Did the Wild West exist in America like it is portrayed in movies? The Wild West in movies is about as accurate as Lost in Space is about space exploration.
Cowboys looked after cattle. They helped the mothers give birth, branded them, herded them, gelded them, treated their ailments, and delivered them to the railroad. They didn't get into gunfights with each other all the time. They didn't go out after native Americans either. They didn't have stagecoach chases. Barroom brawls were not harmless punch-ups in which nobody really got hurt and prostitutes did not have hearts of gold. Men could not whip a pistol out of a holster while sauntering along and shoot another man accurately, one-handed, without sighting, at fifty yards. Especially not with the cruddy revolvers they carried. The main purpose of their weapons was to kill wild animals that posed a risk to the cattle, and they would much prefer a rifle if they had one.
There were occasional fights between rival groups, and there certainly were some bad people beyond the frontier, especially ex-Confederate raiders who went on raiding after the war was over. But it wasn't constant murder.
Here's the back story of the above photo, with the names of the men in it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americancowboychronicles.com/2017/01/william-owen-buckey-oneill.html
Elmo, thank you very much.
Delete"Cruddy revolvers"? I respectfully disagree.
ReplyDeleteThe Old Guy, not my opinion either.
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