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. Continue reading
Balladeer's Blog 