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What a lot of people do not realize, there is still a west, with cattle and sheep. There are still cowboys. Here in Montana there a lot more cattle than people.
Lets look at t he difference however. 50 years ago, a cowboy would go around ranches looking for jobs, with a trailer behind his pickup with his horse in the trailer. Today they have an ATV in the back of their pickup. An ATV can cover a lot more trails in a day, than a horse. Horses get tired and have to be watered and allowed to rest when out on the range. With an ATV you can travel much faster and they don't get tired. They ride miles of fence line with a Dirt Bike, which gets them home at night, not camped out on the range for a few days.
In the 1950s, it took 1/3rd of the working men, to grow the food we eat. Today it only takes 1/2% of the workforce. I have worked on bale crews when we put up hay at the ranch in the 40s. You first cut the hay, then raked it into rows. Then you had to haul it to the bailer, where the hay was baled involving several men. It then had to be loaded onto trucks by hand, and hauled to storage.
In the 2014 era, one man drives a tractor that cuts the hay and it may take several tractors with mowers. Today one man drives an air conditioned tractor with a big mower that lays it in rows as it cuts it. Driving at about the speed of city traffic. GPS controls the steering and instead of a foot and a half overlap to be sure and not leave stips uncut as in the past, they do it to a 4 inch overlap. As soon as the hay is dry, instead of a crew, one man drives a machine that picks up the hay in the rows, and bales it into round bales weighing hundreds of pounds. When one finished the machine ties it off, and can wrap it in plastic to protect the round bale. The machine stops, squats backwards a little, and drops a bale for later pickup. A few days later a truck will come in to haul the bales, and a loader will pick them up and put them on a truck. In minutes it is loaded and on the way to storage. One loader can feed several trucks, or wait for a truck to return for another load.
I was doing a little reading on it as I am a big fan of western movies and such and found a quote:
And when you think of it, even if you aren't an American most everyone knows about the wild west with cowboys (and cowgirls), train robberies, saloons etc. etc.
It's funny because even though I am a big fan even I can't put my finger on what about it has captured the imagination of people the world over. Sure a lot of it has been exaggerated with movies and such, but the basic premise is very intriguing, as well as, as the quote above says, it is unique in that no other nation can claim a part of their past has engineered such a feat.
One other question: If you were to wake up tomorrow and find yourself in the old west days, say circa 1870 how well would you be able to adapt, and with no way of going back how would you try to meager out a living? I know for me as a woman my options would be quite limited but there were cowgirls to
I think it's the myth created around it. It plays to a lot of what Americans consider either virtues or exciting. There's stories of good vs evil, high adventure, rugged individualism, danger, etc. Relatively cheap novels (And good ones too, author Louis L'Amour was a good writer of the genre) and Hollywood (Westerns were always relatively cheap to make--the first great film was about a train robbery) helped build the myth.
If we think about the mythic West I'd have to say it certainly makes sense in that who the heck had time to write things down if you were a pioneer and especially those what they called tbemselves 'first comers'? Looks like the myths got helped along when writers started hearing about guys like mountain man Jim Bridger , Pecos Bill , Wild Bill Hickock , Buffalo Bill , Deadwood Dick and Davy Crockett or ladies like Calamity Jane, Cattle Annie and Little Britches.
Then as far as characters you get guys like 'The Friendly Bandit of Yellowstone Park'. He , known as Ed Trafton, robbed 35 stagecoaches in succession. He let them take Kodak snapshots of the hold ups. He got 3000 dollars, cut the telegraph lines and headed north. But the law got him 4 days later!
Most of the points have already been made but I wanted to emphasize the profusion of the outgrowth of various forms of modern media for that time period (communication, visual, print: telegraph, telephone, daguerreotype, camera, moving film -newspaper proliferation yellow journalism / dime novel) began or was at its height during this same narrow time period, generally, the last half of 19th century.
This coupled with the promotional efforts toward (marketing) leisure and entertainment (Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley et al) in the larger urban areas as part of migration attraction (for land speculators) and tourism dollars led to a certain codification of packaging the mythos of all the most appealing elements: freedom of movement and starting out anew, adventure / exoticism, earning a living on one's merits in wide open spaces which one could conceivably put down new roots or simply wander to where the latest booming commercial opportunity resided (mining towns, cattle towns, railroad towns) or simply getting away from the worst parts of urban life before much infrastructure improvements due to sanitation laws became codified.
If I was 18 years old in 1875 and living in the stinky, poor sanitation urban areas of east coast / Midwest or was a newly arrived immigrant from Europe with stories told of the open space to claim, work, and build your own homestead - I'm heading for the West! Personally, I'd probably been a tradesman / businessman of some sort (gunsmith, locksmith, carpenter, supply goods store) and lived not too far from the local town.
