Life in the Old West

Preachers and philosophers may debate the wages of sin, but sin paid well for early-1880s Seattle.

According to a paragraph in a fascinating article I was reading recently about Seattle’s famous “Underground,” gambling and prostitution was prevalent in the fledgling Queen City of the Northwest and prompted a sort of “sin tax.” The article mentioned in passing that this tax on the fleshly vices furnished 87 percent of the municipal Seattle budget in 1881-82.

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The westward rush of the railroads across the Plains and westward led to an onward march of an interesting social characteristic that gained a special name: “hell on wheels.” More than just a curse or profane expression, “hell on wheels” was a Westernism for a very specific advancement of a very unusual type of a sort of “portable town.”

The expression “hell on wheels” referred to the motley collection of tents, board shacks, furniture, furnishings, and people who were moved along by the railroad itself ahead of the advancing rail-head and set up near the tracks for the benefit of the railroad workers. This ragged collection of shanties and shady people usually centered around a large tent and included a group of smaller tents and shacks that housed all the gamblers, prostitutes, and fast-money merchants who met the needs of the rail workers and others involved in moving the tracks westward.

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Looking back into the past, we can see how a steam-powered, iron-wheeled freight wagon to haul goods across several hundred miles of the Great Plains in the 1860s appears to be a real folly. But in 1862, Major Joseph R. Brown, an agent to the Sioux Indians in New Ulm, Minnesota not only thought it was a good idea, he shelled out $9,000 to have the behemoth built. Adding a great deal of other expense, time, and effort, he accompanied his “prairie motor” wagon to the Nebraska City, Nebraska, starting point of what he thought was a prosperous future!

Read more on Brown’s steam wagon sought to conquer 1860s Plains freight routes…

Here are a few fascinating facts you probably didn’t know about Wyatt Earp:

He was never a town marshal or sheriff. Nope, you never could technically have called the infamous Old West lawman/gunfighter/gambler Marshal Earp or Sheriff Earp. In point of fact, he served as the assistant marshal in Dodge City, Kansas, and was for awhile a deputy U.S. marshal in Arizona. (Sure, it’s “nitpicking,” but it’s interesting anyhow, I thought.)

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Arguably, the toughest lawman in Idaho in the latter days of the Old West may have been “Rube” Robbins.

Robbins, actual name Orlando Robbins, came to the Boise Basin gold fields about a year after the rush started there. He was in his mid-20s and looking for adventure. Adventure found Rube — or he found it? — in 1864 when he became deputy sheriff in Boise. The small town of Boise and the surrounding region was polarized between the North and South as the Civil War ragged to a close, mostly to the East.

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Women prospectors in the gold fields of the Old West were few, but they were there. Modern portrayals in Western fiction of the 49ers and other well-known gold rushes work pretty hard at getting the gold prospecting supplies and other period details correct — but they leave out the women who worked at the backbreaking labor along side men, all of them caught up in the gold rush, all suffering from gold fever!

Read more on Women prospectors were few in the gold fields, but they were there…

My experience has been that all, and I mean ALL, everyone of the Native American people I have known personally are quite comfortable with being called “Indians” or “American Indians,” rather than “Native Americans.” In fact, of the hundreds of folks I’ve personally known among the Lakota, absolutely none would have referred to himself/herself as “Native American” outside of a university or other classroom setting. They would feel awkward with the term, and some of them would be downright offended. I have had some Lakota people speak the term “Native American” as though they were offended by it.

Read more on Which term to use — Indians or Native Americans?…

Understanding and appreciating life in the Old West requires passion, not just a knowledge of the facts. I was reminded of that today by one of our site visitors. I got the message through this site’s feedback form. I wasn’t quite sure whether he was being serious or sarcastic (I’ll get into that further along.) Here’s what the person who left the comment had to say:

“Hey,

“Do you know of any good websites where I can find updated blogs and popular websites that cover the Old West with a passion?”

Read more on Passion for the Old West — here are some sites…

A cowboy shirt topped the list for awhile of all the things I wanted as a kid. Of course the childhood passion I had for a cowboy shirt was closely followed by cowboy boots (with a jangling pair of spurs, of course!) and a great six-gun cap gun and holster set.

A good cowboy shirt and comfortable boots would still rank highly on my list of gifts for any gift-receiving occasion, although I’ll admit I’m not that keen anymore on the cap gun and holster set. (A number of years ago when my teenage son discovered I was working on a Western novel, he gave me a toy six-gun and a plastic sheriff’s star. I kept them just for the fun of it; and, no, the novel never got finished.)

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For all you Old West “history buffs,” students, and Western writers out there who have been at this longer than I, can anyone answer the question I’ve posed in the title of this article? Did Buffalo Bill Cody and Wyatt Earp ever meet? If so, can you point me toward information about any meeting(s) or relationship between the two? If not, how or why do you think such a meeting would NOT take place?

Read more on Did Buffalo Bill Cody and Wyatt Earp ever meet?…