The Old West

DIVDramatic story of shoulder arms, hand guns, and other weapons also describes the men who used them. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of the Kentucky and Sharps rifle, Colt revolver, and much more. 499 black-and-white illustrations. /div

Much has been written about the west—most of it clouded by exaggeration and fabrication. Since 1953, True West magazine has been devoted to celebrating the West’s true colors, giving the men and women who settled there accurate voices, exploring every triumph and tragedy of their time—and exposing every vice and virtue. True Tales and Amazing Legends of the Old West commemorates these unforgettable cowboys, Indians, and city slickers through a mix of classic histories and brand-new narratives, all illustrated with photographs—many reproduced here for the first time—of the people and places that gave rise to America’s Western mythology. With twenty-six stories that blend fact with folklore, this collection abounds with accounts of the famous and the infamous, including Sacagawea, Wild Bill Hickok, Pancho Villa, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Davy Crockett, and Wyatt Earp. Also here are lesser-known figures whose stories were pivotal to shaping the culture of the era, such as European conquistador Francisco Coronado, rancher “Black Billy” Hill, and fearless lawman Orlando “Rube” Robbins. Other tales recount the wide open plains, lawlessness, drama, mayhem, and promise embodied in the Old West. Whether you’re a history buff, an Old West devotee, or simply someone who is fascinated by the characters of America’s early years, these timeless tales and photographs epitomize the legendary spirit of what it meant to settle the West.

"From Lewis and Clark's epic 1803 expedition to the showmanship of Buffalo Bill, the story of the American West is epic in scope, full of amazing tales of tragedy and triumph ... Illustrated with ... photographs and ... maps, [this book] is [a] ... history of a time and place that forever lives in legend"--

A riveting and previously untold history of the American West, as seen by the pioneering women who advocated for their rights amidst challenges of migration and settlement, and transformed the country in the process Between 1840 and 1910, hundreds of thousands of men and women traveled deep into the underdeveloped American West, lured by adventure, opportunity, and the spirit of Manifest Destiny. These settlers soon realized that survival in a new society required women to compromise eastern sensibilities and take on some of their husbands’ responsibilities. At a time when women had very few legal or economic--much less political--rights, these women soon proved just as essential as men to westward expansion. During the mid-nineteenth century, the traditional domestic model of womanhood shifted to include public service, with the women of the West becoming town mothers who established schools, churches, and philanthropies, while also coproviding for their families. They claimed their own homesteads and graduated from new, free coeducational colleges that provided career alternatives to marriage. In 1869, the men of the Wyoming Territory gave women the right to vote--partly to persuade more of them to move west--but with this victory in hand, western suffragists fought relentlessly until the rest of the region followed suit. By 1914 western women became the first American women to vote--a right still denied to women in every eastern state. In New Women in the Old West, Winifred Gallagher brings to life the riveting history of the little-known women--the White, Black, and Asian settlers, and the Native Americans and Hispanics they displaced--who played monumental roles in one of America's most transformative periods. Drawing on an extraordinary collection of research, Gallagher weaves together the striking legacy of the persistent individuals who not only created homes on weather-wracked prairies, but also played a vital, unrecognized role in the women's rights movement and forever redefined the "American woman."

A history of the saloon as an institution of the Old West illustrated with contemporary photographs and line drawings.

A Photographic Look at the Old West That Is Alive and Well in California It was a thrilling time, when wagon trains and stagecoaches raced to the California goldfields – on the trail where the dust and campfire smoke met. In the shadow of the towering Sierra Nevada, the real Wild West was born. And it still lives today, in the extraordinary people who pack mule-strings into the mountains, race over mountain passes on horseback while recreating the Pony Express, and drive cattle out of the high country each fall. It lives on beneath the massive wheels of the twenty-mule-team wagons and teams of draft horses pulling historic wagons over a mountain pass. Sit back and enjoy this fascinating journey as the Old West comes alive in a book filled with unique western images, inspiring stories from the trail, memorable cowboy poetry, and some western history.

Contains over five hundred-fifty illustrated photographs of stetsons, boots, spurs, saddles, chaps and other trappings of the American western cowboy and cowgirl and traces the history of the cowboy from the cattle trails of the old west to the wild west shows and rodeos.

This work is an explanation of the role of the nineteenth-century photographer as a conscious historian of the West - a recorder of events, people, and places as surely as they were the diary-keepers, journalists, and writers. Like them, he exercised choice in what he recorded; unlike them, he documented aspects of reality that we can know in no other way. Photographers as documenters are too often casually, even carelessly, regarded. Photography And The Old West is intended to convey as clearly as possible how people learned to use a camera and became camera-wise in an individual way; how tools and materials affected photographic seeing; and what a few of the many photographers hoped to express. This work is not a comprehensive survey but rather a selective look at some of the imagery of the West that a few conscious photographers produced.

Wyatt Earp and Tombstone, Wild Bill Hickok and Deadwood, George Custer and the Little Big Horn, Davy Crockett and the Alamo, Bat Masterson and Dodge City; Names and locations forever linked to the legacy and myth of the Old West. Through hundreds of photographs and illustrations, O’Connor delivers a concise, light-hearted yet accurate depiction of a pivotal event in the settlement of the American frontier, and what the location offers today’s visitor, with particular attention devoted to surviving structures, including authentic saloons! Whether planning a road trip, or simply interested in America’s Old West history and culture, the reader is provided an entertaining, and informative look into the locations that shaped the history and myth of the Wild West.