Wild West

US showman William Frederick Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, in 1903. Cody earned his nickname as a result of killing several thousand buffalo in eight months to feed workers on the Kansas Pacific Railway, but it was his Wild West Show, travelling all over the USA and Europe, which made him a national figure.

Name given to the period in the American West when crime and disorder posed a major problem in its newly established communities. Rapid settlement, such as that experienced during the California gold rush 1848–49 or the cow towns of the early US cattle industry, meant that many towns sprang up without the necessary forces of government or law and order. Despite the lack of effective policing, the majority of communities experienced little crime or its associated problems. However, the myth of the lawless West became one of its most powerful images; the outlaw Billy the Kid, frontier law officer Wyatt Earp, and the sharpshooter Calamity Jane are among the most famous figures to emerge from the West.

The mining towns The first law and order problems in the West were experienced in the mining towns of the California gold rush, which were established in an area previously unsettled by Americans. Communities appeared, often overnight, and soon had populations of thousands, both in the town itself and the local mining area. Most of the miners were young, male adventurers and this, combined with ready supplies of gold and cash, caused trouble to flare. Saloons, brothels, and gambling dens opened up, eager to profit from the miners' gold, and this contributed to the disorder.

Disputes frequently centred over ‘claim jumping’ (the stealing of another miner's claim to a mining site; with no local law enforcement agency, a miner was unable to seek help in court. In an effort to solve this problem, the mining towns set up miners' courts to hand out justice to suspected criminals. The trials were held in public with the miners as a jury. The formalities of a courtroom were not observed, and the accused would be convicted or freed according to the shouts of the onlookers. Although such mob justice provided a quick result, and convicted a number of genuine criminals, many innocent men and women lost their plea or were convicted solely because they were unpopular or did not fit in with the groups who controlled the town. Vigilante groups were able to break the law and use the miners' courts to remove their enemies. However, the miners' courts filled a gap in government that existed because of the rapid settlement of a new area; eventually, the federal and California state governments sent judges, marshals, and sheriffs into the mining towns to provide a more formal legal structure.

Homesteaders and cattle barons The Great Plains region experienced problems with law and order in the early decades of their settlement after 1860. Both the homesteaders and the cattlemen of the early US cattle industry wanted access to the land in the region, and with water scarce the two groups came into conflict. The cattlemen, or cattle barons, had often been in the West longer than the homesteaders, and resented their intrusion on the lands through which they had been driving their herds to market or using as ‘open range’ pasture. However, the cattle barons often had no legal title to the acres that they used, and the lands were given to the homesteaders by the US government following the Homestead Act (1862) and the Timber Culture Act (1873). The homesteaders fenced off their property with barbed wire for protection, blocking the cattle trails to the cow towns and watering holes. The cattle barons responded by cutting the homesteaders' fences to gain access to the limited water supplies. Conflict ensued, often erupting on a major scale, as in the Johnson County War (1892).

Competition between the cattle barons for pasture on the open range and government supply contracts also led to conflict. By the mid 1880s overgrazing had led to a deterioration in the quality of the grass and, consequently, the beef, leading to a fall in prices. Many cattlemen fenced in their land at great cost to protect their grasslands, leading to further confrontation. Range wars broke out, the most notorious being the Lincoln County War (1878), during which the gunfighter Billy the Kid rose to fame.

Vigilantes As the homesteaders moved onto the Plains in the 1860s, small towns were established as a centre for the local community. However, these could be many kilometres from any significant settlement, and lacked a system of government or law enforcement. Consequently the towns set up their own law enforcement groups, known as vigilantes, to protect themselves against possible crime. The most common criminal activities included horse stealing, cattle rustling, bank robbery, and train robbery. Vigilante groups were both supported and feared by settlers on the Plains. Although they fulfilled the role of providing essential law and order, they also used their power to pursue personal vendettas. People could be ‘arrested’ because of their race or because they threatened the power of the vigilantes. However, in the absence of official forces, the settlers were forced to accept their services.

Government agents With the development of the railroads across the Great Plains, beginning with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, the federal and state governments were able to enforce the law more effectively, although there were still problems. Federal officials were appointed for every state by the US government in Washington, DC, and each territory and state was given a clear legal framework. The US government, in the person of the president, appointed a US marshal for each territory or state. The work of the US marshal was extremely difficult, as he was responsible for enforcing the law over a vast area – communications were limited and transport slow. The US marshals chose deputy US marshals to cover sections of their territory or state, making the imposition of law and order more feasible. Backing up the US marshals were three judges appointed by the US president for each territory or state. However, the judges, like the US marshals, had too large an area to cover effectively. Prisoners waited months for trial, and risked the possibility of vigilante attack while languishing in jail.

At the local level, towns and counties appointed their own sheriffs and marshals. Towns employed town marshals to enforce the law locally. They often had the hardest job of all the law enforcers, as some frontier towns were frequently overrun by lawless, gun-toting gangs or individuals. Town marshals such as Wyatt Earp in Tombstone had to try to enforce some sort of order. Earp made a career out of law enforcement, initially being employed by the marshal in Wichita, Kansas, moving to Dodge City as assistant marshal in 1876, and then taking an appointment at Tombstone, Arizona. Here he attempted to end the lawlessness and cattle rustling that were endemic in the town, culminating in the notorious gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881. Rural counties outside the towns elected a county sheriff who served for a two year period; the sheriffs, too, faced the problem of covering vast areas with limited time and resources.

The myth of the ‘Wild West’ As the mythology of the American West began to develop, the image of the ‘Wild West’ became greatly exaggerated. The stories began almost immediately with the appearance of dime novels – cheap books published in the Eastern cities of the USA in the latter part of the 19th century. Dime novels sought to attract and interest their readers by either magnifying the crimes of outlaws such as Billy the Kid, or by inventing lurid stories of criminality. Tales of the frontier spirit fed the American desire for a bold and exciting history, and with the advent of cinema and Hollywood in the 1920s, the exaggeration of the untamed nature of the West continued to grow. Scenes of gunfights and lawlessness made for exciting cinema, and soon became the standard fare of films about the West. Some of Hollywood's most celebrated actors, such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, made their names in Westerns.

The screen image of the Wild West and its cowboy heroes has been challenged in recent years, and a measure of historical accuracy incorporated. However, many films, such as The Wild Wild West (1999) starring Will Smith, continue to portray the standard myth of the frontier spirit, along with its crime and disorder. In fact most homesteaders and visitors to the Plains in the 19th century never witnessed or became involved with violence or criminality. Although more opportunity for crime existed on the Plains than in some parts of America, the West was not the continually dangerous place that has been portrayed.