Calamity Jane and Sam Bass were both in Deadwood, South Dakota in 1876 and 1877, when they were in their 20's, but there is nothing to show that the two ever met and the rather flimsy plot of this film has little or no relation to reality. Sam Bass (born on July 21, 1851) ran away from home and eventually got to San Antonio, Texas. He drove cattle to Kansas, moved on to Deadwood, and held up the Deadwood stage seven times. On September 19, 1877 he robbed the Union Pacific train at Big Springs, Nebraska, got away and returned to Texas. He was shot during an aborted bank robbery in Round Rock, Texas and died the next day, on his birthday, July 21, 1878. After her family moved west, Martha Jane "Calamity Jane" Cannary (born May 1, 1852) eventually settled in Deadwood, South Dakota, where she became friendly with Wild Bill Hickok and later claimed to have borne his child. Hickok was killed during a poker game on August 2, 1876. Jane died in Terry, South Dakota on August 1, 1903, allegedly saying, "Bury me beside Wild Bill - the only man I ever loved."
Some of the cattle drive scenes were used in the Universal film 'Cattle Drive' (1951).