Notorious Ladies of the Frontier #581: Henry Sinclair Drago Papers

Published February 24, 2026 at 6:00 AM MST

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Front cover of Henry Sinclair Drago’s Notorious Ladies of the Frontier, 1969. Box 6, Henry Sinclair Drago papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

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Photograph of Eilley Orrum, shortly before her marriage to Sandy Bowers from Henry Sinclair Drago’s Notorious Ladies of the Frontier. Box 7, Henry Sinclair Drago papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

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Photograph of Madame Eleanora Dumont, otherwise known as Madame Moustache, from Henry Sinclair Drago’s Notorious Ladies of the Frontier. Box 7, Henry Sinclair Drago papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Henry Sinclair Drago’s book, Notorious Ladies of the Frontier was a departure from his usual fictional Westerns. He researched the lives of over a dozen of the women who were famous, and sometimes infamous, across the West.

One of them was Eilley Bowers, who by 1863 was among the wealthiest women in America. Bowers made her fortune in silver mining in Washoe Valley, Nevada. She built Bowers Mansion, one of the most elaborate homes in the West. Following the death of her husband she fell on hard times and eventually set up a fortune telling business, advertising her services as “The Washoe Seeress”.

A more notorious lady featured in Drago’s book was Eleanora Dumont, who came to be known in her later years, as Madame Moustache. Madame Moustache was the queen of the lady gamblers. She opened a blackjack parlor in Nevada City and eventually moved on to various Western mining camps.

Read Notorious Ladies of the Frontier in the Henry Sinclair Drago papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.