Journal Notes

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Along Came a Cowgirl: 

Daring and Iconic Women of the Rodeos and Wild West Shows

Skillful and graceful trick rider Faye Blesing and her Palomino horse Flash raced by excited fans at the Butte’s Buckaroo and Homecoming Days Rodeo in Butte, Montana, on July 6, 1951. Faye smiled at the spectators while demonstrating one of her most popular stunts, the Cossack, or Russian Drag. Pulling her feet out of the stirrups she flipped herself around in the saddle, looped one foot through a slot in the seat jockey, and hung upside down with her other foot hanging over her head, her head and hands dangling inches from the ground. With Flash running at breakneck speed, Faye twisted, spun, leaped, and swung around on the animal’s back. She ended her routine with a shoulder stand on Flash’s withers. The mesmerized crowd cheered the amazing tricks performed by the talented woman fans called the “sweetheart of the rodeo circuit.”  She’d made every trick look effortless.

Born on Christmas Day 1920 in Craig, Colorado, Faye was a teenager when her family relocated to southern California. Her father established the Lazy 3 Riding Stables in Burbank, where he rented saddles horses and provided wild horses for the movie studios. It was through her father’s business she perfected her riding technique, and at the age of sixteen, got her start in films. Prior to being a trick rider, Faye was a stunt woman. She doubled in numerous westerns performing feats considered too dangerous for Hollywood stars. Betty Grable and Rhonda Fleming were among the many actresses for whom she was a double.

The transition from film to the rodeo circuit was a natural for Faye. She would attend rodeos and watch the trick riders work and then go home and practice what she’d seen. For more than seven years, she rode in shows with various rodeos at Madison Square Garden in New York City. She even spent a month in Paris and Rome performing in historical venues.

Some of Faye’s friends and family considered trick riding a dangerous business. But in all the years she rode, she was injured only twice. Both accidents occurred when it was raining. The arenas where she and Flash were performing were muddy and slick. Flash slipped and fell, and Faye broke her leg one the first occasion and in her foot in the second. She credited her talented horse for keeping her safe through most of their career.

In 1942 she met Wag Blesing, a rodeo rider traveling in the same circuit, and the two married in 1944. Wag was the world champion bull-rider in 1947 and parlayed his love for horses and riding into film work. He was a stuntman and actor, and he and Faye occasionally worked together performing stunts in television shows such as F Troop and Wanted Dead or Alive.

Faye retired from trick riding in 1978. She and her husband then moved to Ramona, California, and opened a bar called the Wag Inn. Faye was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1987. She passed away on April 7, 1999, at the age of seventy-eight.

To learn more about the women who made rodeo history read Along Came a Cowgirl.

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Along Came a Cowgirl: 

Daring and Iconic Women of Rodeos and Wild West Shows

Bronc busting champion Kitty Wilkes won her first title at the Wild West Celebration Rodeo in Miles City, Montana, in 1916. The seventeen-year-old, New York native’s straightforwardness and untamed physical daring gave fans the impression she was born and bred into the rugged life of a Wyoming ranch. Few would have guessed she was new to the sport or that winning the top prize would inspire her to excel in other rodeos. From that exciting moment in Miles City she was determined to show the world that one need not be “born in the saddle” to be a crack rider.

Katherine Derre, whose stage name was Kitty Wilkes, was born on July 15, 1899. She had a natural talent for breaking horses and parlayed that skill into bronc riding in public showings. Not only did she have a way with wild horses, but she was also an exceptional trick and fancy rider. Owners of relay strings were eager to gain her services.

Between the rodeo in Montana in the summer of 1916 and the Pendleton Roundup in Pendleton, Oregon, in early fall of 1916, Kitty honed her bronc riding talent at ranches and rodeos throughout the West. She insisted on using the orneriest animals for training. Outlaw horses were blindfolded and saddled for her to ride. One encounter resulted in the horse bucking Kitty off and bruising her ribs. She wouldn’t allow the horse to beat her, however. She swung back into the saddle, refusing to leave it until the animal finally broke.

