FORT YATES, N.D. — Clara Bell Rose was a Minnesota girl with somewhere to go. Her life, as 'Mustache Maude,' would help define the Old West in the Dakotas.

Rose was born on July 3, 1873, in Tracy, Minnesota. Her entire family seemed to be colorful. Her brother John moved West and was one of the earliest white settlers in Dakota Territory . Her brother William was hanged in a horrifically botched execution after being convicted for murder.

She was reportedly a rambunctious child, and ran away from home at age 15, after selling a wagon load of grain, and moved in with her sister in Minneapolis. She worked a variety of odd jobs, and once she saved up some money, she left for South Dakota, where she worked in her brother John's hotel.

Rose was, by all accounts, a canny businesswoman, an

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