Beginning in the 1840s, thousands of Americans traveled from the East to new territories in the West, seeking land where they could achieve their dreams. Promoters enticed migration by advertising Oregon and California as “the loveliest country on earth.”
Most pioneers traveled by covered wagon. Oxen pulled the wagons; and since oxen cannot be controlled by reins, the driver had to walk beside the beasts and guide them—clear across the country. Loaded goods filled the wagons, and that left room for only the elderly and the very young. Healthy pioneers—including women and older children—walked alongside.
Settlers called their wagons “prairie schooners,” but it wasn’t a very good comparison: unlike fast-traveling ocean vessels, these wooden vehicles traveled at the speed of only two miles per hour. Some pioneers were too poor to purchase a wagon, so they bought a “walking ticket” that allowed them to follow along with a wagon train—by foot, all the way. On average, pioneers took six months to cross the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail; and the journey was dangerous. Thirst, starvation, stampedes, and accidents were common threats.
Once they arrived, pioneers would “stake a claim” to land. In 1841, Oregon offered each settler 640 acres of land, plus 160 more for each wife and child. Then, the pioneer family needed shelter. At first, they could live in the wagon. That didn’t offer much space, so the family would get to work on a log cabin or sod house.
It was hard work cutting trees, then squaring them, all with simple tools. Sod homes, made from squares of dirt, were more convenient to make on the Great Plains. Many settlers had jettisoned belongings to lighten their wagons, so they constructed new furniture by hand. Clothing also wore out on the long trek west, so pioneer families made new garments from tent cloth.
The Great Oklahoma Land Rush
In 1893, the United States Government offered 42,000 parcels of land for development in what had previously been “Indian Territory.” The country was having hard times economically, so thousands lined up for a mad race across the border to claim lands. Seth Humphrey and his brother raced on their bicycles. Seth describes the scene:
It has been estimated that there were somewhere around one hundred thousand men in line on the Kansas border. Viewed from out in front the waiting line was a breath-taking sight. First in the line was a solid bank of horses; some had riders, some were hitched to gigs, buckboards, carts, and wagons, but to the eye there were only the two miles of tossing heads, shiny chests, and restless front legs of horses. While we stood, numb with looking, the rifles snapped and the line broke with a huge, crackling roar. That one thundering moment of horseflesh by the mile quivering in its first leap forward was a gift of the gods, and its like will never come again. The next instant we were in a crash of vehicles whizzing past us like a calamity.
It might sound romantic living in a log cabin, but the average pioneer home was smaller and cruder than you might imagine. An entire family—on average, two parents plus four children—lived in a single room the size of an average American living room today. The parents slept on the only actual bed, children slept on mattresses that were pulled out each evening. The women cooked on a crude fireplace or very small woodstove. Windows lacked glass: they were either wide open—letting flies in—or else covered with wooden shutters.
Settlers made their livings through a variety of pursuits. Wheat was a favorite crop. Cattle provided milk and meat, and chickens produced eggs to live on. Families supplemented their meals by hunting and fishing. Many settlers planted fruit trees. It was a hard life, but many pioneers were determined and resourceful, so they survived and began the villages and cities that still exist in the American West today.
A settler’s first job was to plow the sod. He could then begin to plant his crops—and next, he could build a temporary home from the sod.
These settlers have built their barn, but they are still living in the sod house seen in the background on the right.
Eventually, settlers would build themselves wooden homes and get down to the business of raising children, farm animals, and crops.
In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, hoping that farming families would fill up the western territories. Unfortunately for their plans, the Great Plains states proved too difficult for farmers to live on. These regions were, however, very well suited to another sort of business: raising cattle. Big investors bought enormous tracts of land where they could graze cattle, then drive their herds to cattle towns such as Abilene or Dodge City, where the livestock were sold at a generous profit and shipped east. At the same time, many unemployed men were looking for work: Civil War veterans, unsuccessful farmers, new immigrants, and freed slaves jumped on the opportunities to herd cattle.
Cowboy life was rugged and demanding. The men had to put in long days “biting the dust,” working outside in snow, rain, and desert heat, living off bacon and beans, roping and driving large herds of 1,000-pound Texas longhorns, and defending against rival ranchers and rustlers. Ranchers paid their workers an average of $25 a month, which was not much money, even by the standards of the 1870s. Most cowboys were in their teens or twenties; the work was too demanding for older men.
Fortunately, the skills and technology for cowboy life were already in place. Hispanic Vaqueros (whom Anglo cowboys called “Buckaroos”) had long ago trained their mustangs for ranching, and they had designed garments such as broad-brimmed hats and leather chaps needed for life on the range; furthermore, they had become artists with the lariat needed to control their herds. The “new-breed” cowboys of the later 1800s literally learned their ropes from these Vaqueros.
This nineteenth-century photograph shows the interior of the ranch house where cowboys spent their free time.
