By December 1860,” Quantrill elaborated to Sarah, he was “at the head of a powerful guerrilla band on the side of the South.  “When the war broke out my name was already a terror to free state Kansas,” he concluded.  

The very young and very naïve Sarah found Quantrill’s candor refreshing.  She spent every moment away from him devising ways to leave her family and make her life with the reengage.  On one occasion a neighbor saw Quantrill and Sarah riding together near a creek. When her father learned Sarah had disobeyed he took her horse away from her.  Not even that could stop her from seeing Quantrill. At the first opportunity she walked to his camp and explained what had occurred. Kate told the Kansas City Star in 1926 that she and Quantrill decided then to marry.  In the spring of 1861 Quantrill escorted her to the home of a country preacher six miles away and the pair exchanged vows.  Their wedding night was spent in an abandoned cabin. Quantrill insisted she change her name to Kate Clark in order to keep their relationship a secret from his enemies.  Sarah King, now Kate Clarke, (Quantrill’s middle name) agreed.

According to the May 23, 1926 edition of the Kansas City Star report, Mrs. Quantrill accompanied her husband on various raids he made on pro-Union towns in Kansas at the end of 1861.  Quantrill left the Confederate Army five months after the Civil War started because he decided the South was not using the fierce tactics needed to fight as they should.  His reputation for hijacking Union mail coaches, attacking Union soldiers and stealing from them attracted numerous outlaws. Sarah shared a camp with brutal men motivated solely by revenge who traveled by night to keep from being caught by law enforcement.  According to the May 5, 1864 edition of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin newspaper the Daily Milwaukee News, she was with Quantrill on September 7, 1862 when he and his band attacked and looted Olathe, Kansas in the dark and early hours of the morning.  They quickly fled to an area close to the town of Wellington in Lafayette County, Missouri.     

Sarah and Quantrill briefly lived in a one room log cabin near the town of Wellington.  Federal troops, hot on the trail of Quantrill’s guerrillas, were spotted one night by a look-out man and the pair were forced to abandon their quaint home.  Sarah made a getaway with a fleet of horses her husband and his men had stolen. The reengage band met up with her once the coast was clear and regained possession of the fresh monts.  Sarah continued on without her husband and took refuge in an area east of Kansas City, Missouri known as Bone Hill.  

In her absence Quantrill’s followers grew to four-hundred plus men.  Confederate leaders recognized the powerful influence his raiders had an unofficially commissioned them to defend the rebel agenda by terrorizing and robbing areas and individuals who sympathized with the North.  Quantrill’s raiders would ride full gallop into a town armed with pistols firing their weapons left and right. Then they would wheel their horses around and be off and away like the wind. Quantrill and his men knew the land better than the Indians.  They were always able to elude authorities with their hard riding and superior knowledge of the country.

Sarah was hiding out near the area of Fort Scott, Kansas on October 17, 1862 when her husband and group attacked Shawnee, Kansas.  The rebels burned the town to the ground and killed a dozen people by shooting them in the back of the head.  

Quantrill and his young bride did not reunite until the end of August 1863.  By that time Quantrill and his band of outlaws had already viciously attacked Lawrence, Kansas.  According to the September 1977 edition of Real West Magazine, Sarah reported that Quantrill “did little other than plan and execute the horrible raid.  The by word was “kill! Kill! Kill!” He ordered all males in the town old enough to carry a rifle be destroyed; no woman or children were to be harmed.”  The outcome was much more severe than that. The town’s bank and businesses were robbed, one hundred and fifty-four buildings belonging to Union sympathizers were ruined, and more than one hundred and eighty men and boys were slain.  

Sarah was waiting for Quantrill outside of Lawrence after the massacre.  She told the Kansas City Star that “arising before dawn on the morning of the Lawrence massacre, anxious about Quantrill’s safety, she had left the bushwhacker camp in Missouri and ridden ninety miles in five hours, reaching him, as it turned out, just in time to accompany him on the arduous two-day retreat back across the line.  His blood-thirsty group was then disbanded and the couple fled the area and headed to Texas.”  