Kitty’s nickname was Diamond Girl because she had a diamond set in her front tooth. When needed, she would remove the diamond and pawn it for the entry fees to rodeo contests.

Her performance at the Pendleton Roundup in 1916 resulted in her being named the All-Around Champion Cowgirl. Among the many people she met during the roundup was Yakima Canutt. Canutt, who also competed at the rodeo, would go on to become one of Hollywood’s leading stuntmen. Kitty and Yakima fell in love and were married in Kalispell, Montana, in 1917.

Kitty was a fierce athlete who hated to lose. It was not uncommon for her to challenge women who outrode her, and she believed cheated, to a fistfight. In September 1918, she was disqualified from participating in a rodeo in Washington because she hit a rider in the mouth with a piece of wood.

Not content with being the top female bronc rider in the country, she aspired to be the top female relay racer as well. Rodeo fans loved to watch the petite woman fly past the grandstands on her horse, hurrying to meet the next mount waiting to be saddled and ridden to the next point. More than once Kitty would be finishing part of the race standing on the stirrups trying to get into the saddle. Her grit and resolve often paid off with a win.

The rodeo stars Kitty often competed against were Mabel Strickland, Bonnie McCarroll, and Prairie Rose Henderson.

Kitty Wilkes was eighty-eight years old when she died on June 3, 1988.

To learn more about the women of the rodeo read the new book

Along Came A Cowgirl

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Along Came a Cowgirl:

Daring and Iconic Women of Rodeos and Wild West Shows

Spain.  September 1932.  Alice Greenough, a seasoned cowgirl, sits astride an angry steer.  In the place of a saddle a surcingle, a sort of plastic girdle has been fashioned around the animal’s back and cinched to his stomach.  He doesn’t like it.  Alice’s attractive face is focused as she secures a good grip on the flat braided rope tied to the steer’s flank.  When she was ready the bucking chute opened, and the angry beast stormed into the arena.  The spectators were on their feet, cheering.  Alice was quickly thrown from the steer’s back, but not off the animal entirely.  He wouldn’t stop kicking and jumping long enough for the rider to drop safely to the ground.  Matadors dressed in traditional garb raced to the scene and threw their capes over the steer’s head to slow him.  Finally, the cowgirl leapt off.

Thirty-year-old Alice was one of only six people in history, and the only woman, to avoid injury riding a steer with a surcingle.  Bullfighting fans erupted with applause at the achievement.  Alice bowed and waved at the enthusiastic onlookers.

Alice was born daring.  Her parents, Benjamin and Myrtle Greenough, were residents of Red Lodge, Montana.  They welcomed their daughter to the world on March 17, 1902.  Benjamin was a rancher, and his seven children helped him work the property.  Alice learned to rope and ride at a young age.  By the time she was fourteen she was delivering the U. S. mail on horseback to friends and neighbors along a thirty-seven-mile route around Billings.  She was still in grammar school when she began riding saddle broncs at local rodeos, and a few years later, she and her sister Marge were hired by the Jack King Wild West Show to be trick riding performers.

Alice won the World’s Championship in women’s bronc riding in Boston in 1933, 35, and 36, and again in 1940 in New York.  Her professional career spanned more than twenty-four years.  She was one of the stars of the Madison Square Garden rodeo for eighteen straight seasons.  She traveled throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada competing for titles in relay racing, trick roping and riding.  Alice toured England and Australia and in 1934 won the women’s bronc riding event in Melbourne.  During her travels, she met with British royalty including King George V and the Duke of Windsor.

Not content with performing solely in Wild West Shows, Alice was eventually hired as a stunt woman for motion pictures and provided riding lessons to the King of the Cowboys and the Queen of the West, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Alice was married twice, to Roy Cabill and then to Joe Orr.  She and Joe created their own show, the Greenough-Orr Rodeo.  Their rodeo featured the first woman’s barrel racing event.  Not only did Alice help produce the various shows, but she also participated in the acts as well.

