Saddle Up Partner! The Old West

What people usually think when they hear Wild West.

We all know, hear and love the old West. Cowboys, horses, cattle, gunfights, outlaws. You name it and they had it. The West was full of legends and stories, dreams and fears. The East Coast could never get enough of the wildness of it all, the "romance" of "way out there." 

Yet the old West was so much more than that. Sure, they had all the things you watch on Rawhide and Bonanza, (though not nearly so dramatized.) but there was a lot of things that happened first that lead to the famous time period in history that we now call the Wild West. 

Let's began with a brush-up on who explored the West. Yep. Lewis and Clark, the famous explorers from the year 1804. When America bought the Louisiana Purchase ( parts of Montana, N. Dakota, Wyoming, S. Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and of course, Louisiana) they hired Captain Merriweather Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark. But did you know that before them Captain James Cook had sailed the Pacific Ocean before? He sure did! We came along once, and... okay, getting ahead of myself. 

The migration West took place over several years, and more often than not was more of a trickle. Fur traders, mostly Russians, did wander up and down the Pacific Coast and traipse along the mainland, but for the most part the land west of Colorado was owned by the Spanish and Mexicans. It was known as the Spanish Territory. Later, the Spanish Territory would eventually be fought over and the Americans would come to settle it, but we're not going to get into that right now. Y'know, remember the Alamo. That's for another time. 

One major event that brought settlers to the West was the Oregon Trail. The first migrant organized wagon train started in Independence, Missouri, and headed down the trail to Fort Hall, Idaho. Many more followed. Trails were perilous, dangerous and ridden with disease and sickness. Many settlers never made it to the West, but died along the way. Their grave-markers can still be found today.  

Fast-forward again to the California Gold Rush. You remember what we covered? Hordes of people began to race West with Gold Fever, itching to get rich quick. This took place in the 1840s. Like we'd discussed a couple months back, though a lot of those people didn't become rich, they settled the Northwest and other Western states to become homesteaders and ranchers.  

A cattle drive to Oklahoma.

In other parts of the country, places like Texas, Arizona and other hot states were great places to raise cattle. Lots of land, sunshine and food. As early as 1836 ranchers in Texas began to drive their cattle along a "Beef trail" to New Orleans. By the 1840s that trail expanded towards Missouri and included towns like Sedalia, Bazter Springs, Springfield and St. Louis. The main trail was Shawnee Trail (also known as the Texas Road or Texas Trail), until 1853, when the farmers got afraid that the cattle were carrying the Texas Fever (caused by ticks) and blocked the trail. The Texas cattle were immune to it, but the local cattle were not and the farmers began to seize and kill any infected cattle they came across. Drovers than began to take their herds up the eastern edge of Kansas, but there they were also met with opposition.  

The West was a huge expanse of land to be covered, full of exotic creatures settlers from the East that had never seen such things as buffalo, marmots and other creatures native to the drier climates of the Western states. Tales were spun and sent back to the relatives left behind in the old settlements, and these were no doubt the wild stories of outlaws and Indians we hear today. Some of it was true, but a good amount of it could be disposed of as a "yarn", or a tall tale to rouse the curiosity of those who lived too far away to see the real deal itself. 

Now about cowboys. 

This was a little excerpt we read online that Wikipedia wrote up. 

The English word cowboy has an origin from several earlier terms that referred to both age and to cattle or cattle-tending work. 

The word "cowboy" appeared in the English language by 1725.[3] It appears to be a direct English translation of vaquero, a Spanish word for an individual who managed cattle while mounted on horseback. It was derived from vaca, meaning "cow,"[4] which came from the Latinword vacca. Another English word for a cowboy, buckaroo, is an Anglicization of vaquero.[5] 

Originally, the term may have been intended literally—"a boy who tends cows." By 1849 it had developed its modern sense as an adult cattle handler of the American West. Variations on the word "cowboy" appeared later. "Cowhand" appeared in 1852, and "cowpoke" in 1881, originally restricted to the individuals who prodded cattle with long poles to load them onto railroad cars for shipping.[6] Names for a cowboy in American English include buckaroo, cowpoke, cowhand, and cowpuncher.[7] "Cowboy" is a term common throughout the west and particularly in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, "Buckaroo" is used primarily in the Great Basin and California, and "cowpuncher" mostly in Texas and surrounding states.[8] 

So there you have it. The origin of the word "Cowboy".  

Cowboys from the West.

The most famous time that most people remember when they think of the Wild West is the years between 1870s-1880s. These were the years that infamous outlaws like Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Cherokee Bill, Bonnie and Clyde, The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. Everyone who heard their names knew to fear them, and wild tales of their many crimes were spread from territory to territory. Those days were also the years of the most

famous cowboys and cowgirls of the time, with names such as Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, Buffaloo Bill, Annie Oakley and Wild Bill Hickok gracing the pages of history. To this day you can type up any one of these names and you'll find numerous books and movies on any one of these people. Their legends live on to this day. 

To be honest, there is so much that one cannot even begin to tell about the West and the stories of those who experienced it first hand. If you were to mention anything about the "West" to your fellow Americans, the first picture they'd get in their mind was of outlaws stealing money from a bank, shooting at lawmen and then taking off on their horses. Though that did happen, most of the time life "out there in the Wild West" was more a day-to-day survival experience than a rough and tumble shootout.  

The old West will always be remembered as one of the great moments in American history. Ask any foreigner what the greatest events in America's life before the World Wars and they'd probably say, "The Revolutionary War, the Civil War and the old West."  

Perhaps the reason the American settlement of the Western States is so fondly remembered with such great romanticized stories is because deep down, we'd all like to live in a time where an honest man could get what he deserved by working hard, loving his family and loving God. Good always triumphed over evil, and Christian values prevailed over all. I think we'd all like to live in a time like that. 

Today in History: On this day in history, Flour was in high demand in San Francisco, California. Not very interesting, right? Well, the Los Angeles Herald wrote that: The demand is fair and the prices are firm. Wheat- Demand good and holders Arm, shipping is $1, milling is $1. Wish we could buy wheat flour for that price these days!

Little-known Fact: Did you know that Camels used to live in California? We're not kidding! On May 14th, 1856, the camels arrived in America as part of a United States military experiment. They were going to use the camels to ride across deserts like Death Valley, but discovered that camels aren't exactly the nicest of creatures ever. Plus, their horses were terrified of them, which didn't help much at all. The project was abandoned and the camels died out, but you can now safely tell someone that camels used to live in California!

Come back next week and we'll give you some great reads to satisfy that wild side of yours for old West adventures!