You are going to read Chapter 3 in the text, the Myths of the West lecture, the Pioneer videos with hints on the key parts of the assignment, watch the two videos especially the Oregon Trail video, and read some of the diaries of travelers in the module

You are going to read Chapter 3 in the text, the Myths of the West

lecture, the Pioneer videos with hints on the key parts of the assignment, watch the two videos especially the Oregon Trail video, and read some of the diaries of travelers in the module.
You then are going back in time and take your family on a trip along the Oregon Trail. You are going to describe the problems of preparation, the geographic highlights along the trail, and the problems you face along the trail.
Finally you have reached Oregon the end of the trail and you will tell which problem you felt was the #1 problem of travel on the Oregon Trail.
You are not required to respond to any students' description of the travel or their choice of the # 1 problem for this assignment. Enjoy your trip on the trail.


chapter 3
MYTHS OF THE WEST
 
The settlement of the Far West occurred from 1865-1890. This process took place after the exploration of the Far West by the official army explorers, by the unofficial explorers which included fur trappers and mountain men, and by some scientific explorers. It was during this settlement of the Far West that writers in the East began to write a bout this settlement; they found certain aspects of this settlement interesting and profitable. At times they were unclear about the real settlement of the Far West, so they took editorial license and wrote about aspects of this settlement that were not quite true. These writers were responsible for creating the myths of the settlement of the Far West. They found that these myths sold and long after the real settlement of the Far West was over the myths continued to sell in novels, in Hollywood films, in magazines, and even in early television shows. This has become the most commercialized period in American History.
First we will describe the myths as myths. Then we will take one myth at a time and attempt to show the real settlement. Eventually we will discover the Real West. This west will be much different from the west you have read about, seen in movies, and seen on television. You will find that the real west would hardly sell; the myths of the west have sold and will continue to sell. You will hopefully change your mind about the settlement of the Far West in early American History and will get rid of the myths and unreality connected with this period of our history.
The first myth is known as the general myth or the Hollywood myth because this myth has appeared so many times in Hollywood westerns. Over the years there have been more Hollywood films known as westerns than any other type of film. This general myth tells us that the settlement of the Far West was exciting, romantic and violent- not necessarily in that order. Individuals today are sorry that they missed this particular time in American History. The excitement occurred in a variety of ways and places; for example, take the cattle town. This was a gathering place of cowboys that supposedly featured women along with gunfights. The myths says that gunfights were constant in the streets of town, while the saloons of the town featured women looking for action. What an exciting and violent and romantic time!!
Myth number two is the myth of wagon train travel. The myth involves the trip along the Oregon Trail; this is a trail that takes families and individuals from the Mid-West to the West Coast. The myth tells us that the trip was a relatively short trip with few major problems; the feeling is that every night there was a party- singing, dancing, and the like. The only real major problem was a daytime problem and did not stop the fun that occurred each and every night. That problem was the savage Indian, but it was a manageable problem. Before the savage Indian attack, one savage usually gave a warning cry to the wagon train travelers so that the wagons could be placed in a circle. Once the circle had been completed, the savage Indians, who were not overly bright, rode around the outside of the wagons until they were virtually wiped out. Then a few days latter another group of savages, referred to as a horde, would attack again with the same results. Bottom line: the myth lets us know that the trip was a fun trip with parties and few problems.
Myth number three is the myth of the cattle business. Be careful with this one. The myth of the cattle business was the belief that it was not a business. How could writers and film makers make money on picturing accounting on the range. So certain aspects of the cattle business were focused on, while the business aspects of the business was completely downplayed. For example, cattle began to be stolen, known as rustling. Writers and film makers focused on the rustling along with the range wars- problems between cattle businessmen along with the problems between cattlemen and sheep raisers. But make sure when you focus on the business problems of the cattle business, you do not let anyone know that the cattle business was a business.
