Towns in the Wild West

With the mass migration to the west, new towns appeared continuously so that people had places to socialize and fulfill any necessary requirements. Some of these were: Animas Forks, Colorado; Bannack, Montana; Bodie, California; and Rhyolite, Nevada. Other towns, such as Deadwood, South Dakota, encouraged mayhem because they were out of the reach of the…

The Cattle Trails of the Wild West

During 19th century America, the cattle drives in the west became essential to the livelihood of a large part of the population. In the peak of the era, over 20 million animals were transported from Texas to railheads in Kansas, to be shipped to Chicago and other places in the east. The drives would begin…

The Open Range

During the first half of the 19th century, the majority of cattle drives passed through the open range, which was unsettled land where the animals could roam freely. At first, the ranchers and farmers living in the area shared these fields willing. During the 1860s, however, many of them began fencing off their lands, using…

Cattle Trails in 19th Century America

The Spaniards were the first set of people who drove cattle from one area to another, in the Americas. During the 19th century the scale on which this was done rapidly increased, as Americans began eating more beef than pork. The peak years of cattle driving were between 1866 and 1886, when over 20 million…

“Bloody Bill” Anderson

William T. Anderson is known as the vilest and most notorious confederate guerrilla leader from the civil war. He was a man who killed, butchered and severed countless union soldiers and their sympathizers. Hence, the name given to him, bloody bill, was due to his contribution in the war. He was known as the most…