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The American Gunfighter

The American gunfighter is unique. While it is true that he had his counterpart in Australia and South Africa during the period when both places experienced gold and diamond rushes, it was the American 'desperado' who attracted most attention. Australia's `bush rangers' certainly emulated the Western gunfighter, and man for man was his equal, but thanks to William Frederick Cody, alias 'Buffalo Bill,' whose Wild West Show toured the world, the Indian and the cowboy captured the imagination of millions. And the cowboy's colorful dress, his pistols and daring horsemanship, quickly lent themselves to the emerging image of the gunfighter as a 'Knight Chivalric of the Plains'. However, the romantic concept of the gunfighter as a nineteenth-century knight errant has been questioned many times, for it creates an entirely false impression of the men who lived and died by the gun.

Some were admired for specific acts or because they fitted the public's idea of what a `frontier desperado' or `civilizer' should be. For beneath the heroic façade there lurked the stark fact that they were all killers, whether by choice or by provocation. And to suggest that they fought fair in the context of today's sense of fair play is erroneous. The business of survival meant getting the drop on an opponent, or disabling him in such a manner as to remove any further threat. This occasionally left the losers with severe gunshot wounds, gouged eyes, bitten ears, broken limbs or the additional indignity of a boot heel rammed into the face. Horrifying though that behavior may seem to modern audiences, it was an accepted hazard of frontier life.

The wilderness that was the West of the early 1840s soon became the focus of attention when mass migration overcame the many hazards that had deterred so many in the past. People moving west on foot, horseback or by wagon were prepared to face all manner of perils. Apart from Indians and wild animals, they also faced arid deserts and mountainous regions. But for the survivors, the rewards were worth the hardships.

The very nature of the country aided those anxious to avoid contact with civilization and its restrictions. For the honest citizen, however, the lack of law and order or communication was yet another of the hazards. From the flat land of Kansas westward to the Rocky Mountains and then the Sierras, there sprang up a number of communities that existed primarily because of gold or silver deposits. Miners and speculators invaded the regions. On the plains where the flat grassland made travel easier, homesteaders soon located, especially in Kansas following its opening up as a territory in 1854. And it was Kansas that attracted the bulk of the cattle industry following the Civil War.

The West of the outlaw and vigilante was also changing. As communications improved across the country, the violent element began to retreat toward the more remote regions. The likes of Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and the Youngers learned the hard way that the West as they knew it was now becoming unsafe. The era of the guerrilla, the roadagent and the 'bad man' was fast coming to an end. Soon, there would be no place to hide. The James-Younger gang were broken at Northfield in 1876, and the Daltons at Coffeyville in 1892. As for Butch Cassidy, he and his friend Sundance were forced to quit the United States altogether. By the early 1900s, the wilderness that had been the violent West was tamed; but its legends and those that inspired them would live on.

The great cattle ranges of Texas, Montana and Wyoming were also the scenes of range wars and family feuds. Some feuds were short-lived, while others lasted for generations until in the end few of the participants were really sure what started it all. The 'blood feud' became almost a way of life to some people who felt obliged to carry on the fight no matter what. The likes of John Wesley Hardin, who joined in on the side of the Taylors in the Sutton-Taylor feud, claimed it was because they were 'kin', but his love of violence may well have been the real reason.

The cattle empires, where cattle took precedence over people, accounted for a number of bloody conflicts. The land on which vast herds of cattle or sheep were run, was comparatively flat, well-grassed and watered. In short (for the time), it was as valuable as oil is to the present generation. Fortunes were made in the rearing of beef and mutton. The benefits were not confined to the United States. A number of English and Scottish companies invested in the cattle business, particularly in Wyoming. Like the Americans involved, they bitterly resented the intrusion of the 'nesters' or 'homesteaders' whom they regarded as interlopers or 'sod-bustin' rustlers'. The Johnson County cattle war was the result of such feeling, In Lincoln County, New Mexico, the 'intrusion' of the Englishman John Tunstall was not welcomed by some, but his death was another incident in a situation that had been building for some time. The later involvement of Billy the Kid in the Lincoln County war was minor at the time. In later years his part was glamorized in legend, an ingredient that aided the legend builders in their efforts to enhance his myth.

The Pleasant Valley war, with its racial as well as community conflict, provided a backdrop of violence and human misery that was to inspire a number of fictional imitators. In fact, the war was the ideal scenario for favorite themes, especially the eternal distrust between cattle and sheepmen.

