Cordula Carter Truby Henry Gilmore — The fascinating and tragic life of a young frontier woman

While researching for my book, Notorious San Juans, I encountered a fascinating young woman named Cordula “Dudie” Carter. She appears in the story “A Colorado Range War: The Cox-Truby Feud,” which took place in the wild region around the Colorado-New Mexico border, south of Durango.

Cordula Carter was 14 years old when she married Bill Truby on January 12, 1911. Bill was 27 years old. Only three months later, Bill Truby was shot dead by Ike Cox as a result of the feud.