7 ss June 1978 | Comment Page 4 great Comstock Lode. Her abilities as a seeress seemed proven.’ ‘‘But there was another seer in the land who had other ideas for the Saints,’ the girls wrote. ston’s Army. Eilley refused to to on her crowded about her Be. ip Methodist Utah Mormon funeral con- nection.”’ + ads Et ce Calamity Jane Another woman who filled a nontraditional role was Ann Bassett, “‘a genuine daughter and lover of the West,’’ She was born in 1878 ina sod cabin at Brown’s Hole near the Utah-Colorado border in a snowstorm and was suckled by a Ute squaw. Although her father yes afew... Did the women depicted in western novels and movies ever have a place in Utah history? In a history senior seminar Sue Larsen and Debra Solomon, John Wayne fans, discussed that question while exploring ideas for a Eilley Orrum ‘Shortly after she left Hunter, Eilley came into possession of an item that would prove to be her fortune, in more ways than one. ‘‘While working in Enoch Reese’s store, a Yankee came in to trade for some supplies. Among his items for barter was a peep stone . research topic. They had heard stories traditional they were common in Scotland. She women who ‘‘raised children wrote poetry, and endured vicissitudes with great dignity’’ but wondered about women in _ non-traditional roles - ‘“women who contributed to the history of the region by raising hell, writing legends, and fighting worked a day without pay in order to obtain the stone from her employer.’”’ of the more . with grit and damnation.”’ The ‘‘wild women Their primary of Utah.”’ and secondary source research uncovered enough ‘“‘wild women’’ to prove to be an interesting paper that has brought them unexpected success. Women’s stories, hidden away in journals, diaries, old newspapers and archives, came forth with a The peep stone displayed a lake by a meadow set against snowcapped peaks. Ejilley was con- vinced the streaks of yellow she could see on the mountains were gold. The ‘‘vision’’ she saw in her peep stone led her to join an expedition organized by Elder Orson Hyde to settle a Mormon colony on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevadas. She persuaded a dirt farmer named Alec Cowan to marry her and sign up for the enrolled her in St. Mary’s of the Wasatch in Salt Lake City, Ann The next day she married Tenuel Sanford Bowers, a Scott whose claim joined hers. They became extremely rich, built a mansion, and invested heavily in the mines. the large ranchers about her because of unruly ranch hands and began giving readings for a living, ‘She predicted the Comstock ways. “By 1911, Bassett had been ac- would continue to boom _ indefinately, but her peep stone cused finally failed her, and although she defied her accusers traveled all over the West as a professional clairvoyant, she died a pauper, a victim of the inevitable bust that follows the boom.”’ to gain While researching, Miss Solomon was surprised to find that the wellknown “‘Calamity Jane’’ began life as Martha Jane Cannary, daughter of Mormon converts. Her mother died on the trail to Utah and her father died after unsuccessful attempts at farming, children. The four leaving The colony did not prove to be what Eilley had expected. Bitterly Missouri Eilley Orrum. disappointed interesting Eilley was born in the highlands of Scotland and joined the LDS Church with her family and migrated to Nauvoo in 1842. There she became a plural wife of Edward Hunter, later a presiding bishop of the Church, and came with him to Utah. Childless, Eilley divorced ‘‘the old patriarch when he brought three of his nieces to Salt Lake City and began to build a house for them.”’ husband she to keep asked moving. her Even- tually they came to Washone Lake nestled against the Sierras, near Gold Hill, destined to become nearly as famous as Virginia City. This was the place she had seen. Eilley opened a boarding house and laundry service and also predicted through her crystal that there would be a fabulous gold strike. ‘Shortly thereafter the original strike was made on the for a time, acquittal and then and managed trial. Still, she lost the war, and was forced to leave Brown’s Hole for Arizona, and eventually southern Utah, with her second husband, Frank Willis. Ann then decided to become a forest ranger, but was rejected, she said, because of her Sex. (continued on page 5) in 1867 went out into the world alone. At sixteen she abandoned ‘“‘staid Mormondom”’ for the mining fields of Wyoming and went from cook in a raucous South Pass City restaurant to ‘“‘bull whacker, army scout, Indian fighter, Pony Express rider, bawdy camp follower, mule skinner, nurse and mistress of Bill Kickock.’’ She came back to Utah only once on her way to California and made a ‘half-hearted attempt to locate her missing sisters and brother.’’ unladylike at every six stories they discovered was that of most everything from rustling to whoredom, but she youngest children were adopted. Jane and a sister boarded with a couple from and events. One of the empire as a young woman but was quickly brought into conflict with After Bowers died in 1868, Eilley moved out of the mansion and colonization. wide-range of colorful occupations refused to give up her early addiction to the ways of the rough cowpoke. She built her own ranching of o. c%= Te Wild women?! Weill, “i 4 “OR SESE A CLICK OF the tray and it’s back to the 1800's - with the “Wild Women of Utah,” narrated by researchers Debra Solomon and Sue Larsen. s, When she died at the age of 49 in 1901, ‘‘not a word was said during Brigham Young called the Saints back to Salt Lake City in 1857 during the war scare with Johnreturn with Alec, rode over Genoa and obtained a divorce grounds of desertion. os Anne Bassett