An interesting relationship around this time period was the rate of industrialization by various industries (existing and new) and what it meant to the urban living conditions. At the dawn of the 20th century massive infrastructure improvements abounded throughout all the major urban centers to rid themselves of the worst aspects of urban living. It is only natural that many of the people who immigrated to the USA during, say, 1840 to 1890 eventually followed a path that was initially urban to rural to back to urban once the living conditions and industrial working conditions began being addressed: sanitation water, safety conditions (in some respects prior to reform the urban factory workers in various industries had as dangerous of risks, albeit of a different sort) and the lure of the mystical west's harsh realities wore off.
I want a holodeck to visit the mythological version of the West. One of my road trips throughout the west I read one book in particular that was an eye opener on how the average male and female work day was like. To a prior poster point it was hard and constant. These types of conditions were worse on females and very limited: marry have kids, single / displaced for one reason or another often were laundress/cooks, or 'working' girls.
Last edited by ciceropolo; 12-09-2014 at 10:19 PM..
Reason: clarity
I've always found it interesting to note that when the 'West' is discussed in US history it is usually described as incorporating a 'mythic' grandeur. Mythology hovers many things that have happened say in 'settling' it. Perhaps that setup of myths helps us to guide and orient our reflections on that history and era which if we think about it was as damn ruthless as can be? I mean if we say just looked at the plain old facts we'd be having a tough time to explain ourselves.
Myths always arise from the events any culture undergoes. They serve many cultural purposes that are common to all cultures; the question Where do we come from? is always pine of the first and oldest.
Myths also come to define how the people of a culture like to see themselves. Germans like the way the myths about the Teutonic gods, knights, and kings of their distant pasts make them out to be the strong warriors of the norhtlands. The Scandinavians have very similar myths and love them for the same reasons.
Our west was the place where myths about the common man could be great heroes or villains in many ways that are more relatable to our melting-pot culture and society. The myths are younger because we are a younger nation.
Much of the grandeur is very real. Our west is not only grand, it's also huge with many natural extremes like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park. Europe has one geyser, for example; until Yellowstone was discovered, a geyser was such a rare natural phenomenon that people from all over Europe went to see their single geyser. Yellowstone has hundreds of geysers. That's how much of the western landscape is like- big, deep, high, wide, open, and huge.
Naturally enough, the man vs. nature myths are a big part of our culture. All of our national territory was over-sized to the people who inhabited it all. Big country makes big legends.
I spent many months stationed at the Philadelphia Naval Yards, to a school in 1950/1951. I was a guest to a lot of parties, strictly because those Easterners had heard of the West but had not been there. They invited me, to tell them some of my true stories about what it was like in the West. A large proportion still thought the White Man and the Indians were still having battles. They thought we did not have roads out in the country, and we still took buckboards to town instead of cars.
As long as I could go to some of the nicest areas of Philadelphia for parties, with lots of food, drink, and some good looking daughters that would stay home if I was at one of their parents parties, I was good for a few stores. Would watch those Saturday Afternoon Westerns they used to show on TV, for ideas for my next story that night. I was carrying a bottle of milk (glass back then) when I was five. Some big kids scared me, and I fell on it braking it and have a very ugly scar on my chest about where my heart is. I would show them the scar, while telling them about the indian raid on our ranch and had taken an arrow during the raid, and almost died. Of course I told them that I shot the indian that had shot me with the arrow, and a lot of his friends. The women would just hang on every word, call me a hero and try to fix me up with one of their daughters. Got some great dates that way. The young single women all had to feel the scar, and gave me all kinds of attention. We young salors did not have the money for a great time every weekend, but I used my stories instead of money for great weekend liberty times.
The Eastern people did not really know much about the west back then, and were hungry for the wild stories people like me spun as our party invitation, and authors wrote as that type of story was what sold books, and movies. Tell the truth and I would have spent a lot of lonesome weekends, instead of having lots of very nice young women hanging around me bringing me food, drinks, dancing and dates to go to their house for a party or two the next week in upscale areas of town. I was a minor celebrity at those parties.
I was dann good with a gun and riding a horse including bucking broncs, and with a gun both pistol and rifle. But in those stores, I could out ride and outshoot about anybody. I don't think anyone could have done some of the stunts I told them stories about doing eithe riding or shooting. Of course I had watched stunt men do those things on Saturday Matinee Time on the T.V., so I had plenty of things to tell them about, and sometimes it took at least 4 or 5 moveis to find all the things I claimed I did.
The truth is, the west was not the same one that was in those books and movies. My grandfather used to love to read those dime western novels. He kept telling me, how wrong they were about the real west he grew up in.