The growth of the cattle industry following the Civil War proved to be the salvation of the Southern states. It also led to a massive expansion in meat products, and with the introduction of refrigeration, to exports of American beef to places as far off as England, where by the 1880s tons of beef were being shipped into the ports of London and Liverpool.

The trails sprang up, following existing routes (such as Chisholm's trail up from Texas to Wichita) or were blazed in the direction of a known location. But it was the railroads that proved to be the key factor, supplying direct routes east and west. When the Kansas Pacific Railway began issuing maps to potential trail drivers, they included a detailed account of the trail. Here, for example, is how they described the route from Cox's Crossing to North Fork on Bluff Creek: Trail from head of Pond Creek bears a little west of north to Cox's Crossing of Bluff Creek, about a quarter of a mile west of mouth of north fork. This is the best crossing on Bluff Creek, and is the only place where wagons can cross for several miles up and down the creek. C. H. Stone's store will be located here. Drovers should lay in supplies here as there is no other store or settlement until Ellinwood is reached. Good camping grounds on north and south side of creek; plenty of weed and water. Take wood here for five or six days' use.

The gunfighter was ubiquitous: he was to be found in most parts of the West. Elsewhere we have noted the terrain best suited to the lawless element anxious to escape any kind of civilization. But for the lawmen, the closer they were to established procedures the better. The mid-West of the 1870s-80s underwent the transition from lawlessness to law-abiding much quicker than some of the outlying regions. Early day peace officers experienced frustration when dealing with the ungodly. Lack of organized law and great distances across hostile territory proved a bonus for the outlaws and a chore for the men who wore the star.

Folks who lived on the cattle trails or in the cowtowns or mining camps were used to the sight of such as Hickok, Earp, Masterson and others meandering around with a pair of pistols prominently displayed. Some felt that so long as such men were around upholding the law, there was an element of safety. Others, however, were anti-firearms and were vociferous in their opinions. It became increasingly obvious by the late 1870s that the day of the 'pistoleer' was drawing to a close. Man-killers were facing a changing world. The gun was giving way to the gavel: where once a squeeze of the trigger settled an argument, the emphasis was now on the courts. Soon, the exploits of the James gang, the Daltons, Youngers and others would be history. As also would be the deeds of the lawmen who faced or pursued them. Police forces, both civil and Federal, co-operated in the fight against crime, which meant that the traditional peace officer exemplified by such as Hickok, Masterson or Tilghman would be obsolete. Communities no longer needed to rely upon noted individuals to keep the peace.

During the period 1860-1900, the gunfighter, whether on the side of the law or against it, had made his mark on a nation. But that was about to change. Now it was the turn of the courts. The gun abdicated in favor of the gavel. The period that witnessed the westward movement, the mining ventures, the railroads, the Indian wars and the immortalizing of the cowboy, the ubiquitous 'man-killer' or 'gunfighter' achieved a notoriety of his own. But few of those who became famous lived to a ripe old age. Some, like Edward Masterson, Tom Nixon and Tom Smith died in the line of duty, while others, such as Hickok, Stoudenmire, and the likes of Jesse James and Billy the Kid, were murdered either because of their reputations or for financial or personal gain. Of those that survived, perhaps Wyatt Earp was one of the few who, in old age, was lifted from obscurity to become 'heroic', not for what he actually did but for what he symbolized.

As early as 8 March 1879, the Dodge City Globe had forecast both the end of the cattle trade and a determined effort to 'civilize' the West: There is a class, still a large one .. , which looks with horror upon the approach of manners, customs and ideas tending to drive out the 'frontier' character[is]tics of Dodge. They look with profound contempt upon a town whose police officers are not walking arsenals. They look back with regret to the time when 'a drink was a quarter and a cigar two bits'. They are not such bad fellows after all; but they do not long for a quiet life. They are not so many as they were. Some have lately felt the cordon of grangers pressing upon them and they have flitted; some to [Las] Vegas, some to Silver Cliff, and some to Leadville.

The message was plain: change was inevitable. And by the middle 1880s police forces were being issued with uniforms. In effect, the West had adopted an Eastern appearance. The change was subtle but significant. And as its 'wildness' retreated, so did the frontier image. Gone was the familiar broad-brimmed hat, white shirt and open waistcoat, and one or a pair of pistols openly displayed. Indeed, were such a character to be seen by the turn of the century, many people would have been alarmed. Only later, when those who lived through the era grew old and reminiscent about the old days, was there any regret for their passing. Today, of course, the man with the large hat and prominently displayed pistols is the image most people cherish of what to them was indeed the Age of the Gunfighter.

Joseph G. Rosa. . University of Oklahoma Press. 1999.

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