Old West only?

[Conquistador]

I agree to a degree with Glenn's focus on pulling the period earlier but I wonder a bit at quite as far back as he goes.

<snip>

Well I predominately came into the Old West via the Spanish New Spain thing so I just may be the "exception to every rule" omnipresent 3rd sigma example.   

Yes, I think the 1840s is a very strong factor in the Old West culture/environment.   

But, having been born in SoCal (Spanish Heritage Mother) and being a future resident of New Mexico in a few years may have jaundiced my view of Texans...      just a bit...

Gracias,

Glenn

[Cory]

Anyone not being a Texan has jaundiced their view of Texans from what I have seen.

Thank god so few can stand the cold

[warlord frod]

Ok so the California Gold rush 1848-1855 would be the early days of the period. I would consider it the period that sets the stage for the Wild West.

The development of the colt revolver is a good marker. The first colt revolver patent was in 1835-36 for a cap and ball revolver ( You could not use self contained cartridges you had to carry gun powder and shot) the more recognized revolver with a bored through cylinder did not come about until after Smith and Wesson's patent for the bored-through cylinder patent expired in 1869 (The original patent was posted around 1855)
Colt then began producing its most popular revolver in 1872, the single action (It had to be cocked) revolver. The Single Action Army model colt revolver was indispensable in the west. More than any other handgun, it played a crucial role in the west being the handgun of choice for almost all the key figures. The double action revolver (the revolver could be fired simply by pulling the trigger) did not appear until 1877. This is of course the gun most western movies use  . It was not mass produced while Colt was alive because he did not think it was as accurate as the more popular single action revolver. So if we are going to use the colt revolver as a marker we are still looking at a very short period.

Another marker weapon would be  "The Gun that Won the West" the Winchester lever action rifle (1873-1919)  

[Conquistador]

The California Gold Rush was pretty freaking wild...

Rooted in Barbarous Soil: People, Culture, and Community in Gold ...
University of California Press · Paperback · 364 pages · ISBN 0520224965

Perhaps never in the time-honored American tradition of frontiering did "civilization" appear to sink so low as in gold rush California. A mercurial economy swung from boom to bust, and back again, rendering everyone's fortunes ephemeral. Competition, jealousy, and racism fueled individual and mass violence. Yet, in the very midst of this turbulence, social and cultural forms emerged, gained strength, spread, and took hold. Rooted in Barbarous Soil,Volume 3 in the four-volume California History Sesquicentennial Series, is the only book of its kind to examine gold rush society and culture, to present modern interpretations, and to gather up-to-date bibliographies of its topics. Chapters by leading scholars in their respective fields explore a range of topics including migration and settlement; ethnic diversity, assimilation, cooperation, and conflict; the dispossession of Indians and the Californios; the founding of schools and universities; urban life; women in early California; the sexual frontier; and the development of religion, art, literature, and popular culture. Many rarely seen illustrations supplement the text.« less

Exterminate Them: Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape, and ...
Michigan State University Press · Paperback · 177 pages · ISBN 0870135015

Popular media depict miners as a rough-and-tumble lot who diligently worked the placers along scenic rushing rivers while living in roaring mining camps in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Trafzer and Hyer destroy this mythic image by offering a collection of original newspaper articles that describe in detail the murder, rape, and enslavement perpetrated by those who participated in the infamous gold rush. "It is a mercy to the Red Devils," wrote an editor of the Chico Courier, "to exterminate them." Newspaper accounts of the era depict both the barbarity and the nobility in human nature, but while some protested the inhumane treatment of Native Americans, they were not able to end the violence. Native Americans fought back, resisting the invasion, but they could not stop the tide of white miners and settlers. They became "strangers in a stolen land."« less

Sacramento's Gold Rush Saloons: El Dorado in a Shot Glass [Book]
by Special Collections of the Sacramento Public Library · History Press · Paperback · 156 pages · ISBN 1626191700

As early as 1839, Sacramento, California, was home to one of the most enduring symbols of the American West: the saloon. From the portability of the Stinking Tent to the Gold Rush favorite El Dorado Gambling Saloon to the venerable Sutter's Fort, Sacramento saloons offered not simply a nip of whiskey and a round of monte but also operated as polling place, museum, political hothouse, vigilante court and site of some of the nineteenth century's worst violence. From librarian James Scott and the Special Collections of the Sacramento Public Library comes a fascinating history of Sacramento saloons featuring the advent of all types of gaming, the rise of local alcohol production and the color and guile of some of the region's most compelling personalities.« less

Gold Dust and Gunsmoke: Tales of Gold Rush Outlaws, Gunfighters, ...
by John Boessenecker · Wiley · Hardback · 367 pages · ISBN 0471319732

A lively collection of true tales of villainy and violence during the California Gold Rush"Boessenecker has done as much as anyone to change and illuminate California’s Wild West image . . . if you would like a good read about how gold fever ignited a rush not only of families, but prostitutes, feuds, lynchings, duels, bare-knuckle prizefights, and vigilantes, then is this the place to start."—Wild West"A lively, thoughtful, well-researched book, and those interested in the rough, early years of the Mother Lode will not be disappointed."—Ledger-Dispatch (Jackson, Ca)"[Boessenecker] has done an amazing job of researching newspapers, legal documents, diaries, and other sources, as well as making skillful use of the recent research. . . . Excellent narrative . . . . Very well done, Gold Dust & Gunsmoke is a 'must.'"—True West"Boessenecker's meticulous research and vivid prose make this excellent book a fascinating collection of true stories."—Tulsa WorldPacked with never-before-told tales of the American frontier, Gold Dust & Gunsmoke sends us galloping through the tumultuous California territory of the mid-nineteenth century, where disputes were settled with six-shooters and the lines of justice were in perpetual flux. Armed with meticulous research, John Boessenecker displays a remarkable knack for finding the perfect details to capture all the color, excitement, and hullabaloo of the Gold Rush. Published in tandem with the 150th anniversary of California's statehood, these authentic stories of gunfighters, lawmen, vigilantes, and barroom brawlers are an important contribution to the rich lore of the American West.« less

Digger: The Tragic Fate of the California Indians from the ...
by Jerry Stanley · Crown Publishers · Hardback · 103 pages · ISBN 051770952X

From the award-winning author of "Children of the Dustbowl" comes asobering look at two of the most frequently romanticized events in Americanhistory. For the native peoples of California, the period from 1769, when thefirst Spanish Mission was founded, to the 1850s, when the Gold Rush was at itsheight, was one of terrible violence and destruction. First, Spanish priestsand soldiers sought to convert the Indians to Christianity and a "civilized"way of life. Yet for the Indians the story of the missions was one of hunger, disease, rebellion, and death. Then, during the Gold Rush, Indians werefrequently kidnapped, murdered, and sold into slavery by white settlers. By theend of the nineteenth century, the surviving California Indians had been forcedonto reservations and their way of life had been largely destroyed. With maps, a timeline, and glossaries on California's Indian tribes and mission history, Jerry Stanley tells the story of modern California from the poignantperspective of the Native American.« less

Perhaps not so objective in some views:

The Robin Hood of El Dorado: The Saