the american wild west has long been romanticized through film and popular culture cowboys outlaws and lawmen pushing through swinging saloon doors quick draw duels vast landscapes the promise of a better life all of this has been framed as the epitome of american individualism and adventure as the experiences that made americans and made america great but it really wasn't so great a lot of horrible things went on in the wild west things that were far from romantic welcome back to nutty history today we're exploring why you wouldn't survive life in the wild west viewer discretion is
advised for this video as some of this video may be offensive or disturbing we the makers of this video in no way support or condone the actions of the subjects featured [Music] just getting out west was a dangerous and deadly journey the main route out there for families traveling in covered wagons was the oregon trail the mormon pioneer trail and the california trail this network of trails has been called the nation's longest graveyard between the 1840s and 1860s some 400 000 people made the trek out west about one in ten survived it's estimated that along
the two thousand miles of trail ten to fifteen people bit the dust every mile and they succumbed to all kinds of horrible things the number one cause of death was disease there was often very little food and a lack of clean drinking water unsanitary conditions created petri dishes for disease cholera was the number one culprit it tore through the wagons of the wild west pioneers caused by bacteria in unclean water some people would contract the disease in the morning and be dead by noon the same day firearm wounds were another major cause of casualties along
the trail but not in the way you might think a lot of the pioneers were scared of native americans so they brought entire arsenals of weapons along with them on their journey however for the most part the native americans were pretty peaceful yeah there were some hostile tribes like the apache and cheyenne who were just trying to defend their home but for the most part the natives actually helped immigrants traveling westward they would often give them supplies and help them cross rivers firearm wounds were often inflicted by the pioneers on themselves cases of misfiring accidental
pop-offs and hunting accidents were by far the most common types of accidental deaths and if pioneers didn't immediately succumb to their wounds they were very likely to die due to infection shortly afterwards one of the most famous wild west towns during the 1800s was dodge city kansas it was so notorious for crime and lawlessness that the name became a common english idiom getting out of dodge meaning getting away from a bad situation was inspired by the desire of many to get out of dodge city kansas because it was too dangerous the city took on kind
of a mythical air over the years but how much is actually true and how much is over hype dodge city was founded in 1872 after serving as a fort since 1865 playing a role in several battles between native americans and the encroaching colonizers the town was first established as a major buffalo trading post by 1876 over 1.5 million buffalo hides had passed through the city however nearly all the buffalo on the american plains had been wiped out by the end of the 1870s and dodge city transitioned into a cattle town as cowboys would ride through
with their hoofed wares in the first year after dodge city was founded there was no sheriff or law enforcement of any kind the town was quickly connected to the atchison topeka and santa fe railroad and development exploded leading to all kinds of people flocking to the town some of them admittedly not so savory in character as a result there were series of duels and deaths that first year that quickly gave dodge city a bad reputation gunslingers would often die with their boots on and the first cemetery in the town was named boot hill cemetery the
media picked up on the initial lawlessness of dodge city and headlines from around the country began sensationalizing the violence and dodge city was soon a mythologized symbol of the lawless wild west justified or not there was one joke that began circulating and went like this a gentleman wishing to go from wichita to dodge city applied to a friend for a letter of introduction he was handed a double barrel shotgun and a cult revolver eventually the legendary lawman wyatt earth was brought in to restore order firearms were banned in certain parts of town and the newly
built jails were soon full dodge city became a relatively organized town but its reputation had already been cemented by the press and later hollywood [Music] saloons are a well-known staple of the wild west cowboys outlaws prospectors you name it anyone trying to make it out west would come through those swinging doors to throw back some drinks and maybe get into a drunken bar fight or two western saloons were inspired by mexican cantina south of the border one of the first popped up in wyoming in 1822 and they quickly spread two frontier towns throughout the wild
west saloons became the most popular attractions in town and they were really popular some towns had one saloon for every couple hundred people in 1883 livingston montana had a population of just 3 000 but they had 33 saloons leavenworth kansas had a population of 16 500 and they had 150 saloons due to a lack of resources and erratic supply chains saloon owners often had to get creative and stretch out their alcohol supplies many did this by watering down their bottles of booze with such unsavory and deadly ingredients like turpentine formaldehyde ammonia gunpowder and tobacco juice
gross [Music] the gold rush began in california in 1849 soon everyone and their uncle was looking to hit it big people flooded into the west hoping to make their fortunes in gold or silver or copper or zinc the non-native population of california exploded from around 800 to 300 000 in less than 10 years mines began popping up all over the place and they were far from safe the negative health effects of inhaling stone dust all day have been well documented tracheal cancer lung cancer tuberculosis and other respiratory problems took out thousands of minors more immediate
threats included mine fires collapses dynamite accidents and just about any other safety hazard you could think of in mining shafts that would certainly not have passed any of the most lenient health and safety inspections now to make matters worse once again the native population was destroyed by the gold rush california's indigenous population numbered some 300 000 before the rush of 1848. twenty years later one third of them had perished either because of mining and disease or else attacked by angry bigoted miners the world's oldest profession was certainly widely practiced in the wild west ladies of
the night worked at the many brothels attached to the many saloons in the many frontier towns that were popping up during the 1800s life of these ladies was harsh as you could imagine many were very young and very poor lots were immigrants trying to eke out a living in any way they could to make matters worse 50 to 90 percent of these women in the wild west had some sort of venereal disease talk about riding dirty workers did take precautions against unwanted diseases and pregnancies but those precautions were often toxic it was common to use
solutions with chemical ingredients like mercury or carbolic acid or cyanide to prevent disease and pregnancy but the dangers of using these toxic chemicals would often be more dangerous than the diseases they were thought to prevent [Music] now we can't talk about the horrors of the wild west without mentioning the annihilation of the native americans the numbers are unclear but estimates of the indigenous population throughout north america before the europeans came range from 5 to 15 million to even as high as 60 million by 1900 less than 300 000 remained and the native americans were not
simply small tribes wandering the countryside like many of us were taught in history class advanced civilizations like the mississippians built large complex cities complete with large pyramid-like mounds many of which were astronomically aligned but by the 1800s these civilizations were gone one of the main culprits was disease european diseases like smallpox wreaked havoc on indigenous populations some say the problem started when spanish explorers pushed towards the mississippi and then left leaving behind exotic diseases that the natives had no immunity to those who survived were met with fighting brought by the pioneers the seminal conflicts and
the battle of 1812 led to yet more fatalities starting in the mid-17th century boarding schools were set up across the country with the motto and the indian save the man the goal was to civilize the savages in one of the darkest examples of colonial american history hundreds of thousands of native americans were taken from their homes between the 17th and early 20th centuries and re-educated in the white european model the wild west was well wild it was dangerous life there was uncertain and perilous it was far from the romantic cowboy hollywood image that was cultivated
in the 1900s rugged american individualism manifest destiny adventure these ideas were manufactured what the wild west really was was a chaotic colonial expansion at the expense of an already dying indigenous population as always thanks for watching don't forget to like and subscribe for more nutty history [Music]
