I was watching the History Channel show about the famous “james Gang” and the attempted robbery of a bank in Northfiled, Minn., in 1876. I get the feeling that the lawlessness associated with the West was a function of the disorganiation of the west in the period 1865-1910 or so. My question, when did all the gunplay, bank robberies, cease? Did the whole thing end as soonas the territories became states? The duo of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are said (by many) to represent the last of the bad men. So what caused the West to quiet down? And, as states got better a policing themselves, did the amount of such crime drop greatly?
Telephones, radio, airplanes & autos changed the West.
The old outlaw days were over, once you could get chased by a car, or a plane.
Safes improved, too. Especially with time locks.
World War One sent a generation of young men out to war, many of whom had a bellyfull of bloodletting before they got home. If they got home.
The gangsters of the 1920s were an echo of the Old West, in a way.
But political reform, & increasing professionalized law enforcement, silenced the echo.
According to a friend of mine, the old cowboys in the east became gangsters. The rep of cowboys wasn’t reformed until the movies were invented.
I suspect (don’t really know) that the period presented in The Wild Bunch would be about the borderline between the “old west” and whatever has come afterwards. That would be in the early decades of the 20th century. It’s more than just fanciful screenwriting I think that the plot and characters in Sunset could be based to some degree on reality.
By the time “The Virginian” was written, in 1902, the “Wild West” was already considered a thing of the past.
Here’s the foreword of that book:
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=38816&pageno=6
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=38816&pageno=7
The census of 1890 found that settlements has so pervaded the West that there was no longer a line anywhere that could be called “the frontier.” This led Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 to write an article, presented at the Chicago World’s Fair, symbolically, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.”
Modern historians have modified this thesis to state that in fact the growth of settlements produced civilization, in the same sense that cities are the basis for the word and the meaning of civilization. Social order, law, “family values,” education, all were created in even tiny outposts in former frontier areas.
Individual lawbreaking continued, of course, as it would everywhere in every social setting. But the “Wild” West could not exist in an environment where it went against every social norm. Many historians argue that the whole notion of a “Wild” West is wildly overblown, with isolated incidents mythologized and taken as the norm instead of exceptions that were quickly contained. There were far fewer murders and gun killings that popular culture would have you believe, no stand-off gun battles in the streets, no roving fast guns looking to make a rep, fewer bank robbers with much shorter careers, etc. Outlaws existed, but more injustices can probably be traced to corrupt town leaders and judges, who are far less colorful. The Johnson County War was real but short ranged (pardon the pun) and further violence was quickly quashed by law.
So the answer to the OP is that there was never the amount of violence that popular culture associated with the west, and outbreaks of violence were quickly controlled by the public. The West was and is a huge area, and the mythological west covers decades, so if you want to find violence its trivial to do so. But it’s unlikely that the “Wild” West was ever a widespread reality. So there’s no need for a explanation for a quick end to the wildness. It’s myth squared.
I’ve always heard 1900, give or take a few, as the year when the “frontier” or “wild west” ended, as far as such a nebulous development can be said to have had a definite date. I agree that the wider use of cars and airplanes, together with bigger and better organized law enforcement agencies probably played a major role. Add to that the movement toward greater public enforcement of morality, as alcohol prohibition swept the country (many places had local prohibition laws well before the national law), and as gambling was outlawed everywhere. Most people do not seem to be aware that modern Las Vegas started when gambling was relegalized in Nevada, in 1931. It hasn’t always been allowed there.
For a fictional take on this interesting transitional period, I always recommend the John Wayne movie The Shootist, where he plays a seventyish gunslinger with a lot of stories, who has one more hit to make. The story takes place in Nevada, in 1901, and exhibits a lot of interesting contrasts that were typical of the time. For instance:
[ul]
[li]Most people get around either on foot, or by use of horses, but a couple of people in the town own cars.[/li]
[li]They have electricity–there are a few scenes where somebody uses a lightswitch. Also, in the saloon where John Wayne is supposed to do the deed, we see the owner turning on the electric overhead fans with a long pole, pressing a button in the center of the fan.[/li]
[li]In accordance with the film being a sort-of-post-Western, most of the men wear big cowboy-style hats typical of the time and place, but Ron Howard’s character prefers a Gatsby-style cap which must have then just been coming into fashion.[/li]
[li]As Wayne’s character is dying of cancer and the doctor prescribes laudanum (opium tincture) for the pain. In later times, of course, pills or some sort of injection would be used. [/li][/ul]
One of my grandmothers was 13 in 1901. It always amazes me to think what person alive at that time, old enough to be aware but not too old, saw over a normal lifespan.
