Courageous Comanche Jack
(Opposite page) Simpson “Comanche Jack” Stilwell was better known in his own time, but he never reached the heights of other celebrity scouts “Buffalo Bill” Cody or “Wild Bill” Hickok.
Stilwell famously slipped through American Indian lines at the 1868 Battle of Beecher Island and walked through cactus needles to get a rescue crew. He stands (left) with James N. Jones (far left), a fellow scout at Fort Sill in Indian Territory in this circa 1874 cabinet card by W.P. Bliss.
Tarantula Dancer
Lola Montez, shown in 1853, the year she arrived in California, became famous for her Tarantula Dance.
She captivated her spellbound audience with her suggestive dance, in which she revealed her petticoats while vigorously shaking her gown to rid herself of supposed spiders hiding in the folds.
New Mexico Territory Rustlers
These outlaw cowboys are identified only as “New Mexico Rustlers” on this circa 1880 cabinet card. Historians suspect the man standing could be John Kinney, who led a gang of horse thieves and cattle rustlers in New Mexico Territory during the 1870s-80s.
Elusive Cowboy
The copyright issued for this John C.H. Grabill photograph taken in 1887 identifies this cowboy on horseback as “Fred Pierce, a noted cowboy of Wyoming.”
Pierce has proven an elusive character, not found in 1880 or 1890 censuses for Wyoming, in period newspapers or associated with a brand in the Wyoming Territorial brand book.
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