Alice Greenough-Orr was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1985.  She passed away at the age of ninety-three at her home in Tucson, Arizona, in 1995.

To learn more about iconic cowgirls who made rodeo history read Along Came a Cowgirl. 

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Along Came a Cowgirl:

Daring and Iconic Women of Rodeos and Wild West Shows

Rodeo fans at the Round-Up in Pendleton, Oregon, in 1928 were thrilled by the prospect of meeting the cowgirl actress chosen to reign over the prestigious event.  Queen Mary Duncan had entertained motion picture audiences with her horseback riding skills in the popular silent films Four Devils and The River.  Audience members hoped she would demonstrate some of the roping and riding techniques she performed on screen at the event, maybe even participate in a relay race or two.  Champion trick rider Mabel Strickland, who had ruled as queen over the prior year’s program, had dazzled ticket buyers with an exhibition of her talent.  Queen Mary’s contribution to the festivities would not be as daring.

Born on August 13, 1894, in Luttrellville, Virginia, Mary learned to ride at a young age and could have gone on to work in Wild West shows but decided to attend Cornell University instead.  She left college after two years to go on the stage.  She made a phenomenal success in the Broadway plays Poppy and Shanghai Gesture.  On the merits of those performances, she was signed by Fox Film Corporation to appear in a series of films portraying a feisty rancher’s daughter who helped fight off cattle thieves.  The vivacious, auburn-haired beauty’s talent for the screen equaled her talent on stage.

Mary Duncan had been in Pendleton a month prior to the Round-Up.  She arrived with director Edward Sedgwick and other cast and crew members to film a movie entitled Our Daily Bread.  Sedgwick wanted to use the rodeo as a backdrop for the setting.  It was the first time in motion picture history that the Round-Up would be both heard and seen on the screen.  The director had filmed the rodeo in 1924 when his then wife, Josie Sedgwick had been the queen of the event.  Unlike Josie’s court, Mary’s did not feature cowboy attendants.  The Round-Up board of directors appointed a traditional court: two princesses from Pendleton and two from the surrounding area.  Queen Mary and her attendants appeared in the parade dressed in white leather costumes trimmed in black.  Mary rode in a stagecoach and her attendants followed her on horseback.

When the Round-Up concluded, Mary, Edward Sedgwick, and the others associated with the production of Our Daily Bread remained in the area.  Local newspaper reporters followed Mary’s every move, referring to her as “Queen” in the articles written about her and the film being made in the wheatfields and hills of Umatilla County.  “The people out here are perfectly marvelous,” she told a reporter for the La Grande Observer. “I wish you would convey for me how glorious my time in Oregon has been.”

Pendleton residents who spent time with the actress during her visit praised her for her charm and kindness.  Some claimed she was one of the “most talented Round-Up Queens who never rode a horse.” The community invited Mary back to the rodeo to serve again as the queen of the event years after she returned to Hollywood, but she declined the offer, insisting the honor should go to a working cowgirl.

Queen Mary Duncan died on May 9, 1993, at the age of ninety-eight.

Learn more about iconic cowgirls like Queen Mary when you read Along Came a Cowgirl

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Along Came a Cowgirl:

Daring and Iconic Women of the Rodeo and Wild West Shows

“Coming Soon!” read the billboards, “World Championship Rodeo! $10,000 in cash prizes! Biggest, wildest, most thrilling rodeo ever held!”

“What’s a rodeo?” inquired the lady in the large, wide-brimmed hat decorated with plumes and flowers.

“Darned if I know,” replied the woman in the puffed blouse and fluted skirt. “Let’s go and find out.”

Within the first five minutes, they got more thrills than they had ever had in their lives before. They saw a cowboy leap from the back of a running horse to the hurricane deck of a galloping steer – a great, wild brute fresh from the Great Plains, weighing nine hundred pounds and every pound full of fight. The steers seemed to be the meanest, most devilish animals that ever walked on four feet, but they were nothing compared to the outlaw horses the women watched trying to throw riders.

