This may come to many as a shock that Native Americans were absolutely flabbergasted to see the hygiene of the new western emigrants; they were disgusted. There is hardly a movie genre that captivated so many for so long the way ‘Western’ did; bringing back to life some of the lost traditions of the frontier along with its ruggedness and outlaws. With Kenny Rogers, Paul A. Hutton, Robert Utley, Leon Metz. What was like back then: People got gunned down over hands of poker (aces and eights, the dead man's hand is from here). Even Cracked favorite Teddy Roosevelt got in on the act by calling himself the "cowboy candidate.". Regardless of the vision of the Wild West one may have, the old west was nothing like what it has been portrayed on a cinema screen for the better part of last century. For more ridiculous myths you believe, check out 6 Things From History Everyone Pictures Incorrectly. Americans especially loved the old west, for its gunfights, cowboys, stagecoach robberies, and clashes with Indians. In that half-a-minute of mayhem and murder at around 3pm on 26 October 1881, three outlaws from a gang known as the ‘Cowboys’ were shot dead when they faced off against the Earp brothers and their friend Doc Holliday. Many of us will associate the term traffic jam with modern lifestyle; in fact, the good old west had its fair share of traffic jams on its trails. The most famous shootout in the history of the Wild West – the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona – lasted just 30 seconds. Believed to have committed 17 killings as a hired gunman throughout the West. The original cowboys were Mexican cattlemen known as vaqueros, and they are literally everything you imagine a cowboy to be. Even rudimentary? This inevitably created massive clouds of dust to even turn the day into night (or a nightmare) for those poor folks lurking at the back. Even the Native Americans would help move the cattle with their white, Mexican, and black brethren. Reconstruction of C. hesternus – By Sergiodlarosa – CC BY-SA 3.0. The 1860s and the 1890s gave birth to the period known as the Wild West and laid a foundation to its ensuing mythology. The move largely proved to be a success and the imported giants quickly acclimated themselves to western conditions and bred well. Some of the camels were captured by the circus for shows and carrying stuff. Hell, even if we'd never seen a Western in our lives, that would seem like a low number. Do you possess expert skills in image creation and manipulation? This led to an entire genre of books and film devoted to the drama and romance of the period, as well as comic books and toys. During this same period, settlers killed over 400 Native Americans. Related story from us: Quick on the draw: Famous gunmen of the Old West. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Hitting shelves in October, Cracked's De-Textbook is a fully-illustrated, systematic deconstruction of all of the bullshit you learned in school. Copyright © 2005-2021. The settlers in turn did the right thing and outright stole the entire culture, including the title of "vaqueros," which was turned into "buckaroos.". Except that it wasn't. Here are the top 10 real-life deadly gunslingers from the wild west era. Cowboys weren't an American invention at all. Brothels were nearly impossible to escape from as their controlling owner… They were little more than a weapon of last resort. So if you get in your time machine and set it for 1870, you'd damn well better be packing one of these: Lots of people wore hats back then, that part's true. That vision, that western movies gave us of a single wagon slowly treading on a rugged terrain is just that; a vision. The banks might as well have left their big white bags of gold sitting out on the porch. 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The Wild West era, a period of myth-making cowboys, gunslingers, and saloon madames, actually lasted only 30 years. It's recent enough that we even have photographs of the families that traveled out and the lives they made, little glimpses into life in the real Wild West. It had an effective range of maybe 50 feet. But deaths due to wagon train clashes were few and far between. The term 'Wild West' was initially referring to the fact that the area was 'wild', i.e. And with good reason. Days were long, very long if you put in the equation the scorching heat. Vaqueros rode the long-haul cattle drives, and their sombreros were probably the precursor to cowboy hats. One in four are believed to be black men who were released from slavery but didn't have the ability to flee far from their captors. As a point of comparison, bank robberies in 2010 amounted to 5,600. Wild West has become a legend, but the real world of the American frontier played out just a short time ago. In fact, the first real Wild West showdown (that we know about) was between a man named Davis Tutt and the infamous Wild Bill Hickock himself. John Wayne was not a real Wild West Cowboy, but his portrayal of the era is what earns him a special place on this list. The rate of homicide was significantly low; there were no choreographed gun-bouts, no mass hangings; to put it in one term ‘west was never the way you may remember from the western movies’. Women stepped into the seedy side of life for a number of reasons. Even so, many myths have arisen about the period. The flurry of western movie production perpetuated the American romance with the Wild West and doing so went off course with fewer facts and more fictional conjuring. It was far more likely that the average settler would trade with Native Americans or hire members of various tribes as guides, rather than fight them. The curved brim, those dips in the crown, the band -- the Stetson is about as iconic as clothing gets. In 1855, after a fight Hickok mistakenly believed had ended with the death of his adversary, the 18-year-old headed west. Regardless of the vision of the Wild West one may have, the old west was nothing like what it has been portrayed on a cinema screen for the better part of last century. His leading role in America’s Western Hollywood films brought to life the nation’s frontier heritage. They came up with all of the cowboy lingo, including "bronco," "lariat," and even "stampede." While Natives were laughing their heads off on the smelly cowboys, the incoming people faced the struggle of life and death. Any expedition into "injun" territory came with the warning that you'd better go well-armed. Or discover The 5 Most Overrated Jobs Of All-Time. Dec 31, 2017 E.L. Hamilton. Others were widowed with no other way to earn a living. In reality, the Cowboys at the time did not wear such headgear, purely because it was not practical and did not go with their overall rough and rugged attire. As it turns out, this exciting period in American history wasn't as rife with murderous debauchery as Western movies and pulpy novels would have us believe. The entire town is a Nation… The events in this timeline occurred primarily in the portion of the modern United States west of the Mississippi River, and mostly in the period between the Louisiana Purchasein … It was a rainbow cowboy coalition! Starting in 1878, some 25 years into the westward expansion, action was finally taken -- even places as wild as Dodge City started posting signs like this: In fact, the gunfight at the O.K. Black Bart, the Dalton Gang, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid all were famous for their daring robberies. In 2019, Pearce was restored and opened as a museum, which showcased treasures of a bygone period, offering visitors the chance to gain an understanding of life in a Wild West town. Unlike the Natives, emigrants wore long and thick clothing which obviously made things worse for them while traveling in high temperatures. In the book The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America, 1900-1918, author Ruth Rosen cites cases where some working girls were orphaned as children or came from broken homes. Native American deaths caused by the U.S. government and the military likely number in the millions. Then you were building railroads in hellish conditions. They had curved edges that could defend you from both sun and rain, and they made you look incredibly stylish while doing what amounted to staring at cows for weeks at a time. Check For Blue Teeth. The Wild West of nineteenth century America was at times a chaotic and unruly place, not helped by the lack of law enforcement officials. Corral was caused by one gang being unwilling to abide by the anti-firearm rule of Tombstone. One reason Americans have always been so in love with the Old West is that it's so distinctly American. In reality, the people moving towards frontier traveled in groups of hundreds of wagons on dirt roads. Looking For The Best Medieval Artists? Especially when you're talking about someone providing a potentially life-saving service (a guide kept you from getting lost, when getting lost meant getting dead). There's always the boots, too, but they kind of go together as a pair. However, during and after the American Civil War a large number of camels were either killed or ran into the wilderness. Brothels flourished in the Old West … First, towns back in those days were much smaller, with the sheriff's office, saloon, general store, and bank usually clustered together for convenience. The term "American Old West" refers to a vast geographical area and lengthy time period of imprecise boundaries, and historians' definitions vary. 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