Below you will find every piece of research I gathered from the two weeks of Phase 2, from Monday the 21st of October 2019 to Thursday the 31st of October 2019 on my chosen topic of the American frontier.
For ease of use, I placed whatever research I found into one word document. My plan from then on was to put anything I thought was interesting or worthy into my presentation, since I obviously couldn't put it all in there for aesthetic and time constraint reasons.
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Deep-Dive Research
The American Frontier/West
The American Old West, ‘Wild West’ or American Frontier refers to the time in American history where settlers from the East and Southeast of America mass migrated west to explore undiscovered land and settle down in order to build a whole new life for themselves and their families. The term encapsulates the geography, history, cultural expression and folklore of the time.
Settlers included a whole manner of people including, but not limited to, farmers, ranchmen, business owners, Indian traders, hunters, miners, backwoodsmen and many different types of adventurers. Because the lands were essentially ‘free’, these people expanded society at their edges. This idea of ‘taming the wild land’ came from this initial plan to form civilisation in the west. However, it was this which essentially marked its downfall as new threats like the federal government and the booming industry killed off the ‘wild’, unsettled way of life so typical of the American frontier. The railroads which had gradually been built over the course of the Frontier soon granted the people an easy and convenient way of communicating with the rest of the country. There was no more land to be tamed, and the physical frontier had reached its end.
However, what didn’t die was its legend. In picture and story, it would remind people for decades of the purely American traditions of individualism, freedom, opportunity and daring.
The territorial expansion lasted from the year 1607 to 1912, with its myth lasting from 1850 to 1920. However, these dates vary slightly from each American West historian.
Oxford Dictionaries typically defines ‘Wild West’ as “The western US in a time of lawlessness in its early history. The Wild West was the last of a succession of frontiers formed as settlers moved gradually further west. The frontier was officially declared closed in 1890.”
The American Frontier is arguably the defining process of American civilisation.
The journey had a very high death rate because almost everything could kill you. This included starvation, a whole host of diseases, the suns heat, dehydration, feral animals, criminals and bandits, poisonous plants, malnutrition and accidental gunshot wounds.
“Unsettled” land, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, was land with very low population densities. These areas marked the frontier line on a series of maps for each decade. This didn’t only attract explorers, missionaries and trappers, but various groups who wished to settle homesteads and build towns.
Romanticism and Misconception
Multiple forms of media over time has used the American West as the focus for its stories, obviously the biggest culprit being the film industry, where the Western genre was once the most reliable, popular and prolific genre of them all.
Other media includes television shows such as Bonanza and Gunsmoke, comic books, games such as Red Dead Redemption, Call of Juarez, GUN, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath.
However, the case with most of these (although not all) is that they portray the time through a romanticised lens. This stems from the definitive Western films of the 1950s where certain realistic attributes were often omitted entirely to comply mostly with audience interest and the film administrator rules of the time.
Realistic elements such as mud or trail dust on characters and blood would not be seen since the sight of blood was considered obscene for the time. Even extensive violence was toned down in these films to not lose audience and producer appeal. Characters, when shot, would tumble to the floor almost comedically with barely a scratch visible. This is why Westerns such as The Searchers and The Wild Bunch were viewed as shocking for their time, depicting characters who, when shot, would do things like writhe on the floor and scream in pain.
Other elements were exaggerated in these films as well, such as chaos and anarchy.
“Manifest Destiny”
The term “Manifest Destiny” is typically defined as the zeitgeist amongst Americans migrating across the east of America to the west that the territorial expansion was inevitable and entirely justified.
as the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.
What killed the Wild West?
Industry, federal government and law and order. This is exemplified beautifully in the film ‘Rango’.
This idea of being ‘left behind’ in a world constantly moving on to the future.
“The lawman, the gunslinger, there’s just no place for them anymore” “Pretty soon no one’s gonna believe you even existed.” The idea of sticking to your guns and fighting to your last breath for what you believe in. “Final stand.”
Sub-genres
Classic Western
Comedy Western
Horror Western
Martial-arts Western
Modern Western
Quasi Western/Neo Western: Modern film with strong Western elements, not actually a Western at all
Space Western: A classic hybridisation of old VS new, merging Science Fiction with the classic Western. Characters in these hybrids will be technologically advanced whilst living in a volatile and desert-like environment, reflecting that of the landscapes of the Old West. Some great examples of this include the music video for MUSE’s Knights of Cydonia, where cowboys have laser guns and holograms are frequently shown, and that Doctor Who episode. These two genres actually should be enemies, considering that Sci-Fi stole a lot of the Western’s thunder back in the 1960s
Spaghetti Western: Western made with entirely Italian influence, often shot cheaply in Europe
Dodge City, Kansas
Dodge City, Kansas, is one of the most famous places in both the history and legend of the Old West. This is largely due to the stories chronicled about the famous lawman Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, as well as gunfighter Doc Holliday, and the Gunfight at the O.K Corral.
Dodge City’s full origins date back to 1847, when civilians built Fort Mann to provide protection for travellers on the Santa Fe trail, who were always under threat from marauding Native Americans.
