Because of shows like Deadwood and movies in the Western genre, we have a particular vision of what life was like in towns like Tombstone, Arizona, in the collective American mind. Movies and shows set in the Old West vary in their historical accuracy, but even if we include actual historical accounts, how accurate is our overall picture of that era?

advertisement

If one takes the time to look, the evidence is more accurate than earlier time periods. By the end of the 19th century, photography had become fairly widespread, and new more portable cameras allowed photographers not only to capture portraits in studios but to document everyday life anywhere they could carry a tripod and camera.

The Wild West

The Wild West or the American Frontier era lasted from right after the Civil War ended in 1865 until around 1895. During this time, thousands of pioneers pushed their way westward in search of land, gold, and silver, better lives, and sometimes, to escape the law. In geographical terms, the “Old West” generally applies to the states west of the Mississippi River.

Arizona During the Wild West

1. Arizona Territory has been important of the Wild West with frontier towns like Tombstone, then a mining boomtown figuring prominently in the history and folklore of the Old West. Here are some of the lesser-known facts about what life was like in Arizona in the Wild West.
2. The cowboys, usually described as fearless hat-wearing, lasso master macho, are mostly illiterate cattle handlers or cattlemen, crusty prospectors, and ragged gold panners.
3. Cattle breeders or cowboys lived according to their own rules – the Rule of Open Range. There were no boundaries for cattle, and herds were free to move to new pastures. Farmers needed to define their territories’ boundaries and prevent their crops from being trampled by cattle moving freely.
4. Some of the most feared notorious outlaws were in the Arizona Territory and walked the streets – from Brisbee’s Brewery Gulch Prescott’s Whiskey Row. New York Times described Tombstones’ Birdcage Theater as “the wildest, roughest, wickedest honky-tonk between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast.” Jerome, another mining town, was labeled the “wickedest town in the West” by the New York Sun.

advertisement

---

5. The OK Corral is perhaps the most iconic location in the Wild West, not just in Tombstone. The famous gunfight between Wyatt Earp and his brothers Virgil and Morgan against the Clantons and the McLauerys is why most people recall the town today. While most of us think of a corral as just a pen, the location was more than that. A fenced corral stood behind an adobe office building. The gunfight took place in an empty lot adjacent to Fly’s Photography Gallery on Fremont Street. If you remember how the famous gunfight went down in the movie Tombstone, you’ll also remember they got that particular detail right.
6. Hygiene was severely lacking, and diseases mostly from mosquitoes were rampant. People are often medicated with alcohol.
7. Life was hard and living in this period was lonely. Cowboys continuously traveled, seeking out employment for scarce wages.

Now that you’ve learned what Arizona was like several hundred years ago, would you still wish you lived in the 1800s in the days of the Wild West?

advertisement