Alexis de Tocqueville came to America to study democracy. At the end of his two-volume Democracy In America, he wrote, "if one asked me to what do I think one must principally attribute the singular prosperity and growing force of this people, I would answer that it is to the superiority of its women. With that spirit in mind, we present a photo essay of the strong, bold, sassy, bawdy, stubborn, bodacious, and superior women of the Old West.
Four Sisters at the Soddie
These four sisters (1.-r.), Harriet, Elizabeth, Lucie and Ruth Crisman, photographed in 1886, near Custer County, Nebraska, knew how blessed they were to have each other, as so many other women suffered the loneliness of the frontier. "It was a frontier saying that homesteading was a gamble: 'Yeah, the United States Government is betting you 160 acres of land that you can't live on it eight months!" -Edith Eudora Kohl in her homesteading memoir, Land of the Burnt Thigh Solomon Butcher, Courtesy Library of Congress
Spirit of the West
This is one of the only known photos of a Black cowgirl; she's called Nellie Brown. But there is no Nellie Brown recorded in Western history she's just as anonymous as the many Black women labeled only as "unknown!" However, they all knew something important. As one historian said, "More than anywhere else in the United States at the time, the frontier offered African Americans a chance in life!" All Images Courtesy True West Archives Unless Otherwise Noted
Arizona's Sharlot Hall
"I am not unwomanly don't you dare to think so-but God meant women to joy in his great, clean, beautiful world, and I thank Him that he lets me see some of it not through a windowpane!" Courtesy Sharlot Hall Museum Library & Archives, Prescott, Arizona
Range Boss
この記事は True West の September 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は True West の September 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.
Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist? Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.
Hero of Horsepower - Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
From the Basin to the Plains
Discover Wyoming on a road trip to Cody, Casper and Cheyenne.
COLLECTING AMERICAN OUTLAWS
Wilbur Zink has preserved the Younger Gang's history in more ways than one.
Spencer's West
After the Civil War, savvy frontiersmen chose the Spencer repeating carbine.
Firearms With a Storied Past
Rock Island gavels off high profits from historic firearms.
She Means Business!
An energetic and ambitious woman has come to Lincoln, New Mexico, to restore the town's legendary Ellis Store.
Ride that Train!
HERITAGE RAILROADS KEEP THE OLD WEST ALIVE ACROSS THE UNITED STATES.
Saddle Up with a Western
Old West fiction and nonfiction are the perfect genres to fill your summer reading list.
RENEGADES OF THE RAILS
RAILROADS WERE OPEN SEASON FOR OKLAHOMA AND INDIAN TERRITORY OUTLAW GANGS.