The “Rose of Cimarron” was introduced to readers in 1915 in a book titled Oklahoma Outlaws. The book used information supplied by Bill Tilghman, a deputy U.S. marshal and one of the “Three Guardsmen.” In the years that followed, the woman known as the “Rose of Cimarron” remained a mystery. In Desperate Women, published in 1952, author James D. Horan identified her as Rose Dunn.
Some sources list her full name as Rose Ella Dunn, while
others give it as Rose Elizabeth Dunn, so even that detail remains uncertain.
Rose Dunn was born in Winfield, Kansas, in 1878. Although
she was one of ten children, accounts differ on the circumstances of her
childhood and education. Some sources state she received a formal education at
a convent in Wichita, Kansas.
After her father died, she moved with her mother and stepfather
to Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory. By the time she was a young teenager, some of
her brothers were involved in outlaw activity. Later accounts say they taught
her to ride, rope, and shoot. According to those accounts, Rose became known as
the “Rose of the Cimarron” because she was a skilled horsewoman who enjoyed
riding across the sandbars of the Cimarron River.
Around the age of fourteen, Rose reportedly met George “Bitter Creek” Newcomb, a prominent gunman associated with the Doolin gang. The two were said to have become romantically involved.
The most famous story linking Rose and Newcomb involves the 1893
Battle of Ingalls, when U.S. marshals confronted members of the Doolin gang. Newcomb
was shot and badly wounded early in the gunfight. According to later accounts
and Old West legend, Rose smuggled a rifle and ammunition out to Newcomb and helped
him escape.
However, the story has an important problem, as noted in True
West: Researcher Glenn Shirley initially accepted the story of Rose Dunn’s
involvement, but after finding no contemporary
newspaper account mentioning Rose or any other woman at the gunfight, he eventually
concluded that Rose was not there. While Rose’s association with the outlaws appears
genuine, her role in the gunfight remains unverified.
A $5,000 bounty was placed
on Newcomb’s head by 1895. Rose’s brothers had turned to bounty hunting, and on
May 2, 1895, they ambushed and killed Newcomb and Charley Pierce. Rose was
later accused of telling her brothers that Newcomb and Pierce were coming to
the Dunn ranch. Rose denied informing her brothers, and they supported her
account, saying she did not know of their plans. Whether Rose knew about the
ambush is uncertain.
Rose left the outlaw life and was never prosecuted or
jailed. She later led a quiet, respectable life. She married Charles Albert
Noble, a local politician, in the late 1890s and eventually moved to New Mexico.
Her husband died in 1930. In 1946, she married Richard Fleming and relocated to
the Pacific Northwest. Her past as the “Rose of the Cimarron” reportedly contributed
to her withdrawing from public attention. Rose died in 1955 at the age of 76 in
Salkum, Washington.
Rose Dunn Noble Fleming
Bill Tilghman’s widow, Zoe, said she knew Rose Dunn personally
and defended the basic story that Rose was present during the 1893 Ingalls
gunfight. She was also critical of the sensational stories that had accumulated
about Rose.
Her second husband, Richard Fleming, said: “She was a true
friend of the outlaws and never betrayed them, but she was never the sweetheart
of any.”
Rose still became a legend.
Resources:
Alexander, Kathy. “Rose Dunn, aka: The Rose of
Cimarron—Hanging with the Doolin Gang.” Legends of America, May 2025.
McCubbin, Robert G. “Who Is Rose of Cimarron?” True West,
May 1, 2005.
Schmitt, Martin F., and Dee Brown. The Settlers’ West.
“Wild Women of the Old West—Cimarron Rose.” Heroes,
Heroines, and History.
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