Myth number four is large and has been alive and well for years. This is the myth of the cowboy. The cowboy myth is one of the biggest money making myths of them all. The myth is that the cowboy is a freelance individual out there in the west who is involved with an exciting life, filled with romance and violence. This individual is usually a relatively young male who is physically fit and who spends a lot of time with other cowboys in this violent, romantic existence. Myth five is the gathering place of the cowboy and that is the cattle town. Many refer to this as the Dodge City myth from the old television series Gunsmoke. This is the place where cowboys gather and find sin and violence; for the cowboy it is an adult Disneyland. There is constant drinking and dance hall women and gunfights. This is the place where cowboys spend a great deal of their time. Of course, the most commercialized myth of all involves the cowboys and the cattle towns; this is myth number six and it is the myth of the gunfighter. The gunfighter is the hero of the wild west; he is often a sheriff, but not necessarily so. But he lives and dies by the gun, but he is the one that always wins the gunfights and never loses. This individual is the hero of countless western novels and Hollywood movies. Often this individual is pictured as a rebel who has few friends and who takes little advice, but this reckless individual becomes a role model and is considered one of the most important individuals in the settlement of the Far West.
Myth seven is the myth of the white west. Early writers wrote for a white audience and always pictured those exciting individuals in the west as being white; this myth of the Anglo west involved a few backward savage Indians but nobody else. And in the white west the real saviors of the white west would be the army of the west: the United States cavalry of the west. This is myth number eight. This army unit always saved wagons trains and pioneer families just in the nick of time. The unit really specialized in saving white women.
These myths appeared during the real settlement of the Far West and have lasted to the present. There is still a great deal of commercial value in these myths and they still have a great deal of appeal to the general public. We will take one myth at a time and describe the Real West in regard to each of these myths. The general myth can easily be thrown out, for the real settlement of the Far West involved a time period that was by our standards backward and primitive. No matter what type of town appeared in the far west: it would be cattle town, or lumber town, or mining town, or farm town-the situation is the same. These were male dominated places with little or no organized culture. There was little religion and little education. There were few families; the women in these communities tended to be prostitutes. These dirty, primitive places had many problems such as lack of water, fire dangers, sanitation, disease and crime. There was little or no water in the towns, so the men were relatively stinky. The buildings were of wood and there was no real fire department and a lack of water. Fire was a constant danger. The city streets were of dirt; they were dusty in the summer and muddy in the winter; the streets were filled with animal waste and the outhouses drained into the city streets. Garbage was thrown into the streets and wild animals, such as wild pigs, roamed the streets. In addition, there were criminals in these early cities that necessitated the hiring of sheriffs. But there was actually little violence in these places. Early cities were controlled by businessmen and these businessmen discovered that violence was bad for business. They, therefore, outlawed guns in their towns; this really restricted violence and kept violence to a minimum. The bottom line is that, by our standards, these were unlivable places that were primitive and backward and dirty. The real settlement of the west would have little commercial value.
The reality of overland travel was reflected in the following statistics. The trip was one of residential travel; families and individuals were moving their homes from the Mid-West to the West Coast. They would leave in the spring and travel as many as 1600 miles. Except for the very young and very old, the travelers would walk the entire way. There were two categories of problems that effected wagon train travel. Some of the problems were preparation problems, while the others were problems on the trail. Families and individuals would gather in Missouri cities in the spring; one of the most famous was St. Joseph, Missouri. They would now encounter preparation problems. First the people had to purchase wagons. The purchasing of a wagon was not by itself a problem, but what possessions to put in the wagon was a problem. Remember that the wagon was not a vehicle for transporting people to the west coast, it was like a u-haul vehicle to transport possessions. Family members would now fight over what items should be left behind and what possessions should be taken. Next an animal that would pull the wagon had to be purchased. While many people still today believe that horses pulled the wagons, they were wrong. Horses could not survive the long trip of pulling heavy wagons; oxen were purchased. They were a problem because they were relatively stupid animals. They would cross swollen rivers and stop in the river and drown; travelers would also have a problem on a daily basis of getting the oxen moving in the right direction. Now families would come together a form a wagon train; these families were strangers to each other and while they looked for safety in numbers, they often did not get along with each other. The final preparation involved hiring an experienced guide known as a captain to be in charge of a wagon train party. Many families did not always like this person who was hired but they knew that they needed an experienced guide and they knew that this person would be the law and order on the trail.