If you are in Arizona you can go to the real O.K. Corall in Tombstone. It is small and nothing like the ones they show in movies and T.V. and call the O.K. Corall.
I spent many months stationed at the Philadelphia Naval Yards, to a school in 1950/1951. I was a guest to a lot of parties, strictly because those Easterners had heard of the West but had not been there. They invited me, to tell them some of my true stories about what it was like in the West. A large proportion still thought the White Man and the Indians were still having battles. They thought we did not have roads out in the country, and we still took buckboards to town instead of cars.
As long as I could go to some of the nicest areas of Philadelphia for parties, with lots of food, drink, and some good looking daughters that would stay home if I was at one of their parents parties, I was good for a few stores. Would watch those Saturday Afternoon Westerns they used to show on TV, for ideas for my next story that night. I was carrying a bottle of milk (glass back then) when I was five. Some big kids scared me, and I fell on it braking it and have a very ugly scar on my chest about where my heart is. I would show them the scar, while telling them about the indian raid on our ranch and had taken an arrow during the raid, and almost died. Of course I told them that I shot the indian that had shot me with the arrow, and a lot of his friends. The women would just hang on every word, call me a hero and try to fix me up with one of their daughters. Got some great dates that way. The young single women all had to feel the scar, and gave me all kinds of attention. We young salors did not have the money for a great time every weekend, but I used my stories instead of money for great weekend liberty times.
The Eastern people did not really know much about the west back then, and were hungry for the wild stories people like me spun as our party invitation, and authors wrote as that type of story was what sold books, and movies. Tell the truth and I would have spent a lot of lonesome weekends, instead of having lots of very nice young women hanging around me bringing me food, drinks, dancing and dates to go to their house for a party or two the next week in upscale areas of town. I was a minor celebrity at those parties.
I was dann good with a gun and riding a horse including bucking broncs, and with a gun both pistol and rifle. But in those stores, I could out ride and outshoot about anybody. I don't think anyone could have done some of the stunts I told them stories about doing eithe riding or shooting. Of course I had watched stunt men do those things on Saturday Matinee Time on the T.V., so I had plenty of things to tell them about, and sometimes it took at least 4 or 5 moveis to find all the things I claimed I did.
The truth is, the west was not the same one that was in those books and movies. My grandfather used to love to read those dime western novels. He kept telling me, how wrong they were about the real west he grew up in.
If you are in Arizona you can go to the real O.K. Corall in Tombstone. It is small and nothing like the ones they show in movies and T.V. and call the O.K. Corall.
Wow, sounds like you have a gift for words. Maybe you should try writing down some stories.
I've been to Tombstone a couple of times. It's neat to walk around the town, and for sure go to the museum at the theater. I couldn't get any good pictures, but its neat. They explain how the attitude towards women was different than in the purddish east, and how working a saloon was considered respectable. And these were very independent women, rare for the time. They even required saloons to pay for doctors for their barmaids.
The O.K Corral is small and surprising. From the story you think its much larger. But if you go there, buy the newspaper they sell. They have the entire court transcript of the shootout and how it began printed and its very interesting to read.
The truth is, the west was not the same one that was in those books and movies.
My grandfather used to love to read those dime western novels. He kept
telling me, how wrong they were about the real west he grew up
in.
Something from a Sally Long. She was a pioneer's daughter and took a different view of how the West was perceived at the time. Her opinion on the 'pioneers' noted that some were 'imbeciles'. She said, 'If the public and private words and deeds of most of them were all published , it would prove a record alike discreditable to them and their descendants'. And these were just 'poar men who looked for good land on the Massura'.
And settlin' the West sure looked like a tough job for tough people. One of the little pieces of advice that wojld hold you in good stead as you trekked along the gullies and rivers and mountains and sagebrush whisch stood in the way:
'Of all places in the world, traviling in the mountains is the most apt to breed contentions and quarrils. The only way to keep out of it is to say but little, and mind your own business exclusively'. Got to praise those early 'lawmen'. Some surely got blown away trying to 'keep the peace' because of those early 'quarrils'.
I don't remember where, but I saw a historian speaking about movies and the west. He said if the number of people had been killed in gunfights, especially in towns, the west would have been emptied. Even with the constant migration in, it was a dramatically empty place. Towns formed so people could be near one another, but they were small and didn't have many people. There were outlaws and gunfights and saloons and the rest, but unless it was an unusual event, towns were not anywhere near full of population as they look like in movies.
In the countyside it was even more scattered and lonely. I wonder how many of us, who are so used to having others near, even if they aren't physically there, on some electornic device could take the aloneness.
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