This attraction called a “rodeo” was no place for a weakling. It seemed, indeed, to be a man’s game, a red-blooded, two-fisted sort of a game where you would never expect to find a woman. However, the ladies were there, riding with the best of them. Outlaw horses or wild steers couldn’t scare those females from the cattle country.

For more than six years I’ve been writing about those brave, talented ladies in the Iconic Cowgirls column for this magazine. After so many articles and with the enormous interest in women in the rodeo sports, it seemed fitting to pen a book about those women whose names resounded in rodeo arenas across the nation in the early twentieth century. Along Came a Cowgirl: Daring and Iconic Women of Rodeos and Wild West Shows highlights the ladies who ventured into the male dominated rodeo and trick riding world, defying all expectations.

In the beginning, rodeo events were confined to men, but it wasn’t long after the exhibitions began to grow in popularity that women joined the festivities. All they needed to do to compete was prove themselves as fearless as the men, and they did.

The origins of the rodeo can be traced to the early days of the American cattle industry. Once or twice each year, cowboys rounded up cattle on the ranges and drove the herds to various marketing centers. There, in celebration of the roundups, they staged informal competitions designed to exhibit the skills of their trade. The first formal rodeo contest was held in Cheyenne in 1872; the first competition offering cash prizes was staged in Pecos, Texas, on July 4, 1883, and the first such event charging admission took place in Prescott, Arizona Territory, on July 4, 1888.

The four events contested at most of the early rodeos were saddle bronco riding, bareback bronco riding, steer wrestling, and calf roping. Other events featured included exhibitions of trick riding, shooting, and simple lassoing, as well as a number of humorous contests such as attempts to milk a wild cow or to saddle a bucking bronco.

Women began competing in rodeos as early as 1890. Many women, west of the Mississippi, had been roping cattle and riding broncos, along with their male counterparts, since settling in the wild frontier. It was their skill in the saddle that enabled them to find places in rodeos and performing in Wild West shows.

Wild West shows were touring the country eight years before public rodeos came into being. One of the first such shows, and certainly the most well-known, was Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West. Organized in 1883 by William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill’s show was a leading source of entertainment and education for more than thirty years. During that time of worldwide travel and countless presentations, a variety of performers captured the hearts and imaginations of fans everywhere. Among those popular entertainers were courageous women bronc riders, calf ropers, trick riders and trick shooters.

The popularity of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show prompted other businessmen to produce their own programs. Among some of the other western themed exhibitions were the 101 Ranch Wild West show, Pawnee Bill’s Wild West, Colonel Cummins’ Wild West Indian Congress and Rough Riders of the World, and Diamond Dick’s Congress of World’s Western Champions. Cowgirls seeking to earn their living riding wild horses, twirling lassos, and wrestling steers signed on with the various Wild West shows. Many of those cowgirls were given titles that reflected the acts in which they excelled. Posters and flyers referring to the shows’ stars as “Champion Lady Bronc Rider,” “Best Relay Race Rider,” or “All-Around Champion Cowgirl of the World” were displayed in stores, railroad depots, restaurants, and other such establishments from coast to coast. Those labels attracted patrons, but, more often than not, the titles given to the cowgirls were unofficial.

Iconic cowgirls Fox Hastings, Tillie Baldwin, and Mabel Strickland were all billed at the same time as “Champion Lady Bulldogger.”  Mildred Douglas, Goldie St. Clair, and Prairie Rose Henderson were likewise labeled as the “Lady Bronc Riding Champion.”  Florence LaDue, Hazel Hickey Moore, and Bonnie Gray were all celebrated in the same time period as “Best Trick Roper.”  All the women were exceptional at their given talent, and all were proclaimed as top in their fields by the directors of the Wild West shows in which they rode. It wasn’t until women participated in rodeo events and won that they could officially be recognized as “champion,” or “best of…” in whatever category they were competing.

