Wild West Stories That Sound Made Up, But Aren’t
An outlaw who escaped the gallows by visiting the outhouse? It might sound like a tall tale, but this and other weird Wild West stories are true. Western movies get certain things wrong about the Old West, and make some funny Wild West crimes sound like Hollywood inventions. But Wild Bill Hickok really did shoot a man for insulting his nose.
Why was Jesse James called Dingus? How did Sitting Bull and Annie Oakley become friends? These weird Wild West facts make the West seem even wilder.
- Photo: Ben Wittick / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Before he became leader of the Apache, Geronimo didn't know how to use a rifle. So instead he used a daring method to go after his armed enemies.
Mexican soldiers had massacred Geronimo's wife and children, so he vowed revenge on the soldiers. One night, Geronimo heard the mountain spirits tell him, “You will never die in battle, nor... by gun. I will guide your arrows.”
Later, in a fight against Mexican soldiers, Geronimo refused to rain arrows down on the armed soldiers from a safe distance. Instead, he rushed the enemies, running in a zigzag pattern so they couldn't fire at him. When he got close enough, Geronimo went after the soldiers with a knife, took their rifles, and ran back to his fellow Apache. The pattern repeated so many times that Mexican soldiers started yelling "Geronimo!" when the Apache charged at them.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain22,632 VOTES
Wild West Saloons Sold Strychnine And Turpentine To Thirsty Cowboys
Cowboys, prospectors, and miners weren't too picky about their alcoholic beverages. At one saloon in the Sierra Nevada, saloons sold "Tarantula Juice," which contained strychnine.
And strychnine wasn't the only harmful ingredient in the drink. Tarantula Juice also contained wood grain alcohol distilled from turpentine.
What happened to men who ordered Tarantula Juice? The strychnine gave them a burst of energy, similar to the body's response to methamphetamine. But as drinkers processed the concoction, their skin would begin to crawl as though tarantulas were running up and down their arms. That sensation was often followed by muscle spasms and lockjaw.
- Photo: C.E. Finn / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Smallpox was a serious disease in the Old West. But one Wild West legend survived smallpox and used her immunity to the disease to care for others.
As a child, Calamity Jane came down with smallpox and barely survived. Years later, an outbreak struck Deadwood. Although she had no training as a nurse, Calamity Jane took care of eight sick miners. An eyewitness even declared Jane was “a perfect angel sent from heaven when any of the boys was sick.”
And Deadwood wasn't the best place to catch smallpox. Sick people were quarantined in tents without access to running water. Instead of abandoning the sick, Calamity Jane treated them with herbs and Epsom salt. She even pulled a gun to make sure the men had groceries and water. Five of Jane's patients survived, and the town's doctors declared that without Calamity Jane's nursing, all eight men would have perished.
- Photo: Baker's Art Gallery / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain43,137 VOTES
Chief Sitting Bull Sent $65 And A Messenger To Annie Oakley’s Hotel Room To Get Her Autograph
Chief Sitting Bull was the leader of the Lakota who helped defeat Gen. George Custer at Little Bighorn. But even Sitting Bull was impressed with Annie Oakley's shooting.
In 1884, Sitting Bull watched Oakley perform in Minnesota. After seeing the show, the chief sent $65 to Oakley's hotel room, hoping for a signed photograph of the sharpshooter.
But Oakley rejected the offer. Instead, she asked Sitting Bull to meet with her. Oakley later recalled, “The old man was so pleased with me, he insisted upon adopting me, and I was then and there christened ‘Watanya Cicilla,’ or ‘Little Sure Shot.’”
Later, Sitting Bull and Annie Oakley got to know each other better as part of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show. “He is a dear, faithful, old friend, and I’ve great respect and affection for him,” Oakley wrote.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain52,269 VOTES
A Train Company Slammed Two Locomotives Together As A Marketing Stunt
In the 1890s, William Crush had an idea. He worked for a railroad and wanted to entertain people by driving two locomotives into each other.
In the pop-up town of "Crush," Texas, on September 15, 1896, his plan became a reality when 40,000 spectators flooded the area, temporarily making it the state's second-biggest city. The Galveston Daily News reported, "Men, women and children, lawyers, doctors, merchants, farmers, artisans, clerks, representing every class and every grade of society, were scattered around over the hillsides, or clustered around the lunch stands, discussing with eager anticipation the exciting event that they had come so far to see."
The trains started just after 5 pm. The conductors started both trains before leaping to safety. The engines rushed toward each other, traveling at 50 mph. And then they slammed into each other.
“A... sound of timbers rent and torn, and then a shower of splinters," reported one witness. "There was just a swift instant of silence, and then, as if controlled by a single impulse, both boilers exploded simultaneously and the air was filled with flying missiles of iron and steel varying in size from a postage stamp to half a driving wheel, falling indiscriminately on the just and unjust, the rich and the poor, the great and the small.”
Two people perished and many other spectators were hurt as detritus flew from the collision. A photographer who snapped pictures even lost an eye.
As for the event's organizer, the railroad company fired him. But as publicity poured in from the event, which made headlines around the world, the company rehired him.
- Photo: Courier Litho. Co. / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Buffalo Bill Cody made the Wild West into a show. And in 1887, Buffalo Bill took the Wild West on tour, traveling all the way to London to perform at Queen Victoria's jubilee.
He brought along more than 200 people plus "180 horses, 18 buffalo, 10 elk, five Texas steers, four donkeys, and two deer."
