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Post by JMiskimen on Oct 23, 2022 9:40:12 GMT -5
Law & Order
Motion pictures and novels often exaggerate the level of the violence in the West, as well as the average cowboy's skill with a gun. Ambush, rather than one-on-one gun duels, characterized most western killings. Ranching frontier regions had few law enforcement officers, judges, and jails. At Fort Smith, on the present-day border of Arkansas and Oklahoma, Isaac C. Parker built a reputation as "the hanging judge." During his 21 years in court that began in 1875, about 160 people received a sentence of death. About half that number were executed by hanging. Lacking regular law enforcement, other areas often resorted to justice by self-appointed groups of citizens called vigilantes. People accused of rustling cattle or horses often ended up hanged by such vigilantes. Large cattle ranchers might band together into livestock grower's associations to protect their interests. They often suspected smaller ranchers and farmers of stealing their livestock. In some cases, they hired gun fighters to track down and kill suspected rustlers. Tom Horn became a celebrated hired gun. Other types of economic conflict arose. Resentful of encroaching farmers and their fences, some ranchers destroyed barbed wire barriers that cut off access to rangeland grasses and water.
Barbed wire, patented by Joseph F. Glidden in 1873, enabled farmers to protect crops against cattle. Cattle and sheep ranchers also fought over access to grass and water.
Ethnic violence arose frequently, especially around mining camps, with whites attacking Chinese and Latin Americans as unwanted competitors.
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Post by JMiskimen on Oct 23, 2022 9:42:00 GMT -5
Ranching
Centers of Ranching Spanish and later Mexican ranchers had grazed cattle in the Southwest since about 1700. Ranches and missions with Native American labor raised livestock. Local markets purchased meat, and ranchers in California exported cattle hides, tallow (beef fat), and dried beef. Newcomers to the West continued much of this ranching tradition in the middle and late 1800's. The Civil War generated a great boom for western ranchers. During the war, most able-bodied Texas men left the state to fight for the Confederacy. Yet their cattle herds increased by several million animals, largely untended. Returning after the war to a surplus of longhorn cattle, Texans faced ruin unless they found new markets. Cattle, worth only a few dollars in Texas, could bring up to $50 a head in eastern markets. So ambitious cattlemen drove herds north to sell them at "cow towns" in Kansas, where buyers had built stockyard holding pens. The animals then traveled east in rail cars to slaughterhouses in Chicago, Kansas City, and elsewhere. Cattle raising spread gradually northward from Texas and California. Many ranchers got their start by rounding up wild horses and mavericks (unbranded cattle). Most cowboys worked on trail drives or in the busier spring and fall roundup and branding seasons. They moved from ranch to ranch, taking work when they found it. Many were Mexican cowboys, called vaqueros, or African Americans. Life on the Ranches Ranch houses in the West ranged from humble, dirt-floored lean-tos to lavish mansions. On small ranches on the plains, an entire family might live in a tiny sod hut. If a ranch had forestlands, the rancher likely built a log cabin. A single fireplace provided winter warmth, and a wood-burning stove occupied much of the kitchen. Ranchers would expand and improve the dwellings if they made enough profits. Larger ranches would have outbuildings, including a barn, outhouse, cookhouse, and a bunkhouse for cowboys. The bunkhouse often had old newspapers as wallpaper, which helped seal out the wind and provided reading material. Simple wooden frames tied by cord made up a ranch hand's bed. The cowboy slept in the same bedroll that he used on the range. Entertainment consisted mainly of gambling (usually card games), reading, swapping tall tales, and reciting poems. The poetry of many old-time cowboys got passed along and written down. Today, readers still enjoy the work of such cowboy poets as Charles Badger Clark, Jr., Curley Fletcher, and Bruce Kiskaddon. Cowboys would also stage ranch rodeos, challenging hands from nearby ranches in horse racing and roping. The Cattle Drive The heyday of the great trail drives came just after the Civil War, when cowhands drove millions of longhorns from Texas to Kansas. The Chisholm Trail, which ran about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) between southern Texas and Abilene, Kansas, became the main cattle route. Over the years, other cattle trails developed throughout the West. A Texas cowhand named W. L. Rhodes said about cattle drives of the 1880's, "The first 50 miles of any trail drive is always the hardest because the cattle want to break back to the country they're used to. We sure had to haze a many a one back before we got the herd used to moving." Cowboys faced many dangers on the trail, including lightning, rain, hailstorms, range fires, tornadoes, and rustlers. An 1885 memoir by a cowboy named Charlie Siringo described a trail drive. He wrote, "Everything went on lovely with the exception of swimming swollen streams, fighting now and then among ourselves and a stampede every stormy night, until we arrived on the Canadian river in the Indian territory; there we had a little Indian scare." Cattle stampedes could also cause great destruction. A cowboy named Edward "Teddy Blue" Abbott described the result of one stampede, writing that, "horse and man was mashed into the ground as flat as a pancake." Abbott said, "The only thing you could recognize was the handle of his six-shooter." Bad weather, greed, and technology combined to end the great cattle drives. Especially harsh winters in the mid-1880's killed tens of thousands of cattle trying to forage on the open range. Too many ranchers had overstocked the ranges, leading to lower prices and leaving animals unable to feed themselves on lands that did not produce enough grass in dry weather. Further expansion of western railroads made it cheaper and quicker to haul cattle by train rather than drive them.