Lucille Mulhall was one of the first women superstars of the rodeo and Wild West shows. By the time she was eighteen, she had won numerous bronc riding and steer roping honors. In 1904, she won a gold medal for steer roping at the Cattle Convention Rodeo in Fort Worth. The three steers she roped in the show were picked out of an immense herd of wild and unruly beasts. She roped and tied the first one at one minute forty-five seconds. She cut that time down to one minute and eleven seconds with her second steer, and she dropped her third one in the remarkable time of forty seconds. Her total time for the three was three minutes and thirty-six seconds, several seconds faster than the nearest cowboy against whom she was competing. After her win in Texas, she was hailed as the “Queen of the Range.”

Mulhall set the stage for other daring cowgirls to follow. There was Blanche McGaughey, a bronc buster for the 101 Ranch Wild West Show who consistently won top honors at the Pendleton and Cheyenne rodeos and was recognized as the champion woman bronc buster of the northwest in 1912 and 1913; Pearl Biron, a trick roper who could flick the ashes off the cigarette of a fellow performer or a flag off the head of her horse; relay racing sensation Donna Card Glover who won multiple trophies at rodeos across the country, including the Yankee Stadium Rodeo in New York; and Lulu Parr, “Champion Lady Bucking Horse Rider of the World” who not only excelled at riding outlaw horses, but buffalos, too.

Along Came a Cowgirl: Daring and Iconic Women of Rodeos and Wild West Shows is the story of these riding marvels from yesteryear. Young women admired these cowgirls – women who dared to break society’s traditional roles, jump aboard a horse, and hold their own in a male profession. The women included in the book came from a variety of backgrounds and locations, but all had in common the desire to entertain crowds on the backs of their horses. With a lot of grit and determination, they were able to saddle up and follow their dreams.

Learn more about these amazing women when you read Along Came a Cowgirl

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Along Came a Cowgirl:

Daring and Iconic Women of Rodeos and Wild West Shows

Forword by Ken Amorosano

Publisher of COWGIRL and True West Magazines.

The Iconic horsewomen of the American West, as depicted in the pages of Along Came a Cowgirl: Daring and Iconic Women of Rodeos and Wild West Shows, were trailblazers in every sense of the word.  Proving themselves fearless, athletic, and above all, “good horsemen,” was not only a goal, but a mission in many of their lives.

Along this rough and storied path is a very rare narrative that includes world records set, true stardom, and a stream of broken dreams and in many cases, broken bones.

Adventure, freedom, and a tough American grit endeared many horsewomen of the early 20th century to enter the man’s world of rodeo and along with it came fame, fortune, and a hardscrabble lifestyle only the toughest could endure.

Chris Enss is a prolific chronicler of these women, giving insight to a rough and tumble brand of Cowgirl with moxie and a lot to prove.  Her mastery of getting to the core of the story is what makes Chris the gifted writer that she is.

Along Came A Cowgirl is an important historical account of the individual lives and stories that cemented the reputation and lore of the early American cowgirl chronicled by a writer who not only knows her subject intimately but is also a trailblazer as a woman of the West.  Chris Enss is well known for her historic compositions, books, and articles about women of the West and the history and times in which they lived.

With names like Mabel Strickland and Florence LaDue, these ladies were the superstars of their time, executing death-defying stunts atop speeding horse and going head-to-head with the men in bronc riding and steer wrestling competitions much to the delight of the crowds and to the chagrin of the rodeo men.

While competing for prize money in rodeos such as the Pendleton Round Up and Cheyenne Frontier Days, the lure of the Wild West Shows brought greater excitement and international fame.  Although they were competitors earning a living from prize money, they were entertainers more than anything and they reveled in the accolades of screaming audiences and relished precious moments in front of royalty in places they would never have dreamed of being.

Many of the cowgirls in Along Came A Cowgirl attained great fame becoming super stars in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show and many others including the 101 Ranch Wild West show, Pawnee Bill’s Wild West, and Colonel Cummins’ Wild West Indian Congress and Rough Riders of the World.