However, Fort Mann collapsed from Indian attack in 1848.
In 1850, the U.S Army came to provide further, stronger protection in the region and as a result, built Fort Atkinson where Fort Mann used to stand. In 1853, they abandoned it.
Military forces on the Santa Fe Trail were re-established farther north and east at Fort Larned in 1859, but the area remained vacant around what would become Dodge City until the end of the American Civil War. As the Indian wars in the west got more intense, the U.S Army constructed Fort Dodge to assist Fort Larned to provide protection to the trail and remained in operation until 1882.
The actual town of Dodge City traces its origins to 1871, when rancher Henry J. Sitler built a sod house west of Fort Dodge to oversee his cattle operations in the region.
His house quickly became a stopping point for travellers.
With the Santa Fe Railroad was rapidly approaching from the east, others saw the commercial potential of the region, and in 1872, Dodge City was staked out.
As the town site was platted, George M. Hoover established the first bar in a tent to serve thirsty soldiers from Fort Dodge.
The railroad arrived in September to find a town ready and waiting for business. The early settlers traded in buffalo bones and hides and provided a civilian community for Fort Dodge. With the arrival of the railroad, Dodge City soon became heavily involved in the cattle trade.
The 1850s saw the driving of Texas Longhorn cattle from Texas to railheads in Kansas. However, the Civil War cut this short. Texas Longhorn cattle would, after their arrival in 1866, provide quarantine problems, spreading Texas cattle fever among other cattle breeds. Because of this, alarmed Kansas farmers persuaded the Kansas State Legislature to establish a quarantine line in central Kansas, which prohibited Texas Longhorns from the heavily settled, eastern portion of the state.
The cattle trade was forced west, along the Chisholm Trail.
In 1867, the main cowtown was Abilene, Kansas. Profits were high, and other towns quickly joined in the cattle boom:
Newton in 1871, Ellsworth in 1872, and Wichita in 1872.
However, in 1876, the Kansas State Legislature responded to pressure from farmers settling in central Kansas and once again shifted the quarantine line westward, which essentially eliminated Abilene and the other cowtowns from the cattle trade. With no place else to go, Dodge City suddenly became the "queen of the cow towns".
- The journey got more dangerous as settlers gradually moved into land occupied by Native American tribes, and faced devastating attacks if they went into the wrong areas.
Native Americans were known for being expert hunters and trackers, capable of killing hundreds of people at a time with a mixture of traditional weapons such as bows and arrows, traditional hunting knives and tomahawks.
They believed that the land should remain free from any kind of industry.
Later on in time, they were employed by lawmen and detectives such as the Pinkertons to track down notorious criminals.
They knew the land much better than the European settlers, and because they were such a threat to safety, the U.S. Army sometimes had to intervene.
- The American Frontier saw the likes of many different kinds of people, such as pioneers, businessmen, scouts, lawmen, outlaws, gangs, gunslingers and cowboys. All of these people were looking for an opportunity and were not afraid of adventure.
- It is estimated that roughly 100 million Native American people inhabited North America before exploration on the continent began. There were 240 Native American tribes which spoke 300 different languages.
- The outlaws of the Old West are the most prominent legends of the time. These included Billy the Kid, Belle Starr, Bill Doolin, Black Bart, the Dalton Brothers, Jesse James, Frank James, Curly Bill and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Famous lawmen included Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett, Wild Bill Hickok, and Bill Tilghman.
- The legends and stories of the American Frontier are well-known for being misconstrued and sometimes completely false because documentation at the time was scarce and unreliable. Illiteracy was a massive problem and the few stories written at the time were often exaggerated to catch people’s interests in newspapers. ‘The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’ is a prime example of this, and it is an event that historians have been trying to get the truth out of for the last few decades.
However, the Western genre (Classic Western) abuses this by creating heroic stories of chivalrous cowboys and the codes of honour they followed. This is not how the true American Frontier was.
- The life of a pioneer was fraught with hardship and violence. They literally had to create a living from nought but a harsh desert environment, often fighting off enraged Native Americans. They suffered starvation, disease, dehydration, animal attacks, theft and common violence (such as disputes between settlers).
It was from this way of life that the ‘town life’ of the Wild West was born, with people building towns and everything in them, establishing law and order by appointing Sheriffs and Marshals, building the railroads which did everything from transporting humans to eventually cattle, properly irrigating the water and building ranches and cultivating farmland for food production.
The American Frontier really went in stages, from nothing to pure industry in the space of a century.
There are just so many angles to this time period, from the town life to the Native Americans to the Civil War, to the gold rush and the construction of the railroads.
Western Towns
Buildings:
General store
Livery/Stables
Sheriff/Marshal’s office
(Sometimes) Jailhouse
Hotel
Saloon
Train station
Gunsmith and or blacksmith
Church
Undertaker
Bank
Courthouse
Telegraph office
Bordello/brothel (although this was often the Saloon)
Tailor/outfitter
Butcher (sometimes)
Schoolhouse (sometimes)
Doctor’s office
Phase 2
Week 4: 21/10/2019 - 27/10/2019
Week 5: 28/10/2019 - 03/11/2019