Frontierado falls on Friday, August 7th this year. As always, the Frontierado holiday is about the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality.
CIMARRON ROSE DUNN – Poco wrote a song about her. She appears in a 1915 Silent Film about Oklahoma Outlaws. She’s often mistakenly believed to be the subject of the 1952 western The Rose of Cimarron. And it’s not even certain if that’s really her in one of the alleged surviving photos of her. Rose Dunn may embody the embellishments that fight with the truth when it comes to various figures from the Old West.
Even today, online entries and articles about this woman tend to fall into one of two categories. 1. Rose Dunn was an outlaw ally of the Doolin Gang in their rustling and bank & train robbing antics, and she later become a Bounty Hunter alongside her brothers. Or 2. Rose Dunn was involved in a couple actions with the Doolin Gang but otherwise was as innocent as an angel.
Dunn lived well into the 20th Century but refused to discuss her past, either to avoid notoriety or because there was nothing to tell, take your pick. Still, iconic Old West lawman Bill Tilghman wrote about her criminal career in his supposedly non-fiction book Oklahoma Outlaws.
The future Rose of Cimarron was born September 5th, 1878 in either Winfield or Cowley, Kansas (sources vary). She had two sisters and seven brothers. Growing up with so many older brothers, Rose could ride and shoot better than some men. When Rose’s father William Dunn died, her mother later remarried to a physician known as Dr. Call and at some point moved to Ingalls, Oklahoma near the Cimarron River.
Around 1892 or 1893, Cimarron Rose frequently clashed with her step-father and would run away to the home of her oldest brother, William Elza Thomas Dunn aka Bee or Dee. William and a few other brothers were already periodically rustling with the Doolin Gang and the adventurous Rose became involved in some of the gang’s illegal activities from then on.
Rose was quite a beauty, and the outlaws came to adore this young lady who could ride alongside them like a tomboy or tend to their wounds and sneak supplies to them in frilly clothes that accentuated her figure.
Our heroine either had a love affair or was merely infatuated with Doolin Gang member “Bitter Creek” Newcomb. (Newcomb had previously belonged to the Dalton Gang, adding to the frequent confusion between the two gangs.)
Masked, packing pistols and dressed in men’s clothes to conceal her gender, Cimarron Rose was said to have begun robbing banks and trains with the Doolin Gang. On September 1st of 1893 the gang – including Rose Dunn – were lying low in Ingalls, OK, sleeping in the Pierce Hotel and partying at George Ransom’s Saloon.
The posse of U.S. Marshals that the outlaws were hiding from at last traced them to Ingalls and surrounded Ransom’s Saloon. The criminals refused to surrender and a furious gun-battle with both sides behind cover broke out.
Though most of the Doolin Gang were in the saloon, Rose and Arkansas Tom were across the street in the Pierce Hotel (some sources say the Oklahoma Hotel) when the shooting started. Tom opened fire from his second-floor room, mortally wounding Deputy Marshal Thomas Hueston, who died the next day.
For her part, the Rose of Cimarron loaded up with ammo then charged across the street wielding a pistol and a Winchester rifle. She thus fought her way to Bitter Creek’s side and continued the firefight.
Eventually, Arkansas Tom was captured in the hotel by Deputy Marshall Jim Masterson, brother of the more famous gunslinger Bat Masterson. Bitter Creek Newcomb was injured, as were gang members Dynamite Dick Clifton and Charlie Pierce. They and those still uninjured managed to shoot their way to the livery stable and – the wounded first – escaped on horseback.
The uninjured outlaws followed them and the gang – except for Arkansas Tom – got away completely. Tom was tried, found guilty and sent to prison. Several marshals and one innocent bystander had been killed in the lengthy exchange of fire.
Rose Dunn supposedly tended to the wounds of her man Bitter Creek and the other wounded over the next few days. What followed immediately after is not known, but by 1895 she and her brothers had left the outlaw lifestyle (for the most part) and had become Bounty Hunters.
On May 2nd, 1895 (some sources say July 1st) Rose and her brothers killed Bitter Creek Newcomb and Charlie Pierce near the Dunn home. Cimarron Rose may have led her former love interest and Charlie to the slaughter. The Dunns split the $10,000 bounty ($5,000 apiece for Newcomb and Pierce).
By 1898, Rose Dunn was out of the outlaw AND Bounty Hunting lifestyle and married blacksmith & politician Charles Noble. All of the Dunn Brothers protected their little sister Rose for the rest of their lives insisting she was innocent of any crimes.
The year 1900 saw Rose, her husband and a few of her brothers move to New Mexico, leaving their checkered pasts behind them. Charles Noble passed away in 1930 and in 1946 Rose married Richard Fleming. The Rose of Cimarron died of natural causes on June 11th, 1955.
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