Mother Featherlegs

This week's tale features Lusk, Wyoming

Just south of Lusk, Wyoming is the only monument in the United States that immortalizes a prostitute. The grave marker of Mother Featherlegs is a 3,500-pound pink granite slab along the Old Cheyenne Trail.

Mother Featherlegs arrived in Wyoming in 1876 and established a bawdyhouse on the Cheyenne-Black Hills trail. History has forgotten her true identity, so Mother Featherlegs will always be remembered by her nickname which came because her ruffled leggings made her look like she had chicken legs. Some say her leggings were white, others say red.

“Them ruffled drawers make the old girl look like a feather-legged chicken in a high wind.”

Those leggings are still on display at the Stagecoach Museum in Lusk, Wyoming.