The Quantrills spent several weeks camping around Missouri and it was during this time he presented her with a myriad of jewels his had acquired while in Lawrence, seven diamond rings, three pins and four sets of earrings.  By the end of 1863 the couple had returned to the Mid-west and established a hideout in the Perche Hills of Howard County, Missouri. Their temporary dwelling in Howard County was “as close to a permanent home the couple ever had,” Sarah told the Kansas City Star in 1926.  Quantrill introduced Sarah to a variety of vices there including drinking and smoking.  “We whiled away many hours beside the stove, planning the future,” she recalled to the Star.  

Quantrill remained in the hills until early 1864.  While lying low the reengage had a chance to organize a new group of guerrilla fighters and were planning attacks on towns that backed the Union’s position on the war.  Sarah occasionally traveled with her husband and his men from location to location. The warriors always treated her with absolute respect. Quantrill trusted her explicitly, so much so that when he needed two bad teeth removed he preferred to have Sarah do the job over a medic he didn’t know or could not depend on.  

In June 1864 Quantrill sent Sarah to St. Louis and he returned to Jackson County, Missouri to rendezvous with some of his old followers.  Some of the guerrillas went with Quantrill to Kentucky, others rode into Texas. Among the latter was Jesse James. Sarah wasn’t the only female to reportedly leave Quantrill and his raiders, Sue Mundy, a guerrilla from Tennessee was said to have fled the band of fighters in 1865.  

According to the October 11, 1864 edition of the Louisville, Kentucky newspaper the Louisville Journal, Sue was an artillery specialist with Quantrill’s group.  Her last ride as a guerrilla was in March 1865. The group was headed for Paris, Tennessee when home guards, loyal to the Union, fired on Mundy and the others, killing one man and injuring another.  

Sue and another guerrilla found shelter for their wounded companion in a barn, but word reached the Union garrison in Louisville of the skirmish and the whereabouts of Sue and the other survivors.  Union troops surrounded the barn and Sue agreed to surrender after being assured they would be treated as prisoners of war. Three days after their capture Sue was hanged. Once the deceased was buried in an unmarked grave the truth about Sue was revealed to the public.  Sue was in truth a man and his name was Marcellus Jerome Clark. Nicknamed Sue by his superiors because of his long hair, Union officials assumed the twenty year old killer was indeed a woman. For a brief period of time Sarah King and Sue Mundy were two of the most sought after female outlaws connected with Quantrill.  

Quantrill’s end came at a fight near Smiley, Kentucky at the Wakefield farm.  According to a report in the August 3, 1888 edition of the Fort Wayne, Indiana newspaper the Fort Wayne Weekly Gazette, it is believed that Quantrill was trying to reach General Robert E. Lee at Virginia and surrender with him.  In Kentucky he called himself Captain Clarke and his men wore Federal uniforms. But their identity was discovered.  On May 10, 1866, Quantrill and his party were attacked. In trying to escape two of his men were killed and he was mortally wounded.  Sarah was gone by the time he took his last breath and wasn’t notified until weeks after his passing that he had left her more than $500.  Sarah used the funds Quantrill left her along with the money she received from the sale of the jewels he had stolen, to set herself up in the boarding house business.  Authorities found the widow in a small town in southwest Missouri. Unable to recover the rings and pins Quantrill gave her they decided to let the matter go.  

Sarah abandoned the life of a business owner in the late 1860s and returned to Blue Springs, Missouri to live near her parents.  She spent the money she earned from the boarding house and it subsequent sale to rebuild her parent’s home which had burned to the ground in an accidental fire.  

