Dave Hayhurst Moline, Illinois Maulda Branscomb stood over six feet tall and weighed 230 lbs. Once you saw her, you never forgot her. Maulda sang, played the piano, danced ballet and was a hooker. But she was no mere dainty. She was also a bouncer for the Bird Cage Theatre. Once when a troublemaker pulled a six-gun on her, she picked him up over her head and tossed him into the middle of Allen Street. Later on, she married the Bird Cage’s owner, Joe Gignon, who billed her as “Big Minnie: Si

April 2003
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Where’s the Beef?
- The Saint of Stillwater Prison
- High Desert Museum
- Goddesses with Many Tastes
- Cremello
- Shootout at Blazer’s Mill
- 10 Things about the Pony Express
- Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show
- Cottonwood Canyon Ranch
- Wahoo! Santa Fe
- Sojourn through the Past and Present
- What ever happened to “Big Minnie” of Tombstone?
- Reading the September 2000 True West article by Glenn Shirley, titled, “A Tireless Energy & Nerves of Steel,” I was fascinated by Caroline Bonneville. Are there books about other independent women of the early West?
- What was the favorite type of mule used in the Old West?
- While looking at a Tombstone photo, I saw a sign that says mule and ox shoes to order. How do you put shoes on a cloven-footed ox?
- How far apart were Wild Bill Hickok and Dave Tutt in their famous 1865 showdown in Springfield, Missouri?
- During Wyatt Earp’s later years, while he was living in Hollywood, were there any silent films or voice recordings made of him?
- Larian Motel