Not only did the young American cowgirls wow the crowds in Paris and New York, they also broke molds of the norm and set fashion trends all the while dressed to the nines in fancy boots, hats, scarves, colorful riding dresses, pants, and chaps. These were the true sweethearts of the rodeo, and no man was to stand in their way.  Although sometimes shunned by a prudent audience of big city ladies for riding in pants as unladylike, these spitfire mavericks were the Madonna’s of their time, and they lived and regaled in every minute of it.

Along Came a Cowgirl: Daring and Iconic Women of Rodeos and Wild West Shows is the story of these pioneering cowgirls who lived life to its fullest and who’s legacy still lives today in the lives of the modern-day cowgirl.

Email gvcenss@aol.com to enter to win a copy of Along Came a Cowgirl.

The September 2022 edition of Wild West Magazine included a review of

The Lady and the Mountain Man

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The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Library Journal Review

Isabella Bird is one of Colorado’s favorite historical figures. The fearless Englishwoman rode all over Colorado’s mountains in 1873, in bad weather and by herself. “The Lady and the Mountain Man” is a definitive treatment of Bird’s life.

Bird was an invalid, and doctors recommended sea voyages to improve her health. She was intrigued with the American West, and once healed, she came here by herself to explore the mountains. She settled in Estes Park where she met infamous mountain man Jim Nugent. Mauled by a grizzly, Mountain Jim was scarred and missing an eye, but Bird found him handsome. He had a reputation for violence, particularly when he was drunk, and Bird was warned against him.

The two fell in love, but a future together was not to be.

In this detailed account of the star-crossed lovers, the author — who is known for her books on Western women — plumbs both Colorado and British resources. In Enss’ hands, Bird is not a female oddity, but a woman of strength, courage, and loyalty

“A poignant biography of the survivors of Little Bighorn, a new collection of short stories, a biography of a Chinese frontier leader, a history of a new people of the West and a stark Western tale.”  True West Magazine   

Over the past two decades, Western Writers of America President Emeritus Chris Enss has established herself as one of the preeminent authors of Western women’s history. Her most recent, The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn (TwoDot, $26.95), sets a new standard for Western researchers seeking a greater understanding of the stories of survivors of war, epidemics and natural disasters in the post-Columbian era of the Western United States. Written with her longtime collaborator Howard Kazanjian and Chris Kortlander, a noted collector of George Armstrong and Elizabeth “Libbie” Bacon Custer primary materials, Enss’s book places the reader into the storyline of the lives of the 7th Cavalry officers and their ignoble leader Lt. Col. Custer just after the Battle of Little Bighorn. The authors’ narrative recounts the story of the widows of the seven married officers, before, during and after the battle—and how each of their lives were fated to be assigned to Custer’s 7th Cavalry at Fort Lincoln, Dakota Territory. At the center of the seven-decade chronicle is Libbie Custer, the acknowledged leader of the 7th Cavalry’s officers’ wives, a role she would hold until her passing in 1933. As the authors note, until her final breath four days before her 91st birthday, Libbie championed her late husband and lived her life as positively as possible in support of herself and those who survived those killed at Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876.

I particularly like The Widowed Ones for its expansion of our understanding of the well-chronicled Battle of Little Bighorn and the leadership of both the American and Indian allies and enemies of the Great Sioux War of 1876. I have thought for many years that historians of post-Civil War America still have a lot of material to quantify and qualify related to the aftermath and long-term effects of the violence meted out and absorbed by so many Americans of all ethnicities, races and religions. The post-traumatic effects of the War Between the States, which contributed to the frontier violence between settlers, Native peoples and the American military, also affected subsequent generations, especially those who had family killed or maimed in conflict during the settlement of the Western half the United States after 1865.

Enss’ next book, Along Came a Cowgirl: Daring and Iconic Women of Rodeos and Wild West Shows (TwoDot), will be on shelves in September 2022, but I believe she will be willing to shed tears on the page to write the stories of more women and their children, whose voices have been rarely or never heard before.

—Stuart Rosebrook