Once on the Oregon Trail, which was the first wagon highway to the west, the travelers would encounter on the trail problems. First was the constant problem of the terrain- the lay of the land. The Oregon Trail was no more than wagon ruts on the land and as the travelers moved west, they were influenced by hills and valleys and rivers and mountains for the entire trip. Next was the constant problem of the weather; travelers hit dust storm and rain and snow and heat as they walked outside for five months. Food was really a problem; there were no stores along the Oregon Trail so the food had to last a long time. The diet of powdered milk and soda crackers was a common one. The side effect of such a diet was a constant stomach problem. Travelers were in weakened condition as they traveled and they were susceptible to a variety of illnesses such as cholera. Cholera was an epidemic that hit the wagon train travelers very hard and caused many deaths. Another problem was the overloaded wagon; it had too many possessions and it was moving too slowly. So possessions began to be thrown out of the wagon. Sure there was an Indian problem but very different as pictured in the myth. Initially the Indians avoided the travelers along the trail, but the food shortage caused the pioneers to shoot and kill and eat the buffalo. This was the major Indian food supply and it led to increased Indian raids. These raids tended to take place at night in small groups for food and sometimes also for horses. These Indians were usually more interested in embarrassing their enemies than in killing them, so there was little violence during these raids. Occasionally whites, sleeping in their wagons, were touched with coup sticks- something that signified a brave deed in Plains Indian society- but there was actually little contact between wagon train travelers and Indians. These problems stayed with travelers as they moved through Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho to Oregon. The reality of wagon train travel is that the trip was long, difficult and many thousands died on the trail.
The cattle business was a business. The origins go back to the Spanish explorer Coronado who in 1540 brought Spanish longhorn cattle into the Southwest. For years these cattle roamed wild; their meat was tough and their economic value was minimal. It is estimated that nearly 6 million of these cattle were found in Texas by the time of the Civil War. The Civil War created a major demand for meat, even longhorn cattle meat. Arriving on the scene in a mule trader/businessman known as Joseph McCoy. McCoy should be remembered as the founder of the American cattle business. He created the model for cattle ranching as a business. The model is the following: 1. Round up the cattle in Texas, 2. Place them on a cattle ranch, 3. Brand them with a circle O for identification purposes, 4. Drive them up cattle trains to the nearest railroad stations where they will be sold. These trains went from Texas to the railroad stations of Kansas; it would be twelve years until the railroads reached Kansas, 5. Return with a very good profit. McCoy created the speculative business of cattle ranching; with little investment a good profit could be made relatively quickly. McCoy created a business involved in buying and selling cattle. And since it was a business, it had business problems.
For example, the cattle business was tied to the economy. When times were good, money could be made. But in 1873 there was a depression and this depression effected all businesses including the cattle business. Another problem was the problem of security; cattle become more valuable through breeding. Theft of cattle began to occur and many cattlemen known as cattle kings including McCoy and John Chisum of New Mexico hired men to guard the cattle. Another problem was the identification problem. Brands began to be copied, so cattlemen went to their county government offices and registered their brands in brand books. Cattle needed water, so if cattlemen controlled water they could control a large amount of land and own a large number of cattle. Fights occurred both in courts and outside of courts on the range over water. Sheep men and cattle men never seemed to be able to coexist because sheep ate the grass in such a way that the cattle starved. So conflicts between these two groups were common. One of the most difficult problems involved the employee of the cattle business; employees were needed for a variety of jobs in the cattle business. These employees were called waddies and wranglers in the early days of the business; we will refer to them as cowboys.
A cowboy is a hired employee of the cattle business. This individual had to meet the following requirements to be hired for this unskilled labor: a. males were needed due to the physical work of the cowboy, b. young males in good physical shape, c. education was not required; many of these young men were drifters from the east who had little or no education. Literary was not part of the job. The job involved long hours and low wages and a high turnover. Once hired for the job, cowboys were given horses because this was generally mobile labor; but the horses were not very good ones. Cowboys were also given work uniforms; this is a uniform not a costume. But cowboys were not provided guns. Guns stampeded cattle, guns were relatively expensive and guns accentuated the major health problem of the cowboy: the hernia. One of the most important tasks of the cowboy was the cattle drive. Here is the reality of the cattle drive. There were twelve men with 2500 head of cattle for a normal cattle drive. One of the men was the boss, while two men were drag riders. These men rode in the back of the herd and rounded up strays and ate dust all day. One of the key men on the cattle drive was the one riding in the chuck wagon. He was a jack of all trades and was the cook, barber, dentist, and the like. The cattle drive went from Texas to Kansas railroad stations. It was a slow, dirty job as the cattle moved slowly. It took weeks to reach the railroad stations of Kansas better known as cattle towns.
