Charlie Parker

From a docent's point of view this is a great story. Here you have a woman who comes out West and becomes a stagecoach driver, shoots, fights, cusses, and drinks right along side "the guys" and (though she didnt grow a beard when many men did) very few people suspected she was a woman. Apparently, a family found out when she got drunk once and the son came back from helping "him" to go to bed telling the family "thats a woman!" lol

Actress Karen Kondarzian has written a novel about Charley Parker and has discussed the possibility of making it into a movie, "The Whip."

Charley Parker drove a stagecoach from San Juan Bautista to Santa Cruz. She reportedly "retired" and ran a stagecouch station in the Aptos area and finally died of throat cancer in 1879. 

Two books, "The Strange Life and Times of Charley Parkhurst" by Daniel M. Hall, and "The Coachman was a Lady" by Mabel Rowe Curtis (1959) give an interesting outlook on this legend. If she was a lady, she cussed and fought, she might have laughed at that title. She was a tough woman, thats for sure. 

Charlotte Parkhurst (reportedly) was born New England, 1812-1879, was a famous person of the "Wild West" and a local "legend". There has been alot written about "her", since he was a she. She wore pleated blouses to mask her "figure". Apparently she had quite a "woman" figure and few people knew of it until her death.