68 Fun Facts About Wild West

Billy the Kid was born under what name?

Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty in New York around 1859; he later used the aliases Henry Antrim and William H. Bonney.

Which sheriff shot and killed Billy the Kid at Fort Sumner in 1881?

Pat Garrett, sheriff of Lincoln County, shot the Kid in Pete Maxwell's darkened bedroom at Fort Sumner on 14 July 1881.

Billy the Kid rose to fame as one of the Regulators in which New Mexico conflict?

The Lincoln County War (1878) pitted the Regulators, formed to avenge the murder of English rancher John Tunstall, against the Murphy-Dolan faction.

The only authenticated photograph of Billy the Kid sold at auction in 2011 for how much?

The 1880 tintype of Billy the Kid fetched $2.3 million at a Denver auction in June 2011; the buyer was businessman William Koch.

The 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral actually took place in a vacant lot fronting which thoroughfare?

The fight happened on Fremont Street, in a narrow lot beside C. S. Fly's photography studio, six doors west of the corral's rear entrance.

Roughly how many shots were fired during the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral?

About 30 shots were fired in roughly 30 seconds; Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers died, while an unarmed Ike Clanton ran.

The outlaw faction the Earps fought at the O.K. Corral was known by what name?

The Cochise County Cowboys were a loose gang of rustlers and smugglers; Tombstone's 1881 ordinance against carrying guns in town was aimed at them.

Which Earp brother was the town's city marshal and deputized Doc Holliday on the day of the gunfight?

Virgil Earp was Tombstone's city marshal and a deputy US marshal; he was maimed in a December 1881 ambush, and Morgan's murder followed.

Before becoming a gambler and gunman, Doc Holliday earned a degree in what?

He set up a practice in Griffin, Georgia, but tuberculosis, the disease that had killed his mother, drove him west.

Doc Holliday died in his bed at a hotel in which Colorado spa town?

Doc Holliday died of tuberculosis at the Hotel Glenwood in Glenwood Springs on 8 November 1887, aged 36.

Whose 1896 fight against Bob Fitzsimmons did Wyatt Earp referee, calling a foul many thought faked?

Earp refereed the Fitzsimmons–Tom Sharkey bout in San Francisco on 2 December 1896, awarding Sharkey the fight on a disputed low-blow foul.

What is unusual about Wyatt Earp's record across all his gunfights?

His brothers and his friend Doc Holliday were all hit; Wyatt walked away untouched every time.

Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead in 1876 while playing poker in which town?

Hickok was shot from behind by Jack McCall at Nuttal & Mann's saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, on 2 August 1876.

The 'dead man's hand' Hickok supposedly held when he died is traditionally what?

The dead man's hand is two black aces and two black eights; the link to Hickok was popularised by Frank Wilstach's 1926 biography.

What did Davis Tutt take from Hickok, sparking their 1865 Springfield duel?

Tutt seized Hickok's gold pocket watch over a gambling debt and wore it in public; their 21 July 1865 town-square shootout followed.

Which Kansas cattle town made Wild Bill Hickok its marshal in 1871?

Mayor Joseph McCoy, who had built Abilene into the first great railhead for Texas cattle, hired him.

Who shot Jesse James in the back of the head in 1882?

Robert Ford, a new recruit angling for the reward, shot James at his St. Joseph home on 3 April 1882 and was branded 'the dirty little coward'.

The James-Younger Gang fell apart after a botched 1876 bank raid in which Minnesota town?

At Northfield on 7 September 1876, townspeople shot back at the gang; the Younger brothers were captured two weeks later near Madelia.

Jesse and Frank James learned guerrilla warfare riding with which Confederate bushwhacker leaders?

Frank James rode with William Quantrill and both brothers with 'Bloody Bill' Anderson, whose men carried out the 1864 Centralia Massacre.

The Pony Express carried mail between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento in about how many days?

Riders relayed mail the roughly 1,900 miles from St. Joseph to Sacramento in about 10 days, from April 1860 to October 1861.

What killed the Pony Express after just 18 months?

The transcontinental telegraph was completed on 24 October 1861, and the money-losing Pony Express shut down two days later.

Buffalo Bill Cody launched his famous Wild West show in which year?

Buffalo Bill's Wild West opened in Omaha, Nebraska in May 1883; from 1887 it toured Europe, where Queen Victoria saw it in her Jubilee year.

Cody won the exclusive right to the name 'Buffalo Bill' in an eight-hour shooting match against whom?

Cody killed 68 buffalo to Comstock's 48, using a Springfield rifle he named Lucretia Borgia.

Annie Oakley's real first name was what?

