Landmark History of the Old West

While the Eastern United States was beginning to experience the Second Industrial Revolution (which started around 1871), the frontier was beginning to fill up with people. In the early days of the Wild West, a great deal of the land was in the public domain, open both to livestock raising as open range and to homesteading.

Throughout much of the Old West, there was little to no local law enforcement, and the military had only concentrated presence at specific locations. Buffalo hunters, railroad workers, drifters and soldiers scrapped and fought, leading to the shootings where men died "with their boots on".

In the towns, state houses, dance halls and saloons catered to the Texas cattle drive trade. The historic Chisholm Trail was used for cattle drives. The trail ran for 800 miles from south Texas to Abilene, Kansas, and was used from 1867 to 1887 to drive cattle northward to the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railway, where they were shipped eastward.

Cattle rustling was a serious offense and was always a hazard for the expeditions. It could result in the rustler's lynching by vigilantes (but most stories of this type are fictional). Mexican rustlers and banditos allied with comancheros were a major issue from the antebellum period through the Civil War and towards the closing of the 19th century with the Mexican government being accused of supporting the habit. Texans in reprisal often stole cattle from Mexico and made punitive expeditions into Indian territory.

Landmark History of the Old West

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