In 1964, a monument was erected in Lusk, Wyoming to remember a lady that many of that era knew as 'Mother Featherlegs.' Who was the woman who bore this name?

The grave marker sets on, what many know as, the Old-Cheyenne Deadwood Stage Road. The actual road in Lusk is the Silver Springs Road, located about 10 miles from town.

Niobrara County Library
Niobrara County Library
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A light pink rock was erected in 1964 and bares this inscription:

"Here lies Mother Featherlegs. So called, as in her ruffled pantalettes she looked like a feather-legged chicken in high wind. She was roundhouse ma'am. An outlaw confederate, she was murdered by 'Dangerous Dick Davis' the Terrapin, in 1879."

Her real name was Charlotte Shepard, but she never went by that name once she moved to Wyoming. She, along with her two boys were originally from Louisiana. However, they belonged to a cut-throat gang there also.

After a while, almost all the gang members were killed, to include her two sons Tom and Bill. That is when she made the move to Wyoming. While here, she ran a business hold loot for bandits.

It was said that she and 'Dangerous Dick' Davis lived together, but he didn't do much. They found her murdered body by a stream one day in 1879, where the body a laid for two or three days.

Once buried, some teenage boys dug up her body, and once they identified that it was indeed 'Mother Featherlegs', they nailed the box shut. She got her nickname "Featherlegs," because of the pantalettes she wore back then. People said her legs looked like feathers.

Today, her famous pantalettes are on display in the Stagecoach Museum in Lusk, Wyoming.

 

 

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