Unit One: The Wild West

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Unit One The Wild West

• The Cattle Kingdom

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The Cattle Kingdom

• The next mass movement of people into the West
  was into the Southern Plains area of Texas and
  surrounding areas to ranch and herd cattle on
  what was called the Cattle Frontier.
• At the end of the Civil War and after the cattle
  industry in the East was destroyed by the war and
  there was a massive influx of immigrants into the
  Eastern Coast cities, a new source of meat
  (cattle) was needed.
• These conditions and the rising prices in cattle
  led to cattle herding on the Great Plains and the
  growth of the Cattle Kingdom.

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The Cattle Kingdom

• The Cattle Kingdom developed on large open field
  estates called ranches in Texas.
• The Texas ranchers rounded up
  wild cattle herds that roamed the
  area after the Spanish had left
  called Texas Longhorns.
• The Texas Longhorns were rough durable, but
  were known as the butchers nightmare eight
  pounds of hamburger on 800 pounds of bone and
  horn.
• To identify cattle herds, a brand
  was burned into the cows side
  with a hot iron poker.

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The Cattle Kingdom

• The people who worked on the cattle ranches were
  mostly Civil War veterans that included Freedmen
  (blackmen), Native Americans, and Hispanics known
  as Cowboys or Wranglers. (buckaroo, cowpoke,
  cowhand, and cowpuncher)
• The Cattle were herded on the open range (large
  public domain grassland of the Plains) and
  allowed to graze across it known as free range
  cattle.
• Cattle found with no brandings were called
  mavericks and were claimed by anyone who found
  them.

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Cowboy Terminology

• Lariat a rope used to catch cattle. (the loop
  is called a hondo)
• Lasso the action of roping a cow.
• Spurs metal device placed on a boot to aid in
  walking and riding.
• Chaps leather wore on the legs to provide
  protection.
• Bandana cloth worn on face to block out dust.
• Saddle a leather seat attached to a horse.
• Stirrup hung from the saddle to place feet in
  while riding.

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Cowboy Terminology

• Cowboy Hat various size hats that developed
  from the Mexican sombrero, invented by John
  Stetson called the Boss of the Plains.
• Rodeo was a competition between cowboys on
  various skills.
• Mustang or Bronco A wild untamed horse that
  roamed the open range, was broke or busted
  for riding. (stallion-male, mare-female)
• Bridle placed around the horses head to
  control (reins leather straps used to steer the
  horse)
• Gun most used a Colt .45 peacemaker (usually a
  six shooter), some also carried a long arm or
  rifle (most popular was the Winchester repeater).
  

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Cowboy Equipment
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Cattle Kingdom

• The cattle needed to be driven from the Plains
  region to railhead cities (place where the train
  stopped) to be shipped back east to be butchered.
• To get the cattle to the railheads, cowboys took
  the cattle on long drives (marches).
• The long drives were lonely, dangerous, and hard
  on the cowboys.
• The long drives were hard on the cattle causing
  weight loss, also during the transportation to
  regional slaughtering centers like Chicago
  (Armour and Swift slaughterhouses and meatpacking
  companies) cattle would die or become sick.

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Cattle Kingdom

• One thing that helped the Cattle Kingdom develop
  into a major business was the invention of the
  refrigerated railway car by Gustavus Swift
  (actually designed by Andrew Chase).
• This allowed slaughtered meat to be transported
  to further locations allowing for the meat
  packing industry to grow, thus creating demand
  for more meat.
• Before cow the choice meat of Americans was pork.
  (was smoked and salted, highly unhealthy)

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Cattle Kingdom

• The long drive crews included a trail captain,
  chuck wagon (cook), pointers (led the herd) and
  drags (prevented stragglers or weak cattle).
• The four most dominate cattle trails of the long
  drives were the Sedalia and Baxter Trail,
  Chisholm Trail, Western Trail, and
  Goodnight-Loving Trail.
• During a long drive if the cattle became scared
  or spooked and ran uncontrollably this was called
  a stampede.