Railroads, Cities, and Gunfighters
In the mid-1800s, Americans faced a frustrating problem: how could people travel conveniently from the settled eastern states to the beckoning West? Developers dreamed of a railroad line connecting the two sides of the continent, and in 1862, the Union government began work on the transcontinental railroad. Two construction companies hired thousands of Chinese and Irish laborers; these workers endured dangerous conditions, rough weather and very low wages, but they got the job done.
On May 10, 1869, workers completed the first railroad connecting the two halves of the United States. The “Iron Horse” then quickly transformed the West as cities sprang up along the rails.
Before this, gold miners and cowboys had relied on vigilante justice. They were rough-andtumble men, comfortable with taking law into their own hands. However, as more families moved to the frontier, and as merchants established their businesses, citizens of the increasingly “civilized” West clamored for “by-thebook” law enforcement.
The coming of the railroad changed America, especially the West.
There were indeed unsavory and dangerous outlaws in the West at this time. Partly, this was due to the aftermath of the Civil War; bitter conflicts fought in Kansas and Missouri left angry and desperate men, well trained in horsemanship and dueling. At the same time, the lack of organized law made it easy for such men to live by robbery. The press romanticized some outlaws, such as Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and Butch Cassidy, although their actual deeds were selfish and violent.
Outlaw Jesse James and his brother Frank James were Confederate guerrilla fighters during the Civil War. They were accused of participating in atrocities committed against Union soldiers. After the war, as members of one gang or another, they robbed banks, stagecoaches, and trains. Despite popular portrayals of James as a Robin Hood who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, there is no evidence that he and his gang used their robbery gains for anyone but themselves.
Gun Fight at the OK Corral
Tombstone Epitaph
(History’s most famous gunfight was the shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone Arizona, on October 26, 1881. The Earp Brothers and friend Doc Holliday were on one side, representing the law, against the Clantons and McLowrys. Shortly after the fight, Wyatt Earp gave this statement in the newspaper.)
Virgil said, “Throw up your hands. I have come to disarm you.” Billy Clanton and Frank McLowry commenced to draw their pistols. When I saw Billy and Frank draw their pistols I drew my pistol... I knew that Frank McLowry had the reputation of being a good shot and a dangerous man, and I aimed at Frank McLowry. The two first shots which were fired were fired by Billy Clanton and myself he; shot at me, and I shot at Frank McLowry… The fight then became general. My first shot struck Frank McLowry in the belly. He staggered off on the sidewalk but first fired one shot at me.
I never drew my pistol or made a motion to shoot until after Billy Clanton and Frank McLowry drew their pistols. When I went as deputy marshal to help disarm them and arrest them, I went as a part of my duty and under the direction of my brother the marshal. I did not intend to fight unless it became necessary in self defense, and in the performance of official duty. When Billy Clanton and Frank McLowry drew their pistols I knew it was a fight for life, and I drew and fired in defense of my own life and the lives of my brothers and Doc Holliday.
From the Civil War until 1900, the West was shaped by a new and deadly piece of technology—the Six-Shooter. Cowboys, miners, outlaws, and law-men valued the revolver that had been invented by Samuel Colt and then copied by other manufacturers. Between 1866 and 1900, gunmen on both sides of the law shot and killed more than 20,000 people west of the Mississippi; it was truly the age of the gun-fighter.
By the 1880s, most cities in the West hired lawmen to protect against outlaws. It wasn’t easy to get “squeaky clean” gunmen, so, to quote Western historian R.L. Wilson, “The line separating lawman from criminal was sometimes faint.” Lawmen such as Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett, and Buckey O’ Neill gained fame for their courage and marksmanship.
The Colt Six-Shooter allowed gunfighters to shoot more quickly and efficiently—which made them deadly.
The Peace Commissioners of Dodge City; Wyatt Earp is in the front row, the second from the left.
The end of the nineteenth century brought with it the end of Native freedom and independence in America—and yet the tribes managed to hold on to their identities and survive.
In the last decades of the 1800s, the western territories became increasingly less wild as the government suppressed the freedoms of the First Nations people, as law increased, and as cities grew larger and more sophisticated. At the same time, the Wild West of history transformed into the fabled Wild West that still lives on today.
Throughout the 1800s, Native warriors resisted efforts to take their lands. The federal government broke numerous treaties, and pushed tribes onto smaller and smaller areas. On December 29, 1890, troops of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry equipped with four rapid-fire cannons, surrounded a camp of Lakota Indians near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. Cornered, the Sioux agreed to turn themselves in to a nearby reservation. There was a scuffle between soldiers and Natives, and the Seventh Cavalry opened fire from all sides, killing men, women, and children, as well as some of their own fellow troopers. It was a tragic end to the Native struggles against forced location.
At the same time, law enforcement prevailed over the outlaws. The Wild Bunch was the last famous outlaw gang in the West. They rustled cattle, held-up banks, and robbed trains in the final years of the 1800s until, pursued by Pinkerton detectives, the gang split up. The most famous members—Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—fled to South America, where they faded into history.