Anybody know when the fedral Homestead Act expired? i’ve heard historians date the end of the frontier to this date. I also think that a lot of the violence was overstated-although in the mining towns , you probably had lots of cash 9from miners payrolls0, and few security measures in the banks. Outfits like Wells fargo got started largey by shipping cash around-an obvious attraction for robbers. I once visited Central city (Colorado) a few years ago-you really get a flavor for the old West when you walk those streets. It was a magical time…buit as has been noted, it lasted for only about 35 years.
Where did that come from? The vast majority of cowboys were (and still are) guys who work cattle for a living. They weren’t (and aren’t) thieves, gangsters, or gunfighters.
That’s pretty close. I think most people now relate the term “wild west” to stories (be they books, movies, or TV shows) set in western North America (i.e., the U.S. west of the Mississippi, Mexico, western Canada, the Yukon, and Alaska) in the period roughly between the end of the War of 1812 to the early 1900’s. The one notable feature that all tales of the “wild west” have is the extensive use of horses. Automobiles may be featured in stories set around the turn of the century but they are only there to signify that the period of the “wild west” is coming to an end.
It ended in 1917 I have studied a lot about the west, and the last bank robbery/raid was in 1917. This year was also the year of the last cattle drive. Also because of WW1, most of the men in the west got drafted which led to the end of western civilization.
The Wild West was a construction of dime novels and Hollywood. The 1902 novel, The Virginian is probably the source of most of the myth, and that was written by Owen Wister, an Easterner (and Harvard graduate*) who visited the West several times while on vacation
It’s not that there wasn’t crime or outlaws, but they were few and most settlers were able to maintain law and order as well as in any other historical period. Gunfights were rare (the OK Corral is so well remembered because it was one of the few),** and many towns banned guns in the city limits (not to prevent gunfights, but because people would start shooting up the town to celebrate).
The frontier did end, but the Wild West is dead these days, with superheros and space opera taking its place in film.
*And when you call him that – smile. 
**I understand one railroad town used to stage them as real for tourists as their train made a stop.
As noted above, 1890 is the commonly-accepted date.
Buffalo Bill Cody deserves a fair bit of credit for the myths, as well.
The final action at Wounded Knee commonly represents the end of the Frontier Era, though most people as the time wouldn’t have recognised it as such.
Tom Horn was hanged in 1903. So, for where that incident happened, the Wild West was over.
I’m sorry but I must disagree with you, wounded knee would not be the end because that would mean the raids of butch Cassidy and the sundance kid was not part of the west. Butch Cassidy’s career was mostly after wounded knee.
There is no single answer for this because the “Wild West” as an idea has been thoroughly overhyped. Most people, like the SASS club, peg it around 1899. Makes as much sense as any other answer.
The reality is that the Wild West wasn’t ever as “Wild” as Hollywood makes it out to be. Places like Tombstone and Deadwood are famous for a few notable events that were later blown out of proportion by cowboys looking to make a buck in their old age. By 1880, most of the West was “settled.”
Okay, then maybe the better question is: When did the “Wild West” begin?
That is, when did the dime novels and Hollywood begin to build the hype and mythology of the Wild West, to the point where it became the widely-known and commonly accepted imagery of life in the Old West?
Clearly this got a good start in the later days of some of those old gunslingers themselves, e.g., Buffalo Bill Code (already mentioned above) who put together the Wild West Show, and other shows like that of the era, which apparently became wildly popular. Those shows even traveled across the Pond to England and elsewhere in Europe.
I read it, of a sorts, in a book called “The Bad Ones”, or some such. Recall horses, in town, were not unheard of in the 20s. IIRC, no wait, I can’t remember his name…but, if I recall correctly, Harvey Bailey used to be part of a gang that had just transitioned from horses to autos. Could be (probably am) confused. But-the point is, around 1915-27 (I’m away from my sources) the horse was still used by a major crook, and, the famous gangsters (B&C, Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, etc…) were just a bunch of hillbillies/cowboys who got cars.
Not unreasonable to make the tie in.