GLR January-February 2026

Rough Trade

L IKE MANY YOUNG, gay American boys in the 1950s and ’60s, I grew up watching Gun smoke , The Rifleman , Have Gun—Will Travel , and other television fic tions about the American West. It was de picted as a hypermasculine era of long, torturous treks by wagon train, shoot-outs in the dusty streets, sudden fortunes un earthed during the Gold Rush, rambunc

vored men on his buffalo hunts across the prairies; William Breakenridge, sheriff of Tombstone, consistently opened his arms to a young Vanderbilt and a local cattle rustler. Neither was ostracized; in fact, they were well-respected among their comrades. The “lady lovers,” so termed by The Denver Times , were less fortunate. Ora Chatfield, the daughter of a prominent family in Aspen commerce and politics,

H ANK T ROUT

FRONTIER COMRADES From the Fur Trade to the Ford Car by Jim Wilke University of Nebraska Press 302 pages, $27.95

was groomed for “a world of virtue and duty within a vast in terlocking network of social mores and courtesies ... alongside an appropriate husband [to] continue to carry the magnificent torch of Victorian civilization.” Clara Dietrich, the 26-year old unmarried postmistress of Emma, just north of Aspen, was connected through marriage to the Chatfield family, securing her place in Aspen society. Living together in a Chatfield owned house, Ora and Clara developed a “grand passion” for each other. The Chatfields objected to the pair’s love and sep arated them. After weeks of corresponding in secret, the two lovers “eloped” to Kansas City, Missouri. However, the Chat field family tracked them down and returned Ora to family life in Aspen, forcing her into a “remedial marriage” to an Aspen businessman.

tious carousers in the saloons-cum-brothels—when men were men and women were ... scarce. As I grew into my sexuality, I sometimes wondered if any of those cowboys, settlers, miners, railroad-layers, and cavalrymen were gay, bisexual, or even transgender, and, if so, whether they managed to live freely and happily. We never saw their stories in the typical western. Jim Wilke’s new book, Frontier Comrades: From the Fur Trade to the Ford Car , tells some of those overlooked stories. Wilke, a former curator of technology at the Autry Museum of the American West and currently a consulting historian on rail road and western history for numerous organizations, has relied on abundant contemporaneous accounts to ferret out the ex traordinary lives of a half-dozen gay, bi, and trans women and

men who managed to thrive in the fur trade, in the Gold Rush mining towns and logging camps, at cavalry posts, and on long wagon train excursions across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains. Their stories are inspiring tales of courage and resilience. Wilke is quick to point out that in 19th century America there was no sense of a “gay identity.” None of the men and women he writes about would have recog nized the labels that would come later. And yet, many LGBT folks lived on their own terms, relatively open about their sexual ity. Wilke explains that in the logging camps and mining towns, and on long cat tle drives, amid the harsh realities of the unforgiving environments traversed, most of the niceties of eastern society were nec essarily put aside. He quotes sexologist Alfred Kinsey: “There is a fair amount of

Wilke also tells of Charley Parkhurst, a stagecoach driver with a tremendous rep utation for fast, safe delivery of passen gers to their destinations and for mapping out new stagecoach routes. Although some of Parkhurst’s acquaintances sus pected something odd, Charley lived as a woman for many years without detection. Similarly, Mrs. Noonan (I can find no first name), a laundress with the Seventh Cav alry (Custer’s command) who wore a green scarf covering the lower part of her face, approached the commander and asked to be allowed to ride in a wagon with supplies and provisions rather than in the same wagon as the other laun dresses. The commander, getting a glimpse of Noonan’s stubbled chin, rec ognized that Mrs. Noonan was a man, but for the sake of troop cohesion and to

William Breakenridge, Sheriff of Tombstone.

avoid scandal, the commander never mentioned Noonan’s se cret. She went on to become the housekeeper and laundress for Custer’s widow. Her true identity was discovered only at her death. Wilke has written a fascinating, informative, and entertain ing history of LGBT folks in the American west. There are pas sages that are rather tedious (such as a very long, very detailed history of stagecoach and train routes), but on balance the book provides a valuable resource for anyone interested American LGBT history.

sexual contact among older males in Western rural areas ... ranchmen, cattle men, prospectors, lumbermen. ... Such a group of hard-riding, hard-hitting, assertive males would not tolerate the affections of some city [homosexuals]; but this, as far as they can see, has little to do with the question of having sexual relations with other males.” Thus, young British adventurer William Stewart openly shared his tent (and bed) with other, fa Hank Trout has served as editor at a number of publications, most re cently as senior editor for A&U: America’s AIDS Magazine . 38

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