Old West Facts and Trivia

Old West Facts & Trivia

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The cowboy hat we have come to know today was first designed in the 1860s by a New Jersey man named John Batterson Stetson. Stetson, in Central City, Colorado for health reasons, saw a market for a broad brimmed hat for ranch wear. He opened a shop in Philadelphia and began designing hats under the Stetson name in 1865. By 1906 Stetson employed approximately 3,500 workers, turning out two million hats a year.

Oklahoma is a Muskoegean word that Choctaw Allen Wright coined to mean "Red People." It was first applied to the eastern portion of Indian Territory in 1890.

Tom Mix, cowboy actor and his cowboy hat in 1919.

Lewis and Clark never knew it, but the Spanish sent out four expeditions between August, 1804 and August, 1806 to try and stop them. However, they failed in their mission as they were consistently turned back by the Indians. However, on one occasion they came close - near Red Cloud, Nebraska they were within 140 miles.

On August 19, 1884 John H. ‘Doc’ Holliday shot bartender Billy Allen in the arm over $5 at Leadville, Colorado.

The first biography of Billy the Kid appeared only three weeks after his death.

Contrary to popular thought, most cowboys didn't shoot up the the many towns that they arrived in, as most of them didn't carry guns while they were riding. Carrying a gun was a nuisance to the riders that scared both the cows and the horses.

Clay Allison, after sitting in a dentist’s chair in Cheyenne, Wyoming , forcibly pulled one of the dentist’s teeth when he doctor drilled on the wrong molar. He would have continued pulling the dentists teeth, but the screams of the dentist brought in people from the street.

When Jesse James was killed, most people assumed that he had left a wealthy widow, but that was not the case at all. In fact, the only valuables that they owned were a few weapons, a bit of stolen jewelry, and assorted memorabilia. Zee James, Jesse's wife, was forced to sell most everything in the household in order to pay the creditors.

Big Nose George Parrot Outlaw "Big Nose" George Parrot, the leader of a gang of rustlers in Wyoming, was lynched in Rawlins, Montana on 1881. Afterwards, his body was given to Dr. John E. Osborne, who partially skinned the corpse and made a pair of shoes from his inner thigh, a medicine bag out of his chest, and an ashtray out of the top of his skull. The doctor wore the shoes for his inauguration as governor of Wyoming in 1893. In the 1950's, his remains were found in a whiskey barrel where the doctor's office used to stand. The thigh-skin shoes and the skull ashtray are on display at the Carbon County Museum in Rawlins.

During the days of the Oklahoma Land Runs, "Sooner" stories became instant Oklahoma lore. On the day of the first run, for example, one man was found working on land sprouting 4" high onions. When asked how this could have happened, he praised the rich soil, claiming that he had planted those onions "just fifteen minutes ago."

When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, the American population was 5,308,483. Two-thirds of the people lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. One out of every five was a slave.

Oklahoma Land Run

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Despite its reputation for violence, Tombstone, Arizona saw only one lynching during its history. When John Heath was found sentenced to only life in prison for participating in the killing of three men and a pregnant woman in Bisbee, miners stormed the jail and lynched him from a telegraph pole at the corner of First and Toughnut Streets.

On the vast prairie where firewood was often scarce, cowchips were regularly used for fires. Camp cooks relied on them, as when they were dry, they made a hot fire. Of course the burning chips gave off an unsavory smell, but, thankfully, it did not effect the food. One old range cook who used his hat for a bellows claimed that in one season he "wore out three good hats trying to get the damed things to burn."

In late 1849 Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson led the pursuit of a band of Jicarilla Apache who had kidnapped Mrs. J. M. White and her child from an emigrant caravan. Carson and a company of Taos soldiers tracked down and defeated the Apache, but they were too late to save Mrs. White, who was found with an arrow through her heart. Carson discovered a dime novel lying near White's body, featuring Carson as the hero of a story where he single-handedly fought off eight natives.

Judge Roy Bean

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One of Judge Roy Bean's most outrageous rulings occurred when an Irishman was accused of killing a Chinese worker. Friends of the Irishman threatened to destroy the Jersey Lilly if he was found guilty. When he was taken to court, Bean browsed through his law book and after turning numerous pages, he rapped his pistol on the bar and proclaimed, "Gentlemen, I find the law very explicit on murdering your fellow man, but there's nothing here about killing a Chinaman. Case dismissed."

Louisa Ann Swain, a seventy-year-old woman, became the first woman in America to vote in a public election at Laramie, Wyoming on September 6, 1870.

In 1889, homesteaders Ellen "Cattle Kate" Watson, and James Averell, were hanged by Wyoming cattlemen, allegedly for cattle rustling. Historians, have since found; however, that they were innocent.

Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated January, 2009

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From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Old West Books - Legends of America and the Rocky Mountain General Store has collected a number of Old West books for our frontier enthusiasts. For many of these, we have only one available. To see this varied collection, click HERE!