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There are several characters in wild west history known as Mountain Charley. One of them was really named Elsa Jane Forest Guerin. Elsa was born in the South in the early 1800’s, the daughter of a slave and a wealthy plantation owner. At age 14, Elsa married a Mississippi riverboat pilot who was killed by his mate, Jamieson, over a grudge. After the shock of losing her beloved husband, Elsa had another shock. Her husband had gambled away most of their money. “It may be naturally imagined that this new misfortune completely prostrated me. It did not, but on the contrary it had an opposite effect.” Elsa, a widow at age 16, had to find a way to support herself and her two children. Two common professions for women were either schoolteacher or prostitute. Without a formal education, she didn’t qualify to be a school teacher and didn’t want to become a prostitute. So Elsa chose to work and dress as a man in order to support herself and her children. To quote, “I buried my sex in my heart and roughened the surface so that the grave would not be discovered.” She put the children in an orphanage in St. Louis, Missouri, took on the alias of Mountain Charley, and for 13 years, maintained the identity. She visited with her children often and during those visits, she changed from her secret identity and became a mom once again. However, she enjoyed the freedom that men’s lifestyle and attire afforded. Elsa had many occupations during her years as Mountain Charley. She worked as a cabin boy on a steamer that ran between St. Louis and New Orleans, as a brakeman on the Illinois Central Railroad, as a beaver trapper for the American Fur Company on the South and North Platte rivers, finally becoming a successful owner/operator of a mule train, shipping supplies from Shasta Valley, California, to the miners in Colorado. In 1859, she settled in Denver, and rented “Mountain Boys Saloon”, which is listed in the 1866 Denver Directory. There are no known pictures of Elsa. EXTERNAL LINKS
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