Sarah married two more times after losing Quantrill and had one child, Bertha Ivins-Evans.  In late 1928 Sarah moved to the Jackson County Home for the Aged to live out the remainder of her days.  While a friendly person most said, she seldom spoke to anyone and kept, for the most part, to herself.  

Sarah King died on February 4, 1930.  She was laid to rest at the Maple Hill Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas.  She was eighty-two years old when she passed.

Cherokee Park Ranch

Livermore, Colorado

Free your cowgirl spirit with an escape to America’s #1 Dude Ranch, according to USA Today. A Colorado staple since 1886, Cherokee Park Ranch is an all-inclusive experience nestled among the beautiful Rocky Mountain landscape. Fill your day with everything from horseback rides to fly fishing, and the nights with square dancing, star gazing and so much more. Indulge in homestyle cookin’ and rest in the rustic lodge accommodations.

Want more information? 970-493-6522, Facebook, or www.cherokeeparkranch.com

C Lazy U Ranch

Granby, Colorado

Looking for luxury? Look no further than the C Lazy U Ranch. Filled with fine dining, lavish accommodations, award-winning spa services and more, this ranch experience is sure to leave you refreshed and revitalized, but still in touch with your inner cowgirl through trail rides and an array of outdoor activities.

Want more information? 970-887-3344, Facebook, or https://www.clazyu.com/

Blacktail Ranch

Wolf Creek, Montana

The best way to explore the outdoors is on horseback, and the endless landscape at Blacktail Ranch will allow you to wind your way through the beautiful countryside of Montana. Experience authentic hospitality, cozy accommodations and activity options for everyone to indulge in nature’s playground.

Want more information? 866-235-4330, Facebook, or http://blacktailranch.com/

CM Ranch

Dubois, Wyoming

Expansive land surrounded by the Shoshone National Forest and Fitzpatrick Wilderness, create an intimate setting for the CM Ranch. Filled with fun for the whole family, your days can be spent exploring on horseback, swimming in the cool blue water, biking and more. Unwind in the evenings with dancing, cookouts, cowboy poetry and music that fills the atmosphere with nostalgia.

Want more information? 307-455-2331, Facebook, or https://cmranch.com/

Creek Ranch

Santa Rosa, New Mexico

The Wild West at its best can be found in a visit to Creek Ranch. The spirit of the cowgirl can be felt among the red desert landscape, the huge arroyos and canyons, iconic rolling tumble-weeds, panoramic scenery and wildlife inhabiting the surroundings. This working guest ranch provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity to fulfill all your cherished dreams of the western lifestyle.

Want more information? 575-472-0472, Facebook, or https://www.creek-ranch.com/

Gros Ventre River Ranch

Kelly, Wyoming

Located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the Gros Ventre River Ranch is full of impeccable views and luxury indulgences, done the Western way. Explore Mother Nature at her finest with a wide variety of outdoor activities and then finish off the day with gourmet, family-style meals before retreating to the comfort of your historic cabin.

Want more information? 307-733-4138, Facebook, or https://www.grosventreriverranch.com/

R Lazy S Ranch

Teton Village, Wyoming

Centered in the beautiful valley of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, R Lazy S Ranch provides all the crisp, fresh mountain air a cowgirl dreams of. Partake in all the invigorating activities the ranch offers, or simply relax and enjoy a scenic ride followed by an evening of propping your feet up and soaking in the sunset.

Want more information? 307-733-2655, Facebook, or https://rlazys.com/

Western Pleasure Guest Ranch

Sandpoint, Idaho

A true encounter with the ranch experience, heritage, horsemanship, and spirit of the West can be found at the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch. Sublime mountain views set the stage for a multitude of activities, intertwined with gourmet dining experiences for a unique and memorable getaway that is any cowgirl’s dream.

Want more information? 888-863-9066, Facebook, or https://westernpleasureranch.com/

For more information on the Dude Ranchers’ Association, call 307-587-2330 or visit https://duderanch.org/ and plan your dream cowgirl vacation today!

