What was the Wild West really like? We all know the Hollywodized notion of whiskey, indians, shootouts at high noon...

What was the Wild West really like? We all know the Hollywodized notion of whiskey, indians, shootouts at high noon, and cattle trails. But that's bullshit. How lawless was the western frontier really, and what finally tamed it?

It was tamed by prostitutes who provided the capital to help other girls start businesses

It was actually pretty close to how it's depicted in the certain media if you're not watching clearly over the top action movies like The Magnificent Seven or movies that depict heavily dramatized versions (dueling tournaments) of things that really did happen fairly frequently (duels).

Blood Meridian basically

This is actually correct.

Women tamed the wild west yet autists here will deny it to their dying breathe

>shootout at high noon happened only once recorded
>cowboys usually drank bottled beer, and if it was whiskey it was rotgut moonshine
>colt single action army was actually a rich man's gun, the british bulldog was much more prevalent
>OK Corral was a shootout between like 10 guys, and this was one of the most notable and bloody fights recorded, meaning everything else was relatively tame
>god is a lie, we are only put here to suffer
>etc

>shootout at high noon happened only once recorded
This sounds like you're putting a really restrictive definition on what a duel is in order to make it seem like they were less common than they were.

>colt single action army was actually a rich man's gun
A lot of wild west gunfighters were "rich men", land owners fighting other land owners over claims, bounty hunters/federal agents, criminals who made a lot of money robbing trains/coaches/banks etc.

>OK Corral was a shootout between like 10 guys, and this was one of the most notable and bloody fights recorded, meaning everything else was relatively tame
Some of the range wars were a lot bloodier than that, and gang/pinkerton conflicts were frequently about as bloody. A large part of the reason why the OK corral is one of the more famous "cowboy" fights was because it represents the conflict between the government and "cowboys" in a way that's generally more sympathetic to the cowboys.

No. That's part of the story. Not the whole story. Presenting it like it was the only source of capital and investment is silly revisionism.

Source on those cowboys drinking beer please?

Trying to find an online source, but remember it from some documentary. Because the rotgut whiskey could be cut with any amount of shit, a barrel of beer guaranteed what you were getting.

More or less.

The pioneers were savage.

The mexicans were savage.

The Indians were savage.

It was essentially 100 years of three-way guerilla warfare that only ended when there weren't enough sides left to fight.

Also railroads tamed the west.

According to Tim McGrath, the violence was there but quite overblown. The urban areas of the East Coast were way more crine ridden and violent than anything in the West.

This.

Typically people were too busy farming/mining/whatever industry had brought them out west to go fuck with each other.

There were bandits, and bank robbers, and hostile Indians, but for the most part it was just quiet farm life.

Bear River Smith survived an ambush using only his fists. The things he pulled off are Chuck Norris tier. He also has a Batman like origin; he accidentally shot a kid and swore away guns,opting to use his fists instead. He was also a manlet.

Some civilization in towns
Everything else was no man's land
Also trains,those where vital

It was lawless but not total chaos.

Everyone had a gun and no one trusted each other. Everyone was part of a community that is small by today's standards and who they'd have to ingratiate themselves with if they intended to make a living. They expected cattle to be stolen, officials to be corrupt and people to spread rumors about them, so they wouldn't give anyone an excuse to do these things if they could avoid it. People looked after themselves and their community out of fear of being murdered or hanged. That isn't ideal of course.

less stetsons and more bowlers

How frequent were injun raids?

>ywn leave the city and go west into the frontier
>ywn make a living trapping furs in the pre railroad era
>ywn build a simple house for your qt squaw to live in

But out on the road they surely drank whiskey?

Probably the worst town was Bodie, Nevada. See also the mini-series Deadwood.

Couldn't tell you about what they drank on cattle drives other than coffee. But to reiterate, the "whiskey" they drank wasn't cask aged FDA definition of whiskey, as much as it was grain alcohol or whatever they had to distill with in the frontier.