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Post by JMiskimen on Oct 23, 2022 9:46:00 GMT -5
Mining
The quest for gold and other precious minerals drew tens of thousands of immigrants to the West. In 1848, a millwright named James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill, California. His discovery touched off the first and greatest western gold rush. Within two years, 100,000 people had flocked to California to make their fortune. Would-be miners arrived from around the world. Most ended up sick, broke, or both. Merchants sold goods and services to miners at highly inflated prices. Men made up nearly all of the gold seekers who rushed west. A few women mined, but most worked as entertainers in saloons or dance halls, as seamstresses, or as laundresses who washed miners' clothes. Other women operated boardinghouses or worked as prostitutes. Chinese immigrants also set up laundries in some mining camps, but they often faced discrimination and violence. Subsequent finds drew more fortune hunters to other western sites. Southwestern Oregon yielded gold nuggets in the early 1850's, luring miners north from California. Prospectors flocked to the area near Pikes Peak in Colorado and the Comstock Lode in western Nevada in 1859. In 1873, four miners hit the "Big Bonanza," a vein of gold and silver near Virginia City, Nevada. In the mid-1870's, gold miners poured into the Black Hills of South Dakota. The Black Hills town of Deadwood became famous for its lawlessness, corruption, and prostitution. In 1878, prospectors discovered rich deposits of silver near Leadville in central Colorado. Other minerals also spurred mining booms. Copper deposits in Butte, Montana; Bingham Canyon, Utah; and Jerome, Arizona, provided employment for many miners.
A Typical Mining Camp A prospector pounded wooden stakes into the ground to mark his claim. If he found no gold, he "pulled up stakes" and moved on to stake a new claim. He might also unscrupulously "salt" the claim - that is, he would plant a few gold nuggets there to trick a buyer into purchasing the worthless site. Mining camps began as primitive, homemade affairs. One gold seeker explained, "I pitched my tent, built a stone chimney at one end, made a mattress of fir [branches], and thought myself well fixed for the winter." Miners built shacks out of logs and scraps of wood and canvas. Lice, rodents, and other pests infested the primitive dwellings. Most miners began working their claim by panning. They dipped up sand and gravel from the riverbed into a metal pan and swirled it around. Heavier gold settled to the bottom. Fine "flour" gold might require using mercury to form a mixture from which the gold could be separated. Miners could use a box on rockers to agitate gravel and water, thus removing the gold from the mix. More elaborate claims might include a sluice, a series of long, slanted wooden boxes into which was dumped gravel and water. This action separated the tailings (lighter earth) from the heavier gold. Away from river sites, miners searched for quartz, a glassy rock that often contained gold. They hacked away at the earth with pickaxes and shovels. Larger mining companies dug deep into hillsides, creating underground mines. Like other westerners, miners lived a difficult life. Digging or panning for gold or silver meant long hours under the hot sun, often working in cold mountain waters. In 1850, a miner named William Swain described the weather at his dig along California's Yuba River as "five months' rain, four months' high water, and three months' dry and good weather but very hot—almost too hot to work." Leather boots, vests, and aprons deteriorated quickly. Rocks tore holes into pants and shirts. Most clothes needed constant patching.