Follow them on Facebook and Instagram!

Charlotte was the product of an affair between two, lovesick people who had pledged themselves to one another for an eternity.  They were eager to marry, but their nuptials were postponed by a death in the family. Charlotte’s father left his betrothed in Louisiana, where they lived, to settle the estate he had inherited in Kentucky.  For a while the pair continued their romance through the mail. When the letters stopped coming, Charlotte’s mother assumed the young man had had a change of heart, and she married another. When her fiancé eventually returned and learned that his beloved had wed, he was heartbroken.  After a brief encounter, the two separated. He left her to her husband and returned to France where he was born. He never knew he had a daughter.

Ashamed and financially unable to care for her child, Charlotte’s mother sent her to live with her uncle in New Orleans.  Charlotte was raised believing that her parents had died and that her mother was her aunt. At the age of twelve, Charley left the boarding school where her uncle had sent her and married a riverboat pilot.  The couple had two children, a boy and girl. Three months after the birth of her daughter, news came that her husband had been killed. “It was a man named Jamieson . . . ,” the messenger reluctantly began. “They argued over an old grudge and then Jamieson shot your husband.”  

Charley went through the next month of her life in a fog, devastated by her loss.  After paying for her husband’s burial and settling his outstanding accounts, she had very little money left to support her children.  Being a woman and untrained for any profession, she found acquiring reputable work impossible. She decided to disguise herself as a man to gain employment.  “It was my only resort from starvation or worse,” she later wrote in her autobiography. She placed her children in the care of the Sisters of Charity and set about to make a new life for herself, vowing all along to find Jamieson and kill him for depriving her son and daughter of their parents.

Charley was convincing as a man.  She cut her hair to the proper length and donned a suit.  She found a job as a cabin boy on a steamer and rose through the ranks to eventually become a pantry man.            

Charley’s work would take her up and down the rivers of the Midwest.  She kept a keen eye out for Jamieson at every port. Her first confrontation with Jamieson, outside Schell’s Saloon in St. Louis, left her with a broken thigh.  It would take six months for her to heal. Once she was up and around, she decided to head for the “Land of Gold.”

In the spring of 1855, she joined a wagon train as a bushwhacker and headed for California–the only woman in a party of sixty men.  Charley recorded her overland route with great detail. Her diary included such trail markers as Court House, Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff, Mormon Ferry, and Independence Rock.  Her journal would later be used to guide several wagon trains bound for California and Oregon.

Charley settled in a mining camp in the Sierras where she panned for gold.  All attempts at finding the Mother Lode were a bust so she sought other business opportunities–owning and operating a saloon, running a pack mule service, and buying into a cattle ranch.  The cattle ranch was the most successful venture, turning a $30,000 profit in a short time.

In 1859, Charley relocated to Colorado and began panning for gold around Pikes Peak.  Again, she had no luck in finding the glittery substance and decided to abandon prospecting in favor of opening a bakery and saloon.  She made money rapidly, but a bout of mountain fever forced her to give up the business and move to Denver. While she was there she became preoccupied with the news of civil war breaking out.  She felt compelled to join the fight against slavery and was sure her disguise would afford her the opportunity to do so.

In September 1862, she enlisted and served with both the Second Colorado Cavalry and the First Colorado Battery.  She was assigned to General Samuel R. Curtis’ regiment at Keokuk, Iowa, and because of her good penmanship was detailed to headquarters as a clerk.  When the Battle of Westport in Missouri broke out, Charley acted as a courier, carrying orders and messages all over the command area. Often she had to travel to the front.  Her commanders praised her for her “coolness and bravery.”

Charley was wounded at the Battle of Westport.  Confederate soldiers found her on the ground alongside her dead horse.  She had a gunshot wound in her leg and a saber cut in her shoulder. She was taken prisoner by the Rebels and removed to a nearby hospital.

