How the true "Old West Was"
- Thread starter Airpark
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Interesting, thanks for posting the link.
The pool
The pool is pretty impressive even for today.
The pool is pretty impressive even for today.
Thanks. I enjoyed seeing the pictures. Larry
wow that was a great walk back in time thanks
jlrhiner
US Veteran
A great time capsule. (but I learned a new phrase, Euro-American)
Comrad
Member
I always wondered what ox week at Sturgis looked like before bikes were invented.
Peter M. Eick
Member
I note that things look a lot more "clean" then I would have expected. Notice the lack of trash in the towns and lack of junk in the open. Interesting.
george minze
Member
That was a treat....Thanks for posting....Darn if they didn't dress better in those days than they do now...Notice the boots, seems like there is no right and left boots.....I have heard somewhere that that was common back in the old days......A old timer boot maker that had worked for Lucchese Boot Co. told me that in the time of the civil War boots were made the same and many of those in the know would put the boots on and then fill them with water and wear them dry...Or so he was told by older than him...old timers.....I'm old but sure not that old...Quality of photo's surprised me.....
Thanks for posting that.
Went back to the source and found a photo of my great-grandfather that the family never knew existed.
Went back to the source and found a photo of my great-grandfather that the family never knew existed.
goldenlight
Member
It wasn't a throw away society, back then. If you bought flour, you brought a cloth bag with you to bring it home in. Almost nothing was 'disposable', back then.
If you bought a lot of goods, it might be packed in a wooden box, which would be used until it literally fell apart, and couldn't be repaired, and then burned as kindling.
Cardboard boxes weren't in common use until after the turn of the century.
Manufactured goods, including paper, were quite expensive, and most manufactured items had to hauled from the industrialized East.
The railroad were an enormous improvement over hauling freight in wagons, but it still cost money to haul goods 1000 miles to the Black Hills.
Also, having a photographer in town taking pictures of outdoor scenes was a BIG DEAL, and if there was any trash around, it got taken care of before the photograph(s) were taken, I'm sure.
Great set of images, OP. I just love old photographs, especially when there is an explanation for each one, telling me what I'm really looking at. Many thanks for the link.
One thing that has always struck me when I see old photographs of Native Americans, is how dark their skin was, compared to now.
I don't know how much was due to an outdoor lifestyle, but it is remarkable, compared to Native Americans today.
feralmerril
Absent Comrade
Yesterday Theresa and I took a ride on our RZR far out in the boonies. We found a old homestead in a beautiful remote area. It was and is about 70 miles from the nearest town and has mountain ranges in between. Its near the utah/nevada border 70 miles straight west of beaver utah. Its in a wild horse refuge area north of Indian Peak.
Mackleprang Homestead, UT
I goggled it. Its a project getting to it on a ATV much less riding a horse 80 miles to get your supplys! When I find places like these it sure makes you respect how tough those old timers had to be.
http://travelingluck.com/North America/United States/Utah/_5542666_Mackleprang Homestead.html
Mackleprang Homestead, UT
I goggled it. Its a project getting to it on a ATV much less riding a horse 80 miles to get your supplys! When I find places like these it sure makes you respect how tough those old timers had to be.
http://travelingluck.com/North America/United States/Utah/_5542666_Mackleprang Homestead.html
Paraphrasing Steve McQueen in "Tom Horn" as he spoke to Linda Evans: "Well, if you knew how raggedy-*** the Old West really was, you wouldn't think so much of it."
I read and study a lot about the west. So much has been written about the subject, but little has been written as it happened. These are the books I read and the photo's I look at. The extra passengers atop and on the tailboard of the stage is apparently real. An excellent book named "Colorado a Summer Trip" written by Bayard Taylor in 1866 describes just such events. This book is an excellent read and describes what it was like for a traveling man the year after the Civil War and 10 years before Colorado became a state. "A Tough Trip Through Paradise" written by Andrew Garcia and the "Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard" are also excellent reads about everyday life in the west, written first hand as they happened.
Ranger514
Member
Thanks for sharing these old photos. When I was a boy in the early 1960s, my father, a history teacher, recorded the recollections of the children of some of the white settlers and miners of that era. He took me on some of his trips up to Deadwood and Lead for those interviews. His tapes were reviewed and archived at the University of South Dakota. I wish I'd paid closer attention to some of the stories told, but I was just a little kid not much interested in history at the time. These photos reminded me that I need to track down those old tapes he made.
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