A Monument to Notoriety: The 3,200-Pound Granite Tomb of Wyoming’s “Mother Featherlegs”

In the remote ranchlands of Niobrara County, a 3,200-pound slab of red granite marks the final resting place of one of Wyoming’s most colorful and enigmatic Wild West figures: the prostitute and roadhouse madam known as Mother Featherlegs. Erected in 1964, the monument is a rare tribute to a woman who lived on the fringe of the law along the busy Deadwood-Cheyenne stage route in the 1870s.

Her memorable nickname came from the distinctive red, ruffled pantalettes she wore, which were said to flutter “like a feather-legged chicken in a high wind” when she rode horseback. Operating from a dugout saloon near the Rawhide Buttes, she provided a stop for travelers and, according to local lore, served as a fence for stolen stagecoach loot, hiding cash and jewelry around her property—treasure hunters have looked for it ever since.

Her life ended violently in 1879. Historical accounts state she was shot while fetching water from a spring, murdered by the outlaw “Dangerous Dick” Davis, who allegedly made off with $1,500 of her cache. She was buried in a simple grave near her dugout, which lay forgotten for decades until local historians and a then-active Lusk madam, Dell Burke, raised money for a proper memorial.

The dedication ceremony in 1964 drew over 750 people. The epitaph, sandblasted into the massive stone, tells her story plainly: an “outlaw confederate” and “roadhouse Ma’am” murdered for her cache. Today, the monument sits on private land, fenced off but visitable, a silent and enduring testament to a brief, vivid life in the raw frontier.