As America became fascinated by the Wild West, Lucille Mulhall became a national hero.

As the 19th century gave way to the dawn of the 20th, the rugged cowboy way of life was fading but American fascination was growing. And a surprising figure was fast becoming the new face of the Old West: a tiny teenage girl named Lucille Mulhall.

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In 1900, when she was just 14, the Oklahoma farm girl was so adept at lassoing and roping that she was invited to compete at a Rough Riders reunion rodeo in the state capital. Teddy Roosevelt himself was in the stands and was dazzled when she nabbed first place (to the chagrin of her competitors, all male and all much older). Roosevelt told Mulhall’s dad that she needed to be touring, because the nation needed to see her.

Invited to travel with family members as the featured act in several popular Wild West shows, she eventually created her own, and headlined events around the country. Everywhere she went, she was the hot topic. Newspapers reveled in her singularity. One wrote, “Instead of a baby’s rattle she heard the tinkle of spurs. Her cradle was the saddle. She cannot recall a time when she could not ride a horse.”

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It was for a New York show that a reporter coined the term “cowgirl” to describe her. As simple and obvious as that seems now, the word had never been used before. As Will Rogers put, “It didn’t exist before her.” In so many ways, Mulhall was a true original.

8 Fun Facts About the First Cowgirl

• Before “cowgirl,” other newspapers tried out names like “Female Conqueror of Beef and Horn,” “Lassoer in Lingerie,” and the somewhat awkward “Cowboy Girl.”
• Though she weighed only 90lbs and appeared delicate, Mulhall had no time for stereotypically “feminine” pursuits. In 1902 she told a reporter, “I feel sorry for the girls who … have to attend so many teas, and be indoors so much, with never anything but artificiality about them.”
• In 1905, by then 19, she was dispatched by the president to rope an Oklahoma wolf for his game collection. She tracked the wolf across prairies and canyons, catching him once, only to have him escape, before she finally caught and bagged him. She sent the taxidermied wolf to the White House, where its appearance upset the family dogs.
• In her traveling routine with Wild West shows, she roped eight galloping horses at the same time, and also performed obedience tricks with her horse Governor, who could not only play dead but sit cross-legged.
• At 30, she opened her own rodeo show called Mulhall’s Big Round-Up, which offered both competition slots and employment opportunities for the rising crop of cowgirls following in her bootsteps.
• Mulhall helped launch the career of two big names of the early 20th century. Will Rogers was her co-star in the rodeo and went on to fame as a humorist, cowboy, and vaudevillian. Movie star Tom Nix got his start roping for the Mulhalls as well.
• At one show, a steer got loose and ran all the way up into the box seats. Mulhall’s father shouted at her to chase the bull but she demurred; she was the boss, at this point, not a farmhand.
• Mulhall kept performing, even after she turned 50—a rarity in rodeo. In 1940, at age 54, she died in a car accident. It was so rainy on the day of her funeral that cars couldn’t navigate the mud and a ranch neighbor brought a team of his finest to move the hearse. Fittingly, the newspaper put it, “horses brought her to her final resting place.”

Discover Calgary, where crowds thronged to see Mulhall, and where the spirit of the Old West can still be experienced with Grand Circle on Best of the Canadian Rockies. Get a glimpse of your itinerary in this video:

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