Army doctor Jesse Terry removed the coat from Charley’s unconscious form.  While inspecting the cut on her shoulder, he made the startling discovery that Charley was a woman.  He decided to keep the news to himself. He dressed her wound and replaced her jacket, never saying a word to anyone.

Charley continued with her life dressed in male attire.  She never failed to provide for her children and never fully abandoned her search for Jamieson.  It was while she was on an excursion three miles from Denver City that she came in contact with the man for a second time. Charley and Jamieson rode toward one another on a narrow road through a mountain pass.  He was riding a mule, and from a distance Charley thought there was something familiar about his countenance.  As they neared each other, she began to realize that it was Jamieson. At roughly the same time, he recognized her, too.  He went for his revolver, but Charley was a second too quick for him.

Charley sent a bullet Jamieson’s way, and he tumbled off his mule.  A bullet from his gun whistled past Charley’s head, just missing her.  She leveled her revolver at him as he tried to pull himself to his feet.  Two more rounds sailed into his body, and he fell down again. He wasn’t dead, but Charley was determined to change that.  Just as she removed a second revolver from her holster, two hunters came upon the dispute. The hunters stopped the gunplay, constructed crude irons, and hauled Jamieson to Denver.  Charley followed along behind them, cursing the murderer of her husband the whole way.

Jamieson was taken to a boardinghouse and examined by a physician.  Three bullets were removed from his body, but none of the wounds proved fatal.  Within a few weeks, he was back on his feet and telling anyone who would listen the whole story of Charley’s past life.  He explained why she was after him and absolved her of blame. He left town and headed for New Orleans.

When word of Charley’s true identity made the papers, she became famous.  Her efforts during the Civil War were now made all the more astounding in light of the truth of her gender.  Charley sought refuge from her newfound popularity back in the mountains around Denver. There she married a bartender by the name of H. L. Guerin.  The two ran a saloon and a boardinghouse before selling both businesses and mining for gold. The couple had two children together. Some historians believe there were more than one “Charley Hatfield” and that the stories of their lives have intertwined over the years to become one.  Still others insist that there was only one person by that name–a daring woman unafraid to fight for liberty, for herself, and for the nation. Historical records show that she eventually moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, and lived out her days surrounded by her loving family.

Want more Wild Women of the West stories?

Mrs. Hickok was born Agnes Louise Messman on August 23, 1826, in Eastern Alsace, France. Her mother died when she was four years old, and, shortly thereafter, her father took Agnes to America. The Messmans settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, when she was sixteen years old. As a child Agnes was an avid horseback rider. Her father helped mold her remarkable skill into a circus routine. In 1841, Agnes met a circus clown named William Lake Thatcher. He was a native New Yorker and used his connections to secure a job for Agnes with the circus he worked for, the Spaulding and Rogers Circus.

In addition to displaying impressive equestrian abilities, Agnes performed daring feats of skill on a high-wire.  By 1859, she was billed the “queen of the high wire” and the most famous equestrienne the American circus had ever known.

Although her father disapproved of William Lake Thatcher because of his profession and the vagabond lifestyle that went with the job, Agnes married him anyway. The pair wed in Louisiana in August 1842. William dropped the name of Thatcher so his and his bride’s names would fit on the advertisement for the circus. Billed as Bill and Agnes Lake, the couple worked for Spaulding and Rogers for more than ten years. During that time, they saved much of the money they earned with the hopes of starting a circus of their own. Their dream was partially realized in 1860 when Lake formed a partnership with veteran circus man John Robinson. The show was known as the Robinson Lake Circus. William and Agnes devoted six years to the venture, then moved to their own production. During the time the pair had a daughter they named Emma.

At the conclusion of the first season of the Lake Circus, Agnes had toured all of Europe in an equestrian-themed play entitled Mazeppa. Back in the States, Lake’s troupe spent three years performing in various locations from Syracuse, New York, to Independence, Missouri. Thirty-five wagons transported the show from town to town. 

