Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • F A L L 2 0 2 2 64 WHO WAS THE "CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA"? Her name was Libby Collins, but don't look to Hollywood for any sense of true history. The 1954 movie by the same name, starring Barbara Stan- wyck and Ronald Reagan, is a cheesy Western rife with the stereotypes common to the period. Even the main character, the so-called Cattle Queen herself, had a different name (Si- erra Nevada Jones) and was from a different state (Texas vs. Illinois) than Mrs. Collins. The real Cattle Queen of Montana had a life of true grit, achievement, and a sheer will to survive whatever circum- stances befell her. She once described her life as being "buf- feted about by circumstances, hurried hither and thither by the decrees of Fate and pushed forward along unknown paths by uncontrollable events." She demonstrated an indomitable spirit that the pulpy film adaptation fails to capture. Libby Collins was born Elizabeth Smith in 1844 in Rock- ford, Illinois. She was the ninth of ten children. At age 10, she moved with her family to Madison, Iowa, considered a fron- tier town at the time. It wasn't long before her father caught the "gold fever" bug, and in 1855, at age 11, young Elizabeth joined her parents in the long trek for Colorado's Cripple Creek mining district in search of a better life, ultimately spending most of this time in the Denver area. The Smiths left the rest of the family behind, with some being married and settled. It would be another eight years before Libby would ulti- mately end up in Montana. She grew up quickly in Colorado. Libby did long days of back-breaking work just to survive. At the young age of 11 or 12, she was forced to become the main worker in the house- hold, cooking for boarders while her father was off prospect- ing and her mother lay ill. Later, she recalled: "The task was far from being an easy one. Our food was cooked over a fire- place, and at times it would seem that my face was fairly blis- tered from the heat and my eyes blinded by the smoke. But to complain was never one of my traits of nature, neither was the expression 'give up' ever included in my limited vocab- ulary, and I struggled on, hoping that better times and more comforts would soon fall to my lot." T h e o f by DOUG STEVENS CATTLE QUEEN MONTANA MONTANA R e a l e e IMAGE COURTESY OF DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY

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