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  2. The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few ...

    • Swinging Saloon Doors Were Real — Not A Hollywood Invention.
    • Speaking of Whiskey: It Was god-awful.
    • Forget Dysentery — But Don’T Drink The Water.
    • The Old West Had An Opioid problem.
    • The West Was Ripe with price-gouging.
    • Breakfast on The Trail Was Grueling work.
    • Frontier Folks Embraced Poop-Powered Cooking.
    • The Army Declared War on Buffalo.
    • The West Had Strict Gun Control Laws.
    • Requirements For Sheriffs Were Pretty loose.

    In every saloon scene in every Western movie ever made, you’ll see the iconic swinging saloon doors. That’s how bad guys get thrown into the street. It might be easy to think of this as a Hollywood invention, but these batwing-style doorswere actually in popular use during the Old West. Here’s why: saloons were much smaller than you would think, ab...

    If you bellied up to the bar in the Old West and expected the bartender to pour you a glass of smooth Kentucky whiskey, you’d be sorely disappointed by the terrible swill you got instead. There were not a lot of laws regarding the content of alcoholic beverages back in those days and, let’s be honest, no one would have obeyed them if there were. Wh...

    Fans of the 1980s computer game “Oregon Trail” will tell you that most pioneers in the Old West died of dysentery or rattlesnake bites. Not true. The leading cause of death for folks in the Old West was not dysentery, snake bites, shootouts with rival gunslingers, or attacks by Native Americans. Nope. It was cholera. Cholera is caused by waterborne...

    Think opioid abuse is a modern issue? Think again. Chinese laborers who came to California during the Gold Rush and to seek jobs building the Transcontinental Railroadbrought their opium smoking with them. For the first time, opium— which had long been an ingredient in medicine — was used as a recreational drug. The Chinese immigrants passed the op...

    When gold was discovered in California, it set off a massive migration of people who headed to the West hoping to get rich quick. They soon realized that the only ones who were really getting rich during the Gold Rushwere the price-gouging merchants who took advantage of the situation — and the lack of government oversight. The cost of items sold a...

    Speaking of: breakfast on the road meant something entirely different for westward pioneers than for people today. It certainly wasn’t Starbucks and a bagel. Traveling in a wagon train required waking up at about 4 o’clock in the morning to prepare breakfast, break camp, saddle up the horses, and round up the cattle. Coffee and bacon were staples. ...

    Know what the Great Plains didn’t have? Trees. Know what the Great Plains had a lot of? Buffalo poop. Since trees are a rarity in the prairies of the Great Plains, folks had to get creative with ways to fuel their camp fires, so they turned to dried buffalo dung. Seriously. As gross and unsanitary as that seems, it got the job done. When burned, th...

    The United States Army declared war on buffalo in the 1830s. They commissioned people to go west and slaughter as many buffalo as they could and encouraged settlers in the West to do the same. What did the buffalo do to bring the wrath of Uncle Sam down on them? Nothing, except for being a delicious major food source for Native Americans. White Ame...

    Hollywood movies would have us think that folks in the Old West ran around with their guns half-cocked, ready to bite the bullet and jump in lock, stock, and barrel with guns a-blazing whenever they dodged a bullet (okay, that’s enough of the gun phrases). The reality is that most Old West towns had super strict gun laws, even notorious boom towns ...

    In the Old West, as it is today, sheriff was an elected position — and not a particularly appealing one. The pay was paltry, if there was one at all. Sometimes a sheriff only received a percentage of the fines he imposed on people, or taxes collected from locals. Does anyone else think a system like this is just inviting corruption? Each state or t...

  3. The Wild West, which thrived between roughly 1866 and 1890, seemed so wild because the rudeness and violence of the frontier clashed with the sensibilities of an encroaching civilization.

    • Billy the Kid. While not much is known of Billy the Kid's early years, he was born William Henry McCarty Jr. in the slums of New York City and was orphaned at 14.
    • Buffalo Bill. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody lived many lives before he became known to the world for his eponymous Wild West tour. Barely a teen, he took part in California's Gold Rush and two years later, became a Pony Express Rider.
    • Davy Crockett. Easily identifiable by his coonskin cap, Davy Crockett — known for being a hunter, frontiersman, soldier and politician — is one of the most mythologized folk heroes and "forefathers" of the Wild West.
    • Calamity Jane. Born Martha Jane Canary in Missouri, Calamity Jane grew up to be an adventurous frontiersman and performer. Famous for dressing and shooting like a man — and drinking like one, too — Jane moved to booming gold rush towns out West and became an expedition scout in South Dakota.
  4. Wild West was the name that was popularly used for the western regions of United States of America. When USA was born in 1776, the country comprised of only 13 states which were all located along the eastern coast of the country. But then in 1804, America purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. This was a huge piece of land which was ...

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  5. May 9, 2018 · The Wild West was the frontier areas west of the Mississippi River during the nineteenth century, especially after 1840. According to American myths and folktales, the Wild West was a place where law-abiding citizens faced constant threats from gun-slinging outlaws and Native Americans.

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  7. May 20, 2024 · History. 25 Amazing Facts You Didn't Know About the Wild West. By Craig Donofrio, updated on May 20, 2024. Wikipedia. What was it like to live in the Wild West? By 1865, over 30,000 miles of train tracks crisscrossed the United States.

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