How she managed to get from Missouri to Wyoming while still in her early teens remains a mystery, but nonetheless her career as a camp follower started when, at the tender age of fourteen, she arrived in the roaring outpost of Rawlins. Some tales have it that she had gone west as the consort of a young army lieutenant, and that her mother, remarried to a pioneer, found her in that boisterous military town and took her to Utah. In any event she came back into circulation two years later, for in 1866 she was duly married to one George White in Cheyenne. Following this felicitous turn of affairs she and her husband journeyed to Denver, where he was able to support her in a fine, high style. Unfortunately, she did not take to this pleasant existence, but shortly began to yearn after the cavalry. Leaving her husband to his Denver duties, she appeared all during 1867 and 1868 in various forts throughout Wyoming. It was at this particular time in her career that she was supposed to have earned the nickname of Calamity Jane. Undoubtedly the title was bestowed upon her by barroom companions who had learned the sad truth that Martha Jane’s appearance on the scene boded a long and arduous night of drinking; but in her maudlin and confused autobiography she tells of assisting in an Indian fight and for her splendid services being gratefully given the name by a Captain Pat Egan. In a later interview Egan denied this, claiming that the only time he had ever seen the woman was while escorting her out of a barracks so that the men could get some sleep. From Wyoming she went to Hays City, Kansas, still following the Seventh Cavalry, her chosen military unit. Six years later she turned up again, this time disguised as a man and marching with General Crook’s police force, which was trying to keep settlers out of the Hills. Her autobiography claims that she also accompanied Custer’s command on its famous exploratory march, but this does not appear to be true. After the discovery of gold in Deadwood, she found the high life in that town so completely to her liking that she made it her home base. In time she fastened herself so securely among the legends of the metropolis that she was thereafter known solely as Calamity Jane of Deadwood. Taking advantage of the high romance which surrounded Wild Bill’s name after his death, Calamity made haste to pass the story around that he had been her only true love; and although there was no evidence of any sort that he even knew who she was, her last words, when she died in 1903, were a plea to be buried next to him.