Born Phoebe Ann Mosey in Ohio, she was shooting game to feed her family before she was ten.

Sitting Bull, her fellow performer, gave five-foot-tall Annie Oakley which nickname?

Sitting Bull called her Watanya Cicilla, rendered 'Little Sure Shot' on the show's posters, after watching her shoot in 1884.

Calamity Jane's real name was Martha Jane what?

She was born in Princeton, Missouri in 1852 and, at her dying request, was buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery next to Wild Bill Hickok.

Butch Cassidy's real name was what?

Born Robert LeRoy Parker in Utah in 1866, he took 'Butch' from a stint as a butcher in Rock Springs, Wyoming and 'Cassidy' from mentor Mike Cassidy.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are believed to have died in a 1908 shootout in which country?

The pair are believed to have died at San Vicente, Bolivia in November 1908 after a payroll robbery; they had first settled in Argentina with Etta Place.

The Sundance Kid took his nickname from a town in which state, where he served 18 months?

He was captured in Miles City, Montana, but the town of Sundance is in Wyoming's northeast corner.

The Colt Single Action Army revolver, adopted by the U.S. Army in 1873, is famous under what nickname?

The Colt Single Action Army of 1873 became known as the Peacemaker, the classic .45 six-shooter of the frontier.

Chisholm Trail herds crossed which river out of Texas into Indian Territory?

Herds forded the Red River at Red River Station, Texas, then crossed Indian Territory to railheads such as Abilene on the Kansas Pacific.

Jesse Chisholm, namesake of the cattle trail, was of Scottish and which Native American descent?

Jesse Chisholm, son of a Scottish father and a Cherokee mother, was a trader whose 1864–65 wagon route into Indian Territory the cattle drives later followed.

The Black Hills gold camp sat on Lakota land guaranteed by an 1868 treaty signed where?

The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie reserved the Black Hills for the Lakota; Custer's 1874 expedition announced gold there and the rush overran it.

Dodge City, Kansas was staked out in 1872 on which line of longitude?

Dodge City lies on the 100th meridian, the western boundary of the Fort Dodge military reservation; it first traded in buffalo hides and bones.

Which Kansas town had the first frontier 'Boot Hill' cemetery, before Dodge City?

Hays City's Boot Hill, in use from 1867, predates Dodge City's; the name evoked men who 'died with their boots on'.

Custer's defeat at the Little Bighorn in 1876 is known to the Lakota as the Battle of what?

The Lakota call it the Battle of the Greasy Grass, after their name for the Little Bighorn River; Crow scouts, old Lakota rivals, rode with Custer.

Comanche, the only documented survivor from Custer's immediate command at Little Bighorn, was what?

Comanche was Captain Myles Keogh's horse; found badly wounded on the field, he was nursed back to health and became the 7th Cavalry's mascot.

Before the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull had a vision of soldiers falling into camp 'as thick as' what?

At a June 1876 Sun Dance, Sitting Bull saw soldiers falling upside down into camp 'like grasshoppers', read as a promise of victory.

Sitting Bull was killed in 1890 by Indian agency police on which reservation?

Sitting Bull was shot by Indian agency police at his Grand River cabin on the Standing Rock Reservation on 15 December 1890, amid the Ghost Dance scare.

Geronimo died in 1909 as a prisoner of war at which Army post?

Geronimo died of pneumonia on 17 February 1909 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, four years after riding in Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade.

Although never a chief, Geronimo held what role among his Apache band?

Geronimo was a shaman, or medicine man, credited with spiritual powers; his gift for leading raids drew parties of 30 to 50 warriors to follow him.

Under the 1862 Homestead Act, how long did settlers have to live on the land to gain title?

Homesteaders had to live on and improve their 160 acres for five years to gain title; about 1.6 million homesteads, a tenth of US land, were granted.

Homesteading ended in the lower 48 states in 1976, but continued until 1986 in which state?

The 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act repealed the Homestead Act but allowed claims in Alaska for ten more years, until 1986.

Roughly how many arrests is pioneering Black deputy US marshal Bass Reeves credited with?

Bass Reeves is credited with more than 3,000 arrests across 32 years in Indian Territory, and once had to arrest his own son for murder.

Which fictional hero has been linked to Bass Reeves as a possible real-life inspiration?

Historian Art T. Burton argued Bass Reeves may have inspired the Lone Ranger, citing his Native American posse partners and souvenir silver dollars.

Stagecoach robber Black Bart was famous for leaving what at two of his crime scenes?

Charles Boles, 'Black Bart', left taunting poems signed 'the PO8' at two of his 28 Wells Fargo coach robberies, and never fired his shotgun.

What clue finally led detectives to Black Bart?