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The Cattle Trails
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Cattle Kingdom

• Along the Western railways railhead towns called
  cow towns developed for the purpose of holding,
  selling, and distribution of cattle.
• Cow towns worked on the same boom and bust system
  as mining towns and looked just the same.
• The different cow towns that developed were
  Abilene (first started by Joseph McCoy), Dodge
  City, Laramie, Ellsworth, Sedalia and etc.

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Cattle Kingdom

• Cow towns were rough and dangerous places which
  were controlled mostly by vigilante lynch mob
  justice.
• In Texas law enforcement was taken care of by the
  Texas Rangers.
• For most of the Plains region federal law
  enforcement was taken care of by U.S. Marshals.
• The frontier life of the Wild West created a
  national phenomenon of stories and myths of life
  in the West. (the West was only Wild for less
  than thirty years)

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Wild West Fact vs. Myth

• The Western frontier created famous marshals such
  as Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok.
• Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down in Deadwood
  Colorado by Jack McCall while playing poker. (he
  was holding the deadmans hand, pair of aces and
  eights, all black)
• Wyatt Earp was famous for jobs in Dodge City, and
  the shoot out at the OK Corral in Tombstone with
  Doc Holiday and his brothers against a group of
  Cowboys recognized by their red sashes.

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Famous Marshals
Wyatt Earp
Wild Bill Hickok
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Wild West Fact vs. Myth

• The West also created famous outlaws such as
  Calamity Jane, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and
  Butch Cassidy.
• Calamity Jane was a gunfighter and companion of
  Wild Bill Hickok.
• Jesse James became famous for robbing trains and
  banks after the Civil War with the James-Younger
  Gang, he was killed by Robert Ford.

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Famous Outlaws
Jesse James
Calamity Jane
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Wild West Fact vs. Myth

• Billy the Kid (aka William H. Bonney) became
  famous during the well- known Lincoln County Wars
  (Range War) between Tuntsall/McSween
  (ranchers/regulators) and the Murphys (General
  store monopoly).
• Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Pat
  Garrett.
• Robert LeRoy Parker (Butch Cassidy) was the
  leader of the famous bank/train robbing Wild
  Bunch Gang.
• Butch Cassidy and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh
  (Sundance Kid) were shot together in a standoff
  with police in Bolivia.

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Famous Outlaws
The Wild Butch
Billy the Kid
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Wild West Fact vs. Myth

• The myth of the wild west was spread by small
  books called dime novels that were widely read
  during the time.
• One was a famous series of novels wrote by Edward
  Wheeler about a fictional character called
  Deadwood Dick. (thought to be a black cowboy Nat
  Love)
• Another was the Western novel The Virginian by
  Owen Wister (father of western fiction) that
  romanticized the cowboy life.
• William F. Buffalo Bill Cody also expanded the
  idea of the Wild West through his Wild West Shows
  featuring fighting cowboys and Indians, Chief
  Sitting Bull, and cowgirl Annie Oakley.

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Wild West Fact vs. Myth

• The Dime novels and the Wild West Shows developed
  the stereotype (exaggerated or oversimplified)
  story of the Western Frontier.
• In 1893 historian Frederick Jackson Turner
  introduced the Turner Thesis stating that the
  American Frontier life had shaped and modeled the
  character of American people, but excluded the
  effect of various ethnic groups and business
  involvement.
• He also said that the frontier acted as a safety
  valve for discontented city people as an
  opportunity for success and kept down uprisings
  in cities.

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End of the Open Range

• The Open Range came to a halt when the bubble on
  cattle prices fell and bad weather conditions,
  but the biggest cause was the fencing off of the
  Plains by farmers due to the invention
  of barb wire by Joseph Gilden.
• The effect of the Cattle Kingdom was the
  increased mileage of railroads, the creation of
  towns to civilize the west for famers, but the
  biggest was the mass destruction of the wild
  Buffalo.

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The End of the Buffalo

• During the 1840s to 1880s the Buffalo were hunted
  to almost extinction with as few as 1,100 left in
  1889.
• The Buffalo were killed in huge
  numbers for their hide and
  tongues.
• Many buffalo were just shot
  by people from trains, just for
  sport. (the carcass was left to rot)
• The mass killing of the buffalo
  was also a direct cause of the Indian Wars during
  this period.