
Image:CreosoteForegroundKilbourneHoleBackground.jpg The Western United States has played a significant role in history and fiction. The terms Old West and Wild West refer to life in western North America, beyond the settled frontier, during the 19th century, especially between 1860 and 1900. ==Overview== Many accounts of Old West life have been highly romanticized. In typical Western fiction, the Old West is a dry landscape populated by cowboys, Amerindians, outlaws, gold mining, trappers and List of explorerss. Thus conflicts generally occurred, and still occur, over water, since land without water is of little value. Old West fiction has been a popular genre, featuring authors such as Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour. Western movie such as those featuring John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, radio dramas, television, pulp novels and comic books all had popular Old West themes. In German culture the genre was so popular that it spawned another, the Kraut-Western, which is alive and well even one century after its debut. Karl May is the best-selling Germany writer of all time, due to his classic Wild West adventure novels featuring the unforgettable protagonists ''Old Shatterhand'' and ''Winnetou''. There is a non-fiction side of the American West, too, as in, for example, Robert Laxalt's memoir ''Sweet Promised Land'', in which Dominique Laxalt, his father, a Basque shepherd, re-visits the old country. The book ends with Laxalt's desire to return to his home in Nevada: "... and he saw the mountains of the West rise up ..." Nevertheless, the untamable mystique of the Wild West lives on with fascination with a simpler world of ''salt of the Earth'' values. Of note, Cowboy action shooting is one of the fastest growing American sports today, combining Shooting with the theatricality of an Historical reenactment of the gunslinging Wild West days. ==Actual events and characters== Certain events, locations and characters which actually existed are part of the history and folklore of the Old West. Among the towns of significance are Dodge City, Kansas and Tombstone, Arizona. Events include the Lincoln County War, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Battle of the Little Big Horn, the Battle of the Alamo and the Johnson County War. Characters include Kit Carson, Kyle McGhee, Geronimo, Cochise, Sitting Bull, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson, Calamity Jane, and Buffalo Bill. ==Fictitious locations and characters== Other famous locations and characters originate in fiction such as the TV Western such as ''Gunsmoke'' and ''Bonanza'', Western movies and Western fiction. For example, while Dodge City, Kansas, the setting of ''Gunsmoke'', was briefly a wide open town and while Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp were lawmen there, Marshall Matt Dillon and the other regular characters of Gunsmoke are fictious characters. Likewise while Virginia City, Nevada was a real Old West mining town, the Ponderosa Ranch and the Cartwright family of ''Bonanza'' are fictious. Considerable poetic license has been taken with a number of the actual events and characters such as Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid as they have been protrayed in ways which reflect contemporary concerns more than the historical record. Certain books and movies such as ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'', ''Shane'', ''High Noon'', and the novel ''The Virginian'' stand out. ==Western movie locations== These Western movie locations, like many more, form the backdrop that identifies the genre. Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry and The Lone Ranger, often filmed near Lone Pine, where since the early 1920's over 300 movies have been filmed. John Ford pioneered the out of Hollywood on location western, when he packed up the crew and went out to Monument Valley, to film movies like Stagecoach (1939). Even when the story involves Apaches from New Mexico and Southern Arizona, Ford filmed it up in Monument Valley far out of the Apache’s territory because he liked the scenery. In the late 1930’s filming started in Old Tucson, Arizona, site of now over 300 western movies. ==See also== *American West *Western United States *Cowboy action shooting *Gold mine *Gold rush *Frontier Strip *Historical reenactment *Cowboy poetry *Karl May *Notable figures in Westerns *Western movies *List of Western Outlaws *List of Western lawmen ==External links== *[http://www.lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org/filmhistory1.asplonepinefilmhistorymuseum Lone Pine Film History Museum] *[http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry/monval.htm Monument Valley film history] *[http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry/oldtucsn.htm Old Tucson film history] History of the American West American folklore
