My understanding is that there was a very high rate of drunken young men in saloons killing one another over real or imagined slights, but that other than that, violent crime was comparatively low.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
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Very high. And it wasn’t nearly always drunken fighting. Some was basically low level civil conflict: racial, rancher v farmer, Natives living within white society but still pursuing old tribal grudges, etc.
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This was touched on the thread about “The Alienist”. In general yes, apparently, murders were usually reported. Also note in the example given earlier, in AZ ca. 1870 a large proportion of the murders there were by Natives, though presumably a lot of those were against other Natives. Enough are in the records to give a murder rate around 100 times higher than the US national rate now (though that example is IIRC the highest in the book mentioned). Nobody can prove now what exact % were reported but relatively a lot obviously were relative to the population, and no reason to think Eastern rates were so much lower because lots more murders went unreported in East than West.
Tell me about it. My debate team has come to know that quote quite well over the years. 
Tombstone had a law about giving up your guns when you entered town. Not that it worked, according to what happened at the OK Corral.
And how do they guzzle glass upon glass of it with no obvious affects? I’d be on my ass after three shots.
Same goes for Boot hill in Tombstone. You’d have better luck digging up a WWll submarine when your metal dector goes off than you would finding a body under those markers. Or at least the same body that actually matches the name.
Yup. Everyone shot in the movies died instantly. Sure.
It took hours, days, weeks and even months for them to die from their wounds.
Tombstone Marshal Fred White lingered for two days before he succumed to Curly Bill Brocius’ gun shot. Tom McLaury lingered for hours, cursing the Earps before he died.
More facts: The gunfight didn’t take place at the O.K. Corral, but on the corners of Fremont and 3rd streets, a whole block away.
Movies usuall portray a twenty minute gunfight in a wide open lot. The shooting lasted thirty seconds and the lot was no bigger than your living room.
Marshal Fred White is always portrayed as an older man in the movies. He was 31 when he was killed. Same goes for the old actors who played John Tunstall in Billy the Kid movies. He was only 24 when he was killed.
One of the amusing things about Western movies, is that with rare exception, you can always tell who is going to lose the gunfight; It’s the one that draws first.
If it’s a fistfight, its the person who loses his hat first.
As for tourism, Deadwood South Dakota really pushes this with the whole town practically centered around it from the street performers doing shows, the old cemetery, to all the modern shops, bars, and casinos. One of the best performers is “Calamity Jane”. She really does a great portrayal.
In comparison Dodge City Kansas isnt even worth the trip. The “old west” area is basically a strip mall with some cool statues but its so loud with all the cars whizzing by.
We hope you can see the moron when you look around.
Well, as Little Bill says in Unforgiven: if you draw too fast, you’re hurrying and you’ll miss.
My favorite old west fable: the One Gold Coin.
A trail-weary cowboy walks into a saloon. “Gimmie a bottle of whiskey, some oats for my horse, a room for the night, a shave, a bath, a woman, some new clothes, something to eat…” And TING, he throws one gold coin onto the bar. Even in the old west, stuff wasn’t that cheap. Deadwood usually got the money stuff right.
My first exposure to the gunfight at the OK corral was in the original series Star Trek episode, “Specter of the Gun”. So, now, fifty years later, I still think of the Erps as the villains of the story.
Oh gosh darn, yes, $5 would pay for all that stuff, and more. If you are going for the cheap end. Now a $20 GP would be luxurious.
Bottle of cheap booze was 25cents.
That’s true now and was even then. I can’t remember which one, but a mining town in California had one young fellow kill another in a drunken brawl. He was arrested, tried, found guilty, and hung in a span of about three days. The next day a reporter from New York arrived and was keenly disappointed he’d missed his story. The town obligingly dug up the miscreant and hung him over again.
Forgive me, but until a real historian convinces me I’m wrong, I’m not sure that the best source of actual working farmhand’s views on what hats were cool and uncool (and the consequences thereof) is really a New York-born-and-raised, Harvard-educated, writer/lawyer/politician who made a career out of portraying himself to Easteners as El Muy Macho.
Events where two men faced off in the street to duel with pistols were extraordinarily rare, but we can’t say they never happened. The Dave Tufts - Wild Bill Hickok shootout was documented as well as the Luke Short - Jim Courtright duel.
But sure, 99.99% of the shootout action we see portrayed on the big and little screen is pure Hollywood BS. The gunfight at the OK Corral has been portrayed as a sort of protracted shootout with lots of reloading and ‘cover me while I make for that wagon’ moments, but in reality the events unfolded at rather close range in under 30 seconds. But that would hardly sate the public’s demand for movie action.
If there’s a mirror around, easily!
The quote is usually reserved for students who get “creative” with their between-rounds entertainment.
You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!