Cattle towns were railroad stations in Kansas. The major cattle towns were Dodge City, Abilene, Ellsworth, Caldwell, and Wichita. These towns were booming centers of the cattle business for nearly twelve years. Men and cattle were continually coming in and out of town. The major purpose of the cattle town was for the cattle business: the buying, selling and shipping of cattle. But because the cowboys were paid at the end of the cattle drive, the secondary but important purpose of the cattle town was to provide entertainment for these young men looking for action. The main street of all cattle towns featured an adult Disneyland; the main street was filled with saloon after saloon. Dodge City had the Longbranch Saloon as one of its more famous ones, while the major saloon of Abilene was the Alamo Saloon. In each saloon there was a bar that served watered down drinks for high prices(of course, there was no drinking age in these saloons). There was also gambling in all saloons; the saloon owners signed contracts with professional gamblers. Card playing, dice games, and roulette were common; but the card games were the most common. There was also a dance floor and a piano player in the saloons; we now enter the world of the dance hall girls. These ladies were also prostitutes; what is surprising is that there were few of these girls in the cattle towns. In a short period of time, the cowboys' money was gone. They were drunk and frustrated, so businessmen hired sheriffs to handle these drunken and frustrated individuals. These sheriffs enforced the laws that outlawed guns in town; they also were sanitary inspectors responsible for keeping the sidewalks repaired and the streets cleaned. Research indicates there was little violence in these cattle towns; in one busy year there were three reported murders in Dodge City.
Of course, according to the myths, the main fixture of the cattle town was the gunfighter. The reality of the gunfighter can only be revealed by investigating the lives of some of the more famous gunfighters. Take Billy Bonney from New York City, better known as Billy the Kid. Many books and films picture him as heroic; he was, however, a young killer. He started killing at age twelve; a man insulted his mother, so Billy got a gun and killed him. Billy's killing ways continued until he was shot and killed on July 14, 1881, at age 21. He is said to have killed 21 men in 21 years of life. His irrational violence even involved killing a blacksmith because he jokingly called him, "billy goat." So we leave the juvenile delinquent killer Billy the Kid.
Another gunfighter and hero-type was William Cody who lived from 1869-1917. Cody was born in Iowa and raised in Illinois; during his life he was a pony express rider, buffalo hunter, army scout, and showman. Actually much of his life, he was an occupational drifter and many writers blew many aspects of his life out of proportion. As a scout for the cavalry, he began to hunt buffalo. He became obsessed with hunting buffalo and became one of America's greatest buffalo hunter. He earned the nickname, "Buffalo Bill."
His exploits in his early life became the subject of Ned Buntline's dime novels; Buntline even convinced Cody to move to the east and to star in stage plays. Cody eventually created the Wild West Show that traveled America and Europe for nearly 30 years and helped perpetuate the myths of the west. He eventually became involved in real estate development near the present city of Cody, Wyoming; he died in Denver and was buried in Golden, Colorado. He is not your typical violent gunfighter, but he was a great killer of buffalo.
The most famous gunfighter is Wyatt Earp, due to television series and recent Hollywood movies. His full name was Wyatt Berry Strapp Earp. He was born in Illinois in 1848 and moved from one place to another virtually all of his life. He was a gambler; he left his wife for another woman; he had a bad temper,and he may have followed his prostitute sister from cattle town to cattle town. While he was pictured as a violent sheriff in Ellsworth, Wichita, and Dodge City, he only shot one man during that time and that man died of complications from the shooting. He went from being sheriff in Missouri cities to Ellsworth to Wichita to Dodge City. He and his brothers now moved to Tombstone, Arizona, where he initially worked for Wells Fargo as a shotgun guard and then he and his brothers became sheriffs. We will never know why he and his brother got into business deals and feuds with other citizens, but they were involved in the most famous gunfight in the history of the west: The Gunfight at OK Corral. This gunfight took place on October 2, 1881; it was a very short gunfight but much has been written about it and it has been the subject of numerous Hollywood films. During the gunfight Wyatt killed a man and then killed three others for the murder of his brother Morgan. Eventually he moved to Idaho and participated in the gold rush, then he went to Alaska and participated in the gold rush to the Yukon. He eventually was private detective in Tijuana and a boxing referee in Las Angeles. He died in 1929 at age 80 in a rented cottage in Los Angeles and was buried in Colma, California. Before he died, he talked to writers and these writers greatly created the myth and legend of the great gunfighter Wyatt Earp.