In mid-1869, the Lake Circus returned to Granby, Missouri, and then traveled west as far as Abilene, Kansas. During the Lakes’ stay in Abilene, William got into an altercation with a man named Jake Killian (some historical records spell the last name Gillen). The Cheyenne, Wyoming, newspaper the Cheyenne Daily Leader reported that Killian had sneaked into the circus tent and was trying to see the show without paying. William confronted him, the two men argued, and William kicked Killian out of the tent. Killian was furious. He pulled a gun out of his pocket and shot William in the head, killing him instantly.

Agnes halted the show’s run long enough to bury her husband and get her financial affairs in order. She then reassembled the circus troupe and continued on with a series of scheduled performances. Lake Circus did well under Agnes’s direction. She proved to be not only a talented performer but also a smart businesswoman. By 1872 she had earned a substantial amount from touring and decided to sell the show to a competitor. She used the funds from the sale to invest in a lithograph business in Cincinnati. Agnes lost everything and was forced to return to the circus.

Bill Hickok, who had met Agnes in Kansas in 1869, was quite taken with the fearless founder of Lake Circus.  He wrote her to express his concern for her well-being and share with her what was happening in his life since they last saw one another in Kansas. The two then began regularly corresponding.

In 1874, Agnes and Bill’s paths converged in Rochester, New York. Bill was there with the Buffalo Bill Cody western show, and Agnes was in the city working for the Great Eastern Circus. According to the Des Moines, Iowa, newspaper The Tribune, dated August 29, 1929, it was during this time that Bill told Agnes he was in love with her and asked her to marry him. Until Emma was grown and settled into a profession or married, Agnes did not feel she could commit to his proposal. It wasn’t until Agnes’s daughter Emma married in 1875 in Cincinnati that the chance presented itself for Bill and Agnes to see one another again. This time the two were in Cheyenne, Wyoming. 

Bill was making final arrangements to travel to the Black Hills of Dakota to search for gold. Agnes was in town visiting relatives. When Bill learned she was in Cheyenne, he hurried to see her. “Wild Bill then renewed his suit,” The Tribune article noted, “and pressed his claims with such persistency that the engagement was perfected and arrangements concluded for the wedding, which it was agreed would take place on the following day.”

Less than two months after the couple were married, Bill departed for South Dakota. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills by Horatio Ross in 1874 had prompted a mad rush to the region, and nothing could keep Bill from his plan to travel there and find a rich claim of his own. Agnes chose to stay behind in Cincinnati. When she waved goodbye to her husband the day he left, she had no way of knowing it would be the last time she would see him alive.

On the afternoon of August 2, 1876, Hickok was engaged in a friendly game of poker in the Number 10 Saloon. Sometime during the game, Jack “Broken Nose” McCall, a former buffalo hunter, entered the saloon. No one paid attention to him until he pulled a .45-caliber six-shooter and shot Bill in the head. The bullet perforated the back of Bill’s skull, exited the front, and lodged into the arm of the poker player sitting opposite Hickok. McCall fled the scene but was quickly apprehended.

Agnes was with her daughter in Ohio when she received the news that Bill had been murdered. Bill Hickok was laid to rest in the Ingleside area of Deadwood, the site of the town’s first cemetery.

In April 1877, Agnes had a monument erected in Bill Hickok’s memory at his gravesite at Mount Moriah’s Cemetery in Deadwood. She returned to work, performing with the John Robinson Circus until the fall of 1880. Agnes lived with her daughter and her family in Ohio and moved with them to Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1883.

Agnes Lake Hickok died on August 22, 1907, at the home of her daughter and son-in-law. According to the August 23, 1907, edition of the New York Times, Agnes died of “general debility.” “She had been an invalid for ten years previous to her death.” Agnes was eighty years old when she passed away and was buried in Cincinnati, Ohio, next to her first husband.