Rank the following states in order of being the most "Old Western" (home, school)
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1. Wyoming - Ranch culture is the dominate culture. Very much still isolated and undeveloped.
2. Montana - Like Wyoming, but with more hippies and plains.
3. New Mexico - Strong Native-American culture, strong Mexican culture, and ranching. Though, more developed than WY and MT.
4. Arizona - Like New Mexico, but loses points due to the sprawling suburban nightmare of transplanted Californians and crabby snowbirds that is Maricopa County. But regains those points due to its very lax gun laws. Then loses those points once again due to all the inauthentic, cheesy "Old West" tourist traps.
5. Nevada -I'm including Nevada at No. 5 strictly because of the Basque cowboys that still roam the ranges outside Elko, who go on binges three or four times a year spending all their money on booze and prostitutes. If that's not the Old West, than what is?
Last edited by Dawn.Davenport; 12-19-2013 at 05:05 PM..
1. Wyoming - Ranch culture is the dominate culture. Very much still isolated and undeveloped.
2. Montana - Like Wyoming, but with more hippies and plains.
3. New Mexico - Strong Native-American culture, strong Mexican culture, and ranching. More developed, though than WY and MT.
4. Arizona - Like New Mexico, but loses points due to the sprawling suburban nightmare of translanted Californians and Midwesterners that is Maricopa County.
5. Nevada -I'm including Nevada at No. 5 strictly because of the Basque cowboys that still roam the ranges outside Ely, who go on binges three or four times a year spending all their money on booze and prostitutes. If that's not the Old West, than what is?
PS: Why is Missouri included?
Thanks for the reply, but I meant states specifically on my list as this is to do with picking a grad school in a good location for Old West history research.
Missouri is included because it is home to the "Gateway to the West" - St. louis...
Thanks for the reply, but I meant states specifically on my list as this is to do with picking a grad school in a good location for Old West history research.
Missouri is included because it is home to the "Gateway to the West" - St. louis...
Oh. In that case, I'd make my choice based on each university's program and special collections more than any other factor. I believe BYU and Oklahoma are strong in these areas
Arizona
California
Colorado
Kansas
Missouri
New Mexico
Oklahoma
Oregon
Utah
I know I have left out a few, but this selection applies to me specifically.
Pick 5 and rank them in order of being the most quintessenially Wild Western.
I think you could arguably switch these around. I'd make an argument for Kansas to be in the top five because:
Dodge City - Jesse James/Wyatt Earp/Wild Bill Hickok - iconic prairie and rugged landscape - still largely open territory
The other four might be,
Colorado
Oregon
Utah
California
And OK has a fascinating Native history i.e. The Trail of Tears.
1. Wyoming. It's so dominated by Cowboys and ranches and such.
2. Montana. A lot like Wyoming, though maybe has a little more of a hippie type element than Wyoming. Also where the Battle of the Little Bighorn took place.
3. Arizona- Home of the OK Corral, as well as Monument Valley where so many Westerns were shot
4. New Mexico- Home of Billy the Kid, as well as where the looney tunes animators got the idea for the landscape in the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote Cartoons (such as Camel Rock outside of Santa Fe).
5. Nevada- All of the old mining towns as well as it being so desolate make it a pretty wild state
6. Texas- if West Texas were a state it'd probably be 2nd or third in terms of being the most old western. It's got so much western history. The only reason I put it lower is because it's culturally more related to the south, especially East and Central TX.
7. South Dakota- Home of Deadwood and where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are buried. Also the Indian Wars ended here
8. Oklahoma- Not a lot of western history other than the land rush and Indian nations, but western OK has a wild west feel
9. Kansas - Dodge City is very much an old western feeling town, and most of Western Kansas still has that frontier feel
10. North Dakota. This is where Teddy Roosevelt spent his time as a Cowboy. Also has a lot of ranches and western writer Louis L'amour grew up in North Dakota.
Pretty much any state from the frontier strip on west is going to have some wild west areas though. Nebraska has the Sandhills, Colorado still has some Wild West feeling areas, as do the states on the Pacific coast. While Missouri certainly did play a big role in Western history, it was more as a gateway to the west than being the actual wild west. REally only during the Bleeding Kansas era, as well as when Jesse James was big was Missouri the "Wild West", and even then that was Western Missouri
In the present context, I think Wyoming wins this one hands-down. Authentic cowboy/rancher culture is not only still very much alive and well there, it's still the predominant statewide culture.
In other Western states, it has become more of a nostalgic part of state history. More of a touristy thing. Not to say that there aren't still real cowboys in some of these places, but overall I think Wyoming is the only state that can claim an across-the-board "Old West" vibe.
4. Arizona - Like New Mexico, but loses points due to the sprawling suburban nightmare of transplanted Californians and crabby snowbirds that is Maricopa County. But regains those points due to its very lax gun laws. Then loses those points once again due to all the inauthentic, cheesy "Old West" tourist traps.
However, we have some real ones, like Tombstone, which is an hour away from where I am. Cool place to visit. Also this state is the most stereotypical for the "Wild West" category because of cacti and our odd rock formations, big skies and open land. I don't know how that came to be, but it did. Sure beats me.
Arizona--in most of the state--still has a cowboy/rancher culture. Cattle is one of Arizona's "Five C's" that are big in this state. The others are: Copper, Citrus, Cotton, and Climate (I never understood why cactus was not on this list.) And a lot of mining is STILL done here, which was a big part of the Wild West as well.
I do agree on Maricopa County though.
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