With the taming of the Wild West, the Sundance Kid and his pal Butch Cassidy disappeared from history.
The So-Called Cancer and Folk Medicine (Kansas Prairie, 1880)
Medical technology in the 1800s was frighteningly unscientific.
Twelve-year-old Sarah Cameron fretted by the door of the family’s sod house, waiting for her father to return with Uncle Hiram. They had gone on the family’s buckboard wagon to Dodge City, where there was an honest-to-goodness medical doctor, to get help with the scabs that had been forming on Uncle Hiram’s skin.
“They’re here!” Sarah called to her mother, who was busy plucking a chicken out back.
Her mother ran with her to meet the men. “Well?”
Uncle Hiram looked grim. “The doctor says it is cancer, and it will eat away at me until I die—and that will be soon.”
Sarah’s mother grew pensive. “Honey, go look for some of that weed they call sheep sorrel. And Jeb”—she said to her husband—“fetch gunpowder and open that last bottle of whiskey.”
When the three ingredients were gathered, Mother asked Sarah to grind equal parts in a small mortar-and-pestle. The resulting medicine paste smelled awful, but under the circumstances, Uncle Hiram did not complain as Mother rubbed it on his skin.
A week later, his skin looked smooth as a baby’s.
“Thank the Lord, it wasn’t cancer after all,” beamed Uncle Hiram.
“Just goes to show,” Sarah replied, “doctors don’t know everything.”
INCREDIBLE INDIVIDUAL
Brigham Young (1801–1877)
No history of the West would be complete without including the Mormons (Latter Day Saints). In 1844 an Illinois mob killed the prophet and founder of their religion, Joseph Smith. That left thousands of believers bewildered over their future. Brigham Young was in many ways similar to Joseph Smith; he grew up in New York working as a farmer, carpenter and businessman. He was a devout believer in the Mormon faith, but also strongly practical. Young once said, “Prayer is good, but when baked potatoes, and pudding, and milk are needed, prayer will not take their place.”
At a large meeting, the Latter Day Saints elected Young to succeed Smith as their prophet. He then ordered an audacious move across 1,400 miles of wilderness to the largely unknown land of Utah. Over the next three years, more than 16,000 Mormons followed Young across the country. Most went by wagon train, but 3,000 of the poorest made the trek on foot pulling hand carts. When the settlers arrived at Salt Lake Valley, Young declared “This is the place.” Later, he wrote, “The Spirit of Light rested upon me and . . . I felt there the saints would find protection and safety.”
With the passage of time, Western life became more like that of the eastern United States. In the cities, new settlers tore down rough wooden buildings and replaced them with classical brick structures and fancy Victorian homes. New train lines brought in goods and services at lower prices. Citizens of the booming western towns built churches and outlawed gambling and prostitution.
Buffalo Bill was a showman extraordinaire who helped keep the Wild West alive in the imaginations of people around the world.
As the historical Wild West faded, one man found a way to transform its stories into enduring legends. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who had served as a scout, hunter and soldier in the 1860s and 1870s, began his “Wild West Show” in 1883. This was a combination of theater and circus, featuring famous Western characters—both whites and Natives— re-enacting the feats of their younger years. The show was immensely successful, and toured the United States and Europe for more than a decade. Cody supported the rights of women and Native Americans, and he also promoted conservation of the American wilderness. At the same time, he brought the drama and excitement of the historical Wild West to thousands of enthralled onlookers.
Cody, along with others who dramatized the Wild West, ensured that its legends would be told and retold throughout the twentieth century and beyond. Even today, the Wild West lives on in the imaginations of people all around the world.
Frederic Remington, whose artwork has been used several times throughout this book, also kept the Wild West alive by recording it in paintings like this one. He wrote, “I knew the wild riders and the vacant land were about to vanish forever . . . and the more I considered the subject, the bigger the forever loomed. Without knowing how to do it, I began to record some facts around me, and the more I looked the more the panorama unfolded.”
The settling of the American West brought different groups of people together— Native Americans, the descendents of early Hispanic settlers, and Americans from the East—in various ways, but often in conflict. From the Battle of San Jacinto to the various “Indian Wars,” it was eventually the “Anglo” culture of the Eastern United States that proved dominant.
•History is almost always written from the perspective of the “winning” side. How would you tell the story of the “Wild West” from the perspective of a Navajo tribesperson or a Hispanic vaquero?
•What do you think the West would be like today if it had been the Native Americans who ended up the winning side in the battle for dominance? What if it had been Hispanic people?
•Despite the “Anglo” defeat of Hispanic and Native powers in the 1800s West, the region today is a rich mix of these three cultures. What are some of the values and traditions of each of these three major cultural groups in the American West?
•How do these three cultures interact positively with each other, and how might they still be in conflict?