Once in Great Britain, the show nearly caused a diplomatic incident when Annie Oakley reached out to shake hands with the Prince of Wales. But the future King Edward VII was so charmed by the show that he encouraged Queen Victoria to come in person to see it. Crowds of 30,000 came to the performances, eager to see the Wild West up close.
Buffalo Bill Cody was a forward-thinking showman. When asked whether he supported voting rights for women, Cody said, “Set that down in great big black type that Buffalo Bill favors woman suffrage," adding, "These fellows who prate about the women taking their places make me laugh... If a woman can do the same work that a man can do and do it just as well, she should have the same pay.”
- Photo: Ben Wittick / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Billy the Kid was wanted in 1881 for shooting a sheriff in Nebraska and another man in a New Mexico saloon. Running from a $500 bounty on his head, Billy was eventually trapped and put on trial.
The trial didn't go Billy's way. The judge found Billy guilty, saying the outlaw would "hang until he was dead, dead, dead." Billy responded, "You can go to hell, hell, hell."
His date with the gallows set, Billy the Kid pulled off a daring escape. On April 28, 1881, he asked the deputy guarding his jail cell to take him to the outhouse. Once free from the cell, the outlaw pulled off his handcuffs, took the deputy's firearm, and did away with the deputy. Knowing the sheriff would be after him, Billy hid on the roof of the courthouse. When the sheriff ran up, Billy yelled, "Look up, old boy, and see what you get." Then he fired on the sheriff.
His escape nearly complete, Billy the Kid took a horse and hit the road.
- Photo: Sidney Herbert / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain81,777 VOTES
The Army Imported Camels To Texas, Where They Terrorized Settlers Across The West
In 1855, the US Army decided to import camels to Texas. The wide-open spaces of the West were well-suited for camels, so the government bought 75 camels from the Middle East.
The camels worked at Camp Verde, where they made supply runs to San Antonio. But a few years later, the Civil War disrupted the camels' service when a government official decided to auction off the animals. The new owner sent some camels to Nevada and California. Other camels were simply set free.
At first, camel sightings were rare. But in the 1880s, Arizona Territory faced a terrible menace known as the Red Ghost. The Red Ghost trampled one woman. Another story claimed the monster ate a grizzly bear. When miners spotted the Red Ghost and fired at it, a human skull fell from the creature's back.
After years of terrorizing Arizona, the Red Ghost was finally taken out. The menace was actually a feral camel. Camel sightings in the West continued into the 20th century.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain91,593 VOTES
The legend of Wild Bill Hickok started in 1861. That year, Hickok worked for the Pony Express in Nebraska. During a confrontation with a customer, Hickok fired at the man. It was the famous lawman's first slaying.
What drove Hickok? The customer called Hickok "Duck Bill," a taunt about Hickok's pointy nose.
The shooting claimed the lives of three men and put Hickok on trial. But the court acquitted Hickok, who went on to fight another day. According to other stories about the Old West legend, Hickok wrestled a bear and fired at the center of the letter "O" on a poster from 50 yards away six times in a row. With a reputation like that, few men wanted to get into a confrontation with Wild Bill Hickok.
- Photo: Daniel Hass / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0101,456 VOTES
Everyone feared Jesse James, the man who raided trains, stagecoaches, and banks. According to a popular song, James was "bold and bad and brave." But James had an unusual nickname: Dingus.
The nickname came from the outlaw's teenage years. In June 1864, James swiped a saddle from a farmer who fired at him. Later that same month, as he was still recovering, Jesse accidentally blew off his own finger while cleaning a revolver.
“O, ding it! Ding it! How it hurts!” James hollered. His family gave Jesse the nickname "Dingus" in response.
- Photo: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain111,263 VOTES
Seth Bullock And Al Swearengen From HBO’s ‘Deadwood’ Were Real People
Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen weren't just enemies on the HBO show Deadwood. They were both real people in the gold mining town.
Seth Bullock lived in Canada, Michigan, and Montana before moving to Deadwood. The former lawman set up a hardware store in the boomtown, welcoming new customers with an auction on chamber pots. For two decades, Bullock tried to maintain order in the city.
Al Swearengen was also a real person - and a twin. Swearengen moved to Deadwood in 1876 to set up a "dance hall" called the Gem Variety Theater. Spectators piled into the saloon to watch fights. The Gem brought in as much as $10,000 a night - a fortune in the late 19th century.
But did the real Bullock and Swearengen clash? In reality, the two divided the town down Main Street. People on Swearengen's side, known as the "Badlands," left the rest of the town alone.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain121,270 VOTES
Medicine Women Like Dr. Quinn Really Were Part Of The Old West
Dr. Michaela Quinn might be fictional, but women doctors cared for patients across the Western frontier. With doctors in high demand, women were able to break into the competitive medical field in the Old West.
Bethenia Owens-Adair, for example, attended medical school in Michigan in the 1870s before moving to Oregon, where she hiked overgrown trails and waded through floods to reach patients.
Mary Purvine also moved West to work as a doctor. After growing up in New England, where a woman doctor cared for her mother's broken arm, Purvine enrolled in medical school at Willamette University. When she braved a snowstorm and a flooded river to deliver a baby, the parents named the child after Purvine.
The baby "was cross-eyed and had a mean disposition,” Purvine recalled, “and she wasn’t paid for until after I was married, when we had installments consisting of a bushel of tomatoes weekly. No wonder I don’t care for sliced tomatoes.”
