Lillian Smith was born on February 3, 1871, in Coleville, California. Her first performance with the Wild West Show was in St. Louis in the later part of 1886. Her proficiency with the rifle left such a lasting impression on the audiences that within six months she had earned a spot on the regular show lineup. Lillian’s remarkable target-shooting act kept audiences on the edge of their seats. Each performance ended with her firing at a glass ball that was tossed into the air. She would purposely miss it three out of four times. The bullet from the last shot would shatter the ball into pieces. It was that display of skill that prompted U.S. and European newspapers to proclaim her to act to be “spellbinding and captivating.” Lillian Smith, who was billed as the California Girl, left Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1889 and formed her own short-lived western program. Lillian retired from performing in the mid-1920s and lived out the rest of her days in a cabin along the banks of the Salt Fork River in Oklahoma.