Life in the Mining Towns Few women and children lived in mining camps. Only if a mining camp grew into a more stable town did the population diversify. If the camp prospered, it might grow into a boom town with retail stores, a jail, saloons, dance halls, and assay offices to evaluate and weigh gold. Mining booms swelled local populations quickly, outstripping the supply of almost everything, including food and work animals. Men sometimes killed each other for such necessities. Some mining communities formed governing councils and created codes of conduct. These councils handled robberies, assaults, and other crimes. In some cases, mob violence and lynchings took the place of legal proceedings. Organized police forces and judges came only gradually to the West.
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Post by JMiskimen on Oct 23, 2022 9:54:32 GMT -5
ALCOHOLIC LIBATIONSHard Liquor Western saloon owners stocked their businesses and ordered liquor from a variety of places, which often included agents in California. One such company was Moore, Hunt & Co. in San Francisco. When ordering their libations, saloon owners chose from AA, A, B, or C brands. They also received discounts when they ordered in large quantities, such as cases or barrels. In the 1880s, Moore, Hunt & Company was a main distributor of Kentucky whiskey to many western towns. They also sold Anchor champagne, which cost $8.50 for five dozen pints and Crown whiskey for $8.00 for 1 case, 5 to gallon. A barrel or half barrel of AA brand whiskey cost four dollars per gallon, while the same amount of C brand cost only three dollars. Some popular brands of U.S. whiskey included: Thistle Dew
Old Crow Hermitage
Old Kentucky
Old Reserve
Coronet Log Cabin No. 1O.K.
Cutter Chicken Cock and Rye
Old Forrester
Imports included:
Dewar's Scotch
Jameson Irish Whiskey
Canadian Club Whiskey
Rotgut
Saloons, especially those in smaller, remote towns, relied on what was delivered to them. In most cases, it was whiskey of some sort. Sometimes due to supply shortages or a desire to extend profits, the whiskey was rotgut: a semi-adhoc blend of substances such as turpentine, ammonia, gun powder, cayenne, moonshine, burnt sugar, tobacco juice even strychnine. The drink could be made in many ways, such as blending the mixture together, allowing to sit for a day or two, and then straining it into old whiskey bottles. Custom products were sometimes called by names like: Tanglefoot
Forty-Rod
Tarantula Juice
Tajos Lightning
Red Eye
Coffin Varnish
Panther Piss Most less-than-honest saloon owners did this when they couldn't afford the real thing or when they couldn't get it. Sadly, the customer wasn't told it wasn't the real thing, but he no doubt figured it out when he tasted it. Such liquors were meant mostly as a means of becoming inebriated, and were not favored by those of discerning tastes. Other offerings included Cactus Wine, made from a mix of tequila and peyote tea, and Mule Skinner, made with whiskey and blackberry liquor. Other Types of Liquor
There was a great deal of wine, champagne, and bottled beer consumed. Many saloons had contracts with breweries (sometime local) so they offered beer on tap, and would advertise that fact by calling themselves brewery saloons. Also behind the bar of the better establishments, the mixologist would have kept cordials, bitters and syrups to make his many concoctions. He would also have had a variety of popular wines and liquors (with matching types of glasses) such as: Champagne
Sherry
Port Brandy
Gin
Absinthe
Vermouth
Hennessey and Martell Brandies
Old Tom Gins
St. Croix or Jamaican Rum
Blackberry Brandy
Apple Jack Schnapps
Mixed Drinks While it's true that wine, beer, and whiskey were largely consumed in most Western saloons, many offered fancy mixed drinks which some patrons would request to avoid unintentionally receiving rotgut. They were quite popular in the wealthier communities, like San Francisco, Denver, and Dodge City. Most popular drinks in 1881 were: Whiskey cocktails
Gin slings (gin, sweet vermouth, lemon juice, simple syrup, Angostura bitters and soda.)
Mint juleps (mint leaf, bourbon, sugar, and water)
Toddies, sweet, sour and plain
Whiskey punch
Claret sangaree
Eggnog
Tom & Jerry Sweet potato brandy
Ginger pop
Root beer
Stone fence
Hub punch
Lemonade with a stick
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Post by JMiskimen on Oct 23, 2022 9:57:43 GMT -5
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Post by hengest on Oct 23, 2022 17:25:24 GMT -5
Did you write all this? Nice!!
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Post by JMiskimen on Oct 23, 2022 18:05:48 GMT -5
Did I create this content? No, but I did find it relevant to the campaign and posted it here for entertainment & reference purposes.
JM.
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