William Masterson was nicknamed "bat" due to the fact that he carried a cane and tried to talk men out of confrontation. William Barclay Masterson was born in Quebec, Canada, but he spent most of his early life in Illinois. He became a very expert buffalo hunter at age seventeen and was better educated than most of the gunfighter types. He was a sheriff in Dodge City, Tomstone, Colorado, and New York State. He then turned to journalist in New York City and became a well known sports writer. He lived until October, 1921 and died in his newspaper office. William Hickock, better known as Wild Bill, was also born and raised in Illinois. He was a military scout, sheriff in Kansas cattle towns, a participant in the Wild West Show, and a heavy gambler and drinker. He was also known as a good shot and was hired by many a cattle town to kill the wild dogs roaming the streets. On August 2, 1876, he was killed by Jack McCall while he was playing poker. The poker hand he held is still called to this day the dead man's hand. Luke Short is another interesting gunfighter type. Actually most of his life was he was a gambler and saloon owner who was involved in some violence in his saloon, but who is said to have killed few if any men. One source tells us that he killed one man; that man was snoring in a hotel room next to his room. Short shot through the wall and killed the sleeping man. He eventually died in Kansas in 1893. The reality of the gunfighters is that they were products of the Midwest, they were occupational drifters and few of them were involved with much violence.
The settlement of the Far West was pictured for years as the white west. Only recent research has revealed the large number of African Americans who left the south at the end of the slave system. These blacks were involved in many aspects of the settlement of the Far West, including the cattle business. More than 5,000 blacks were black cowboys and some of these black cowboys should be remembered. These black men held the same jobs as the white cowboys; the long hours and low wages were the same. The only evidence of discrimination was found in the cattle towns; there were saloons just for black cowboys and there were black saloon girls. Bose Ikard was a black cowboy who became a trail boss in charge of cattle drives. He was eventually hired to find a cattle trail from Texas to Denver. He did find a trail but it was named after two white cattlemen: Goodnight and Loving. It was called the Goodnight and Loving Trail.
Another famous black cowboy was Cherokee Bill. He is an example of a black, criminal cowboy. He is the black version of Billy the Kid; like Billy, Cherokee Bill killed 21 men and was killed at age 21. Nat Love was a much more memorable black cowboy. He was a cowboy and trail boss. Eventually the cowboys created a competition to demonstrate their skills as cowboys. This competition became known as a rodeo. Nat Love eventually became the first rodeo star of the early rodeo. Many rodeo competitions were held in Deadwood City in the Dakotas; Love's rodeo name became Deadwood Dick. Eventually Love was injured and ended his career as a pullman porter. He carried luggage for whites riding on the Pullman train. Writers were interested in his rodeo exploits, but when they wrote the Adventures of Deadwood Dick, he was pictured as a white man.
The most important black cowboy was Bill Pickett. Pickett was also a trail boss and he handled men and cattle so well, cattlemen hired him to manage their ranches. Eventually he became the ranch manager of the 101 ranch- the largest ranch ever in the United States. Then Hollywood started making movies; they wanted to create the western movie and they hired Pickett to become a movie advisor to put together this type of movie. It was also his job to create the first western cowboy hero; he turned city boy Tom Mix into the first cowboy hero of the silent films. Pickett was a major force in ranch management and in the early days of Hollywood.
The final myth involved the army of the west. This was an inferior army with inferior soldiers and inferior leaders. The major army of the United States was the eastern army; the soldiers sent to the western army were generally inferior soldiers and discipline problems and foreign recruits. This was a mobile army; it was referred to as the cavalry of the west. The leaders of this army were either old, ready to retire, or young and inexperienced such as George Armstrong Custer. The job of this army was to build a series of army forts in isolated regions of the far west to protect whites from Indians. Most of these soldiers never saw soldiers; they spent most of their time building and maintaining the forts. They play a lot of poker. Those soldiers who fought Indians were often beaten and embarrassed. This is not a military unit that saved the west; they usually could not save themselves. The 10th and 11th cavalry were black soldiers, called Buffalo Soldiers. They were handled by white military leaders; they were victims of discrimination and they were just as racist toward the Indians as were the white soldiers.
The myths of the west are still alive and well, but the real west is slowly being revealed and it will continue to be discovered.