It’s Frontierado Eve! Tonight is when many of us start our cookouts, poker games and Western Movie Marathons for the 3-day weekend. It goes on tonight and especially tomorrow, with the leftovers feeding us all through Saturday and Sunday. Here’s another seasonal post.
LUCILLE MULHALL – This incredible woman, the first to defeat male competitors in roping and riding contests, was born October 21st, 1885 in St. Louis. Missouri. In 1889 her family moved to Alfred, Oklahoma which was soon renamed Mulhall, Oklahoma in honor of her father Zach Mulhall as they established their ranch there.
Lucille virtually grew up in the saddle and with lassos and guns in her hands. The year 1899 saw her father launch the Mulhall Wild West Show & Congress of Riders & Ropers in the spirit of Buffalo Bill Cody’s more famous traveling troupe. Fourteen-year-old Lucille was one of the show’s original performers at trick riding and roping as well as hazing the bulldoggers.
In 1900, Zach Mulhall bet $10,000 that his daughter could out-rope any of the cowboys in El Paso, Texas. Lucille did just that, following which she and her brother Charlie had to fight their way out of a mob of angry losers determined to strip the young lady to verify that she wasn’t a boy disguised as a woman.
Our “Queen of the Saddle” and the rest of the Mulhall Wild West Show performed at President William McKinley’s second Inauguration celebrations in March, 1901. Then-Vice President Theodore Roosevelt pushed for their appearance because of his previous experiences with Lucille and her family at the Mulhall Ranch.
While visiting there, Theodore mentioned his interest in prairie wolves, so our heroine saddled up and caught one for Roosevelt with her bare hands. The following year they held a special competitive wolf hunt in Theodore’s honor.
As President, Roosevelt designated Mulhall “the Golden Girl of the West” and “the Original Cowgirl.” (No offense, I’m assuming, to the many decades of cowgirls who came before her.) Continue reading
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