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w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m
this time came from cashing in on her widespread celebrity
status. She sold her autobiography, Life and Adventures of Ca-
lamity Jane, by Herself. This was a short pamphlet that she had
printed in great volume, full of exaggerations, half truths and
outright invention. However, it played right into her reputation;
she sold them wherever she traveled, and people lapped it up.
Back in Billings again, she began making frequent trips into
the new Yellowstone National Park. In 1897 she was issued "Spe-
cial Permit No. 1" and spent her time there selling her booklet
and postcards of herself to any and all tourists she could find.
There is a surviving photo of her there talking with tourists with
a bundle of her pamphlets in her hand.
By the 1890s, law and civilization had come to the West. It was
no longer the "wild West" of her youth, and she often found the
new societal norms at odds with her independent, freewheeling
character. Well before her move back to Montana, Martha had
developed quite a thirst for whiskey, and was also quite fond
of cigars. She had commented once that had she not spent her
money so freely (on whiskey), she would be a millionaire.
On one occasion, she strode into a busy, festive saloon, or-
dered everyone out but a couple people and proceeded to make
her point by shooting out the bar's large mirror. She then ordered
drinks at her "guests'" expense. The next day she rode into the
same saloon on a borrowed horse to order drinks. It was said that
Christian
Sawicki
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Calamity Jane with soldiers on the during
the Billings railroad strike of June 1894
Martha Canary,
Livingston, 1901