Detective Harry Morse visited every laundry in San Francisco to trace the mark F.X.O.7.

The Dalton Gang was wiped out in 1892 trying to rob two banks at once in which Kansas town?

At Coffeyville on 5 October 1892 townsmen killed four gang members; only Emmett Dalton survived, served 14 years, and later sold real estate in Los Angeles.

After his lawman days, Bat Masterson spent his last two decades in New York City working as what?

Bat Masterson became a sportswriter and boxing columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph, dying at his desk there in October 1921.

Bat Masterson was born in which country?

Bat Masterson was born in Henryville, Quebec, Canada in 1853 to an Irish family and baptized Bartholomew, before drifting to the plains as a buffalo hunter.

Belle Starr, the 'Bandit Queen', was convicted in 1883 of what crime?

Belle and Sam Starr were convicted of horse theft by Judge Isaac Parker in 1883 and jailed in Detroit; she was shot dead, unsolved, in 1889.

Joseph Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois patented the modern form of which frontier-changing product in 1874?

Glidden's 1874 patent for barbed wire fenced the open range; Texas fence-cutting wars followed until the state made cutting a felony in 1884.

Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received their 1873 patent for reinforcing work pants with what?

The 1873 patent covered copper rivets at the stress points of work pants; Davis, a Reno tailor, could not afford the fee and partnered with Strauss.

Henry Wells and William Fargo founded Wells Fargo in 1852 to serve which booming market?

Wells Fargo opened in San Francisco in 1852 to carry gold and express for gold-rush California after their American Express board declined the venture.

The Pinkerton detective agency's open-eye logo came with which slogan?

Pinkerton's open-eye logo and 'We Never Sleep' motto gave us 'private eye'; agent Kate Warne helped smuggle Lincoln through Baltimore in 1861.

The English word 'cowboy' was first used in print in 1725 by which writer?

Jonathan Swift used 'cow-boy' in 1725 for a lad who tended cows; the American cowboy's skills came instead from Mexican herders.

In trail-drive slang, what was a 'remuda'?

A remuda, from the Spanish for 'exchange', was the herd of spare saddle horses a trail crew drove along, each cowboy using several mounts.

The Texas Rangers were founded in 1823 by which colonizer's call to arms?

Stephen F. Austin called for ten men to 'act as rangers' in 1823; the force was formally organised in 1835 and later produced Frank Hamer, who hunted Bonnie and Clyde.

Gunfighter John Wesley Hardin claimed to have killed how many men?

Hardin claimed 42 killings, though newspapers credited him with 27; he studied law in prison and was shot dead in an El Paso saloon in 1895.

The first transcontinental railroad was completed with a ceremonial spike at which Utah site?

At Promontory Summit on 10 May 1869, Central Pacific president Leland Stanford tapped in the gold 'Last Spike' with a silver hammer.

Ed Schieffelin named his 1877 Arizona silver claim after a warning that the only rock he'd find would be what?

A soldier at Camp Huachuca warned Schieffelin he would find only his own tombstone; he named his claim Tombstone, and the district yielded tens of millions in silver.

John Butterfield's 1858 stage service ran from St. Louis to San Francisco in how many days?

Butterfield's first westbound coach reached San Francisco in just under 24 days in October 1858; the mail contract allowed 25.

Roughly how many settlers lined up for the Oklahoma Land Run on April 22, 1889?

An estimated 50,000 people raced for 2 million acres of the Unassigned Lands at noon on 22 April 1889, at the sound of army guns and bugles.

In 1877 Chief Joseph led the Nez Perce on a fighting retreat of roughly how many miles?

The Nez Perce covered roughly 1,200 miles before surrendering at Bear Paw, Montana, about 40 miles short of the Canadian border, in October 1877.

Nicodemus, an all-black town founded in 1877 and linked with the Exodusters, is in which state?

Nicodemus, in Graham County, Kansas, was founded in 1877 by Black settlers from Kentucky; the larger Exoduster migration to Kansas followed in 1879.

Which Montana vigilante group of cattlemen killed up to 20 rustlers and squatters in 1884 alone?

Stuart's Stranglers, led by rancher Granville Stuart, hanged or shot suspected rustlers along the Musselshell and Missouri rivers in 1884.

The last stagecoach robbery in the frontier West took place in December of which year, in Nevada?

The Jarbidge, Nevada stage robbery of 5 December 1916, in which driver Fred Searcy was killed, is counted as the West's last stagecoach hold-up.

The first Beadle dime novel, from 1860, was Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the what?

Ann S. Stephens's Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter launched Beadle's Dime Novels in June 1860 and sold around 65,000 copies.