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I voted California. Not being a homer or anything, but I had actually just read a blog that stated LA had a secret history of being the wildest cowtown in the west from the early 1800's until the 1890's. It claimed that LA had a murder rate as high as 1,200 per 100k residents, and that there were times that a murder would occur in LA every single day. It also said that during this time, Los Angeles had the highest homicide rate in all of American history, but I don't know how true that actually is.
Apparently the high crime stemmed from the fact that LA was kind of a haven for criminals who were banished from the gold mining camps, and how common it was to experience lynchings, shootouts, bank robberies, etc.
Aside from that, the Gold Rush era was the epitome of "the Wild West", and ghostowns like Bodie, Calico, Deadwood, along with countless other lesser known ones really make a good case.
Old Western movies, which overrepresent the desert locations of that era, will probably play a big part in how the poll turns out, though.
How is Wyoming winning the thread? I always think of the Southwest when I think of the Wild West but then again I live there so... My mind thinks of Tombstone
I just want to know why people think Wyoming... Is there a certain history I don't know about?
How is Wyoming winning the thread? I always think of the Southwest when I think of the Wild West but then again I live there so... My mind thinks of Tombstone
I just want to know why people think Wyoming... Is there a certain history I don't know about?
I think of Deadwood, Cowboys, ranchers, wide open spaces. Wyoming fits the bill.
Maybe it's not the Wild West here in SoCal, but big tumbleweeds blow down the freeways every fall, and I always smile at thought of those old Western movies.
Come to think of it, most of those movies were filmed on the more than 20 local "movie ranches" of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties:
Also, Oklahoma and probably Texas need to be on this list.
As should Kansas, which, IMO, was the epitome of the wild west that most of Hollywood liked to make movies about. Wide open plains, farmers, drovers and cattle drives, wild murderous cow towns, outlaws hiding out in the open, railroads, hail storms and tornados, constant conflict with indigenous people, wagon trains, the Sante Fe Trail, the Chisolm Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Pony Express, The Overland Stage trail, border wars with Missouri, gunslingers like Wild Bill, Wyatt Earp, John Hardin, places like Abiline, Dodge City, Ft Hays. The list could go on.
The geography of Kansas meant that the situation, the people and their conflicts took center stage in a number of events from 1830-1870. But by that the latter parts of that time, Kansas was really cleaning up its act and all the wildness was being pushed out to points north, west, and south. Wyoming and Montana saw the culimination of the Plains Indian wars, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada had their gold rushes and resulting environmental and people conflicts, and the pop culture of the time was migrating with them all creating the myths we perceive as western now, leaving Kansas is a side note in that perception.
Now days, I think the general public perception of the wild west would be the wide open spaces, boots and hats, and pick up trucks that would lean heavily towards Texas, Wyoming, and Montana.
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