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Buffalo Gals: Women of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
A frayed lasso dropped over the neck of an angry steer and the cowgirl on the other end jerked it tight. The rope snapped in two, and the animal raced off to join the other equally agitated steer.
Eighteen-year-old Lucille Mulhall studied the wild herd, grabbed a rope, and spurred her horse forward. Setting her sights on another steer, she twirled her rope over her head and threw it out. The lasso fell over one of the animal’s horns. Lucille quickly jerked the rope loose and tossed it out again. This time the throw was true. Her horse stopped quickly and the steer was jerked on its back. Lucille jumped off her ride and quickly tied the feet of the animal together. Forty-five seconds had passed since the steer had been roped and then tied. Lucille Mulhall, the petite teenager from Oklahoma, had set a steer-roping record at yet another country fair.
It was the spring of 1903, and before the year ended the well-known female conqueror of beef and horn had broken every existing record set by her male counterparts. Famous humorist and writer Will Rogers watched the graceful, fearless roper and rider from his seat in the rodeo stands in Oklahoma City. He was a fan of Lucille’s. Among some of her other fans were President Theodore Roosevelt, Tom Mix, and Buffalo Bill Cody.
To learn more about Lucille Mulhall and the other women who performed with Cody read Buffalo Gals: Women of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