I am not happy with this language, "...before the coming of the railroads. After the railroads, emigration to the West became much easier; but before the railroads, rule by the gun was the norm,..." Most areas of the West were relatively peaceful with established authority before the coming of the railroad, not "rule of the gun". Conversely certain areas, for example, Arizona and Wyoming were relatively lawless after the coming of the railroad, see Johnson County War. User:Fred Bauder 12:40, Sep 7, 2004 (UTC) ------- I'm inclined to agree, the language is a bit over-wrought and of dubious accuracy. Much of the "Old West" was really rather dull. User:Dino 17:55, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC) "Considerable poetic license has been taken with a number of the actual events and characters such as Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid as they have been protrayed in ways which reflect contemporary concerns more than the historical record." Contemporary concern? Isn't it rather derived from the romanticism of that era? ------- "Nevertheless, the untamable mystique of the Wild West lives on... A fascination with a simpler world of salt of the Earth values, where men were men and women were damsels, fuels interest in Nashville and the Country Music scene, the rodeo circuits and the Western fashions of the 21st Century. Is it any surprise that Cowboy Action Shooting is one of the fastest growing sports today, combining marksmanship with the theatricality of an historical reenacting of the gunslinging Wild West days? The interest in the West seems eternal: maybe it is just because "a man's got to do what a man's got to do."" This paragraph seems more like its been written for a magazine than for an enclylopedia. ---------- I don't know who wrote it, but it does sound like a bad in-flight magazine. I edited it, and hopefully it is better. User:Dino 04:47, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC) ------- I'm curious should the time range of the west be more around 1849 following the California Gold Rush ? With much of the west coast settled by 1860 it could even be argued following the period after the Lewis and Clark Expedition leading to the colonization of Oregon and California. I would suggest a timeline more along the lines of around 1850 to 1890. Maybe a rewording "''from 1850 to its official close in 1890 (however the settling of the west continued into the early 1900s)." ? User:205.188.116.132 19:40, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with American_Old_West:
American_Old_West
American_Old_West
American Old West
Image:CreosoteForegroundKilbourneHoleBackground.jpg The Western United States has played a significant role in history and fiction. The terms Old West and Wild West refer to life in western North America, beyond the settled frontier, during the 19th century, especially between 1860 and 1900. ==Overview== Many accounts of Old West life have been highly romanticized. In typical Western fiction, the Old West is a dry landscape populated by cowboys, Amerindians, outlaws, gold mining, trappers and List of explorerss. Thus conflicts generally occurred, and still occur, over water, since land without water is of little value. Old West fiction has been a popular genre, featuring authors such as Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour. Western movie such as those featuring John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, radio dramas, television, pulp novels and comic books all had popular Old West themes. In German culture the genre was so popular that it spawned another, the Kraut-Western, which is alive and well even one century after its debut. Karl May is the best-selling Germany writer of all time, due to his classic Wild West adventure novels featuring the unforgettable protagonists ''Old Shatterhand'' and ''Winnetou''. There is a non-fiction side of the American West, too, as in, for example, Robert Laxalt's memoir ''Sweet Promised Land'', in which Dominique Laxalt, his father, a Basque shepherd, re-visits the old country. The book ends with Laxalt's desire to return to his home in Nevada: "... and he saw the mountains of the West rise up ..." Nevertheless, the untamable mystique of the Wild West lives on with fascination with a simpler world of ''salt of the Earth'' values. Of note, Cowboy action shooting is one of the fastest growing American sports today, combining Shooting with the theatricality of an Historical reenactment of the gunslinging Wild West days. ==Actual events and characters== Certain events, locations and characters which actually existed are part of the history and folklore of the Old West. Among the towns of significance are Dodge City, Kansas and Tombstone, Arizona. Events include the Lincoln County War, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Battle of the Little Big Horn, the Battle of the Alamo and the Johnson County War. Characters include Kit Carson, Kyle McGhee, Geronimo, Cochise, Sitting Bull, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson, Calamity Jane, and Buffalo Bill. ==Fictitious locations and characters== Other famous locations and characters originate in fiction such as the TV Western such as ''Gunsmoke'' and ''Bonanza'', Western movies and Western fiction. For example, while Dodge City, Kansas, the setting of ''Gunsmoke'', was briefly a wide open town and while Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp were lawmen there, Marshall Matt Dillon and the other regular characters of Gunsmoke are fictious characters. Likewise while Virginia City, Nevada was a real Old West mining town, the Ponderosa Ranch and the Cartwright family of ''Bonanza'' are fictious. Considerable poetic license has been taken with a number of the actual events and characters such as Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid as they have been protrayed in ways which reflect contemporary concerns more than the historical record. Certain books and movies such as ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'', ''Shane'', ''High Noon'', and the novel ''The Virginian'' stand out. ==Western movie locations== These Western movie locations, like many more, form the backdrop that identifies the genre. Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry and The Lone Ranger, often filmed near Lone Pine, where since the early 1920's over 300 movies have been filmed. John Ford pioneered the out of Hollywood on location western, when he packed up the crew and went out to Monument Valley, to film movies like Stagecoach (1939). Even when the story involves Apaches from New Mexico and Southern Arizona, Ford filmed it up in Monument Valley far out of the Apache’s territory because he liked the scenery. In the late 1930’s filming started in Old Tucson, Arizona, site of now over 300 western movies. ==See also== *American West *Western United States *Cowboy action shooting *Gold mine *Gold rush *Frontier Strip *Historical reenactment *Cowboy poetry *Karl May *Notable figures in Westerns *Western movies *List of Western Outlaws *List of Western lawmen ==External links== *[http://www.lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org/filmhistory1.asplonepinefilmhistorymuseum Lone Pine Film History Museum] *[http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry/monval.htm Monument Valley film history] *[http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry/oldtucsn.htm Old Tucson film history] History of the American West American folklore
American Old West
I am not happy with this language, "...before the coming of the railroads. After the railroads, emigration to the West became much easier; but before the railroads, rule by the gun was the norm,..." Most areas of the West were relatively peaceful with established authority before the coming of the railroad, not "rule of the gun". Conversely certain areas, for example, Arizona and Wyoming were relatively lawless after the coming of the railroad, see Johnson County War. User:Fred Bauder 12:40, Sep 7, 2004 (UTC) ------- I'm inclined to agree, the language is a bit over-wrought and of dubious accuracy. Much of the "Old West" was really rather dull. User:Dino 17:55, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC) "Considerable poetic license has been taken with a number of the actual events and characters such as Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid as they have been protrayed in ways which reflect contemporary concerns more than the historical record." Contemporary concern? Isn't it rather derived from the romanticism of that era? ------- "Nevertheless, the untamable mystique of the Wild West lives on... A fascination with a simpler world of salt of the Earth values, where men were men and women were damsels, fuels interest in Nashville and the Country Music scene, the rodeo circuits and the Western fashions of the 21st Century. Is it any surprise that Cowboy Action Shooting is one of the fastest growing sports today, combining marksmanship with the theatricality of an historical reenacting of the gunslinging Wild West days? The interest in the West seems eternal: maybe it is just because "a man's got to do what a man's got to do."" This paragraph seems more like its been written for a magazine than for an enclylopedia. ---------- I don't know who wrote it, but it does sound like a bad in-flight magazine. I edited it, and hopefully it is better. User:Dino 04:47, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC) ------- I'm curious should the time range of the west be more around 1849 following the California Gold Rush ? With much of the west coast settled by 1860 it could even be argued following the period after the Lewis and Clark Expedition leading to the colonization of Oregon and California. I would suggest a timeline more along the lines of around 1850 to 1890. Maybe a rewording "''from 1850 to its official close in 1890 (however the settling of the west continued into the early 1900s)." ? User:205.188.116.132 19:40, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
A
AB | AC | AD | AE | AF | AG | AH | AI | AJ | AK | AL | AM | AN | AO | AP | AR | AS | AT | AU | AW | AX | AY | AZ |Words begining with American_Old_West:
American_Old_West
American_Old_West
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