WILD WEST GALLERY

What made the west so wild? In the early days, the only white men who ventured out west were the explorers, frontiersmen and trappers.

John C. Fremont, known as the "Pathfinder", was one of the more colorful of the explorers of California. He encouraged the Bear Flag Revolt, was appointed first governor of California, and was the very first Republican candidate for president in 1856, but lost.

One of California's more famous trappers, Seth Kinman, presented President Lincoln with an Elk Horn Chair when he had this photo taken by Brady. Looks like he combed his hair and beard for this meeting.

The word began to spread back to the east. There was a lot of good open country out in the west and a start for a new life. Soon families started to migrate out west and settle. They went against all the laws of nature with the weather being a big one. We all know what happened to the Donner Party when they got caught in the mountains when the snow hit.

They had to face animals, like the Grizzly Bear. These were ferocious adversaries when they got mad and it made them very dangerous.

This photo I took myself while on vacation with my kids. She (I think) was along the Shoshone River about 30 miles west of Cody, Wyoming on the way to the Eastern entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

These pioneer families had to learn how to survive real quick. There was no one out here to help them when the going got tough. If they didn't meet the challenge head on they didn't survive.

These pioneers had to deal with the Native Americans. They had to travel through the land were these great people lived and hunted. The Americans didn't understand the ways of the white man.

In 1849 gold was discovered in California. This brought the whole world out to the west which made it much wilder. Every kind of person you could imagine came, including the bad guys. With no law, it wasn't safe for anyone. The Native Americans hated it even more. These invaders were trampling all over the mountains to find the precious metals and didn't respect the land and treated the Native Americans badly.

Here's a group of greenhorns giving it a try around 1900 and people are still doing it today, including me.

From the start of the gold rush and into the 20th century, there was a lot of history being made throughout the wild, wild west. First, the outlaws and gamblers robbed and sometimes killed the gold miners who were successful. In the cities, like San Francisco, the Vigilance Committee was the law. The gold seekers who failed, left the mountains and squatted in the valleys on the various land grants. This started a lot of fighting until the courts upheld the rights of the original land owners.

The Civil War broke out in the east but it heavily affected the west. All the gold and silver was coming out of the west was needed back in the east by both sides. The Native Americans across the country got fed up with the white man's lies and stealing so there was a lot more fighting.

This was about the time that people started to hear the name Buffalo Bill, famous army scout and buffalo hunter. William Fredrick Cody was the most famous person to come out of the wild west. There were a lot of marshals, gunmen and outlaws that have names that you recognize but none had done all the things that Buffalo Bill had. He was a bullwhacker, express rider, hunter for the railroad where he got his name, and army scout, where he got the medal of honor.

He went on to being an entertainer. He started with a stage show with Ned Buntline, Texas Jack and Wild Bill Hickok. When this didn't work out he went back to the army for some years. By the 1880's the buffalo herds were almost gone and the west was starting to get civilized. In 1883 he started a real wild west show with lots of people involved including Sitting Bull. He brought the wild west to the east and from there to the rest of the world.

There was some very talented and interesting people who was part of his show. Annie Oakley was probably the most famous of these people. She was one of the best sharpshooters in the world with the medals to prove it. She always fought for women's rights and who would argue with her.

Other personalities came to Buffalo Bill's show. Pawnee Bill and his wife May Lillie joined the show in 1908. Seemed Bill Cody was in financial  trouble and needed help to keep his show going. Pawnee Bill was retired from his own show at the time and thought it was a good idea to join forces.
This relationship lasted until 1913 when Buffalo Bill's Wild West finally went out of business.

Gordon W. Lillie alias "Pawnee Bill"  and his wife May had one of the biggest buffalo ranches in Pawnee, Oklahoma. He lived until 1942 but she was killed a few years earlier in a car accident. Buffalo Bill shot his last buffalo on Pawnee Bill's Ranch.

Buffalo Bill Cody by this time was the most famous person in the world but he still worked with wild west shows like the "101 Ranch" and "Sells-Foto".
His show was the first and influenced all the other wild west shows, starting the idea of what is now the rodeo.

All through his life he helped promote and preserve the west. He fought to save the buffalo, he was a friend to the American Indian and he believed that women who did the same work as men should get the same pay.
He invested in the west by building hotels, like "The Irma" in Cody, named after his daughter. He used his influences to get federal funds for dams and water projects, like the dam that's now named after him. He had ranches in Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming and had invested in mines and other company's. Buffalo Bill was a friend to all and a champion of the west.

This is my quick summary of the wild west being just one page. There are volumes of books on the settling of the West and all the people involved. It would take a long time to build a website with all that information but it is fun to collect some of the items linked to this history.

If you like collecting items from Buffalo Bill's Wild West you must get the book "Buffalo Bill's Wild West, An American Legend" by R. L. Wilson. It features the collection of Michael Del Castello which I think is the best collection outside the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.

If you happen to have any items relating to the people of the wild west and want to sell them please contact me. I am always looking for new items to add to my collection. Especially items that were personally used by these heroes or photographs of them.

Here's a fringed leather skirt that used to belong to Buffalo Bill's sister. You can barely see her head looking over the balcony of the Irma Hotel in the photo above. She is in front of the window over the banner.

If you have any items from the old wild west like these photographs, souvenirs, guns, especially Colt's, saloon items or anything else of interest that you want to sell or trade, Please let me know

I will keep adding to and changing the Wild West Gallery so keep coming back.   Thank You

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