Cowboy Colloquialisms
This term conjures the image of explosives, but actually refers to the way in which towns would quickly grow in population around a mineral resource, only to fizzle out once that resource dried up.
What is a boom town?
No way! All my Western Movies tell me that cowboys were white just like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. You mean to tell me the REAL cowboys were of these demographics?
What is Hispanic and Native/Indigenous?
The path that allowed trains to travel from coast to coast and the piece of metal used to connect rails and ties
Transcontinental Railroad Spike
During this time, poor families without money were able to become farmers without paying for the land or equipment using a system of ____ and ____.
What is debt and credit?
Welcome to the frontier, newcomer! The only law in this frontier town of myth is this, and its usually administered by a white-hatted cowboy.
What is vigilante justice?
This type of cattle, brought over from the Iberian peninsula and named for a striking feature of it's anatomy, was a proud symbol of Texas before becoming the fully domesticated animal we know today.
What is a Texas Longhorn?
But I love the "Little House" books! Don't tell me that the Homestead Act and other land grants came at the cost of these people!
What are Native Americans?
Buffalo Bill's stage show and the movie genre that was inspired by it.
Wild Western Film
After some advances in farming technology and a fortunate (but temporary) improvement to the weather, the Great Plains region became the nation's center for producing this agricultural resource. It was nicknamed part of "America's Breadbasket"
Now if we're honest, the frontier ain't all that wild. After all, we have this organized force to help fight the natives and uphold U.S. law. They were sent out here to protect the railroad and get rid of the natives.
What is the United States Military?
No cars here! But cowboys would still refer to the act of herding cattle to the railway stations as this.
I heard the Irish are lazy drunkards and the Chinese are hard workers. What do you mean that's a harmful stereotype based on misunderstanding this event?
What is the building of the Transcontinental Railroad (and boiling/failing to boil bad drinking water)?
The name of a Confederate soldier-turned-outlaw and the name of the President who started the Mexican-American War
Jesse James K. Polk
Due to the ongoing Civil War, Congress was unable to pay railroad companies actual dollars. Instead they paid the Central and Union Pacific Railroad companies in this form.
What is land/10 square miles per mile of track?
Careful, Greenhorn! Spook the wildlife too much and you could end up on the wrong end of some scared animals engaging in this activity.
What is a stampede?
What is a brand?
No, no, no! She was clearly a skilled gunslinger from her time in Western Frontier. What do you mean this woman had never actually been to the West and was really just a skilled actor?
Who is Annie Oakley?
Abraham Lincoln's original stated goal during the Civil War and the railroad company that worked on the Transcontinental Railroad starting in Omaha, Nebraska.
One of the most important transportation industries in history. The implementation of this technology allowed for the Western Frontier to become "tamed."
What is the Railroad/Train/Steam Engine?
Grasslands? Plains? That's city-folk speak. Here in the Frontier we call it this.
What is a prairie?
Not just a cowboy term! This phrase is how the Native and Hispanic people of the Americas referred to the European-descended Americans who came Westward in this period.
What is the White Man?
I refuse to believe this! You're telling me that this famous outlaw was just an unskilled skinny thief and NOT the young and heroic leader of a band of super-cool desperados?
Who is Billy the Kid?
The name of the president of the Central Pacific Railroad Company and the name of the university he founded after the death of his only son.
Leland Stanford Junior University
His name has gone down in history for the massive amount of silver he discovered. Not because he made riches off of it, but because he sold the land not realizing what he had!
Who was Henry Comstock?
You didn't here nun from me, but they say that the mythological image of the Western Frontier didn't actually come from people who experienced it, but was instead told as a story or myth in these forms.