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How long did the "Wild West" era last?


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My paternal grandfather was born in 1859,   and died in 1935.  So...

 

...he lived longer than the Wild West era;

...it was only three generations ago in my family (as was the Civil War).

...his parents had to know veterans of the Revolutionary War.

 

The American Experiment is still very new. Here’s hoping it gets a chance to continue.

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Things did happen fast. Lewis and Clark set out in 1803; Oregon became a state only 56 years later (not to mention California...). In fact, California and Oregon were already states well before the Wild West era even began (depending on some definitions, of course).

 

Jefferson thought it would take 200 years to settle the continent......

 

 

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I guess you have define Wild and delineate West.  It ended in Ohio at about the 1820 mark but really never has ended on the Texas, New Mexico, Arizona border with Mexico.   I consider the Wild West  to generally end when cars replaced horses for mass transportation and the prairie fenced.  Maybe 1920's?

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6 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

My paternal grandfather was born in 1859,   and died in 1935.  So...

 

...he lived longer than the Wild West era;

...it was only three generations ago in my family (as was the Civil War).

...his parents had to know veterans of the Revolutionary War.

 

The American Experiment is still very new. Here’s hoping it gets a chance to continue.

 

My version of that is: 
When I was little there was a Span Am War vet that was at my dad's VFW post.  I met him.  He likely knew Civil War vets. And they likely knew Revolutionary War vets.  Four handshakes to span the history of our republic.

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4 hours ago, Yellowhouse Sam # 25171 said:

I guess you have define Wild and delineate West.  It ended in Ohio at about the 1820 mark but really never has ended on the Texas, New Mexico, Arizona border with Mexico.   I consider the Wild West  to generally end when cars replaced horses for mass transportation and the prairie fenced.  Maybe 1920's?

Sam has it very close,  A belt of the old west lived on in southern/eastern Oregon.  Western, south/central Idaho, Central, Eastern/southern Nevada.  Northern Arizona.  Well into the 50's, my mother and grandmother told of Prescott, AZ in the 30's as being pretty wild and wooly.  The horse gave way to the car but was very common as transportation even as late as the mid 60's in Klamath Falls, OR. I  remember horses tied to parking meters outside the Eagle café and a few of the bars.  Same was true of Ely, NV.  Most those places are Citified now but ever now and then.     

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I'm of retirement age, and my paternal granddad's father was born in 1875, and that great-granddad lived long enough that I knew him.  His father was a Civil War vet who was born in 1846.  So there we had a living line back to the beginning of the Wild West.

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I was gonna say. There are parts of Los Angeles and Seattle where folks riding into town on horses and shooting up the neighborhood have been replaced by folks in low-rider Cadillacs riding into town and shooting up the neighborhood.

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21 hours ago, Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L said:

I remember when I was in middle school reports of the last Civil War solider and later the last Civil War wife dying.  made me stop and think about all the things they had seen change

If I am correct I think there still a few Civil War dependents around who's fathers fought in that war...

 

Texas Lizard

 

Correction...There is said to be one person alive...

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/07/03/one-civil-war-veterans-pension-remains-on-governments-payroll

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The Civil war lasted 4 years

WWII lasted 6 years

WWI 5 years

Revolutionary War 7 years

Still make movies about those events many years after the fact.

 

The crime spree of the 30's was somewhat of an extension of the Wild West.

There were still saddle tramps that worked at ranches throughout the West into the 1950's. They would roam around on horseback and live off the land between jobs.

I would imagine they got a little wild from time to time. My dad rode a horse drawn wagon to school back in the 30's and early 40's down in Mississippi, buses couldn't navigate the muddy red clay roads. The water troughs and hitching posts were still around in the mid 60's. 

 

Once camera's, telephones, and transportation progressed it was tougher to be an outlaw. Times were still tough until after WWII.

 

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Up here it lasted till at least the 1930,s and Homesteading went on till about 1975 in the north-west of the Province ....

 

Jabez Cowboy

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On 5/20/2019 at 9:53 PM, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

My version of that is: 
When I was little there was a Span Am War vet that was at my dad's VFW post.  I met him.  He likely knew Civil War vets. And they likely knew Revolutionary War vets.  Four handshakes to span the history of our republic.

Civil War to The Revolution was an awfully long time, mebbe toss in 1812.

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50 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Civil War to The Revolution was an awfully long time, mebbe toss in 1812.

 

Maybe.   But, consider that I was born in 1957 and met a Spanish American War vet.  Is it really that different than someone who fought in the ARW meeting someone who would be fighting in the War of 1861?

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1 hour ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Maybe.   But, consider that I was born in 1957 and met a Spanish American War vet.  Is it really that different than someone who fought in the ARW meeting someone who would be fighting in the War of 1861?

As a teenager (c. 1958 or so), I remember my barber was a S-A War vet!  As far as lifespan is concerned, both my parents lived 98 years!  Something else to ponder: Christopher Spencer, inventor of not only the Spencer Repeating Rifle, but the automatic screw machine, was taught to fly an airplane by his son!  :o  Dr. Gatling, who we tend to forget as designing rotatory-barreled machine guns that were made obsolete by reciprocating machine guns, actually hooked up one of his guns to an electric motor, powdered by batteries!  He'd be grinning at the sound of "brrrrrrp" when a Hog rolls in on a ground target! B)

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I was in Cheyenne, Wyoming in july of 1954 during Frontier Days. Wyoming has 2 seasons wither and Frontier Days, and I saw ranchers ride their horses to a bar, tie outside and go in for drinks. A lot of them were packing guns. No shootings that I remember but it looked like the wild west to me.

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On 5/21/2019 at 9:31 AM, punxsutawneypete said:

I'm of retirement age, and my paternal granddad's father was born in 1875, and that great-granddad lived long enough that I knew him.  His father was a Civil War vet who was born in 1846.  So there we had a living line back to the beginning of the Wild West.

I remember being shocked to find out that dad had seen Geronimo when they were moving him cross country by train.  MY DAD SAW GERONIMO.

 

My mother's grandfather was at Promintory Point the day before the golden spike was driven, but left because he didn't want his family to be in the presence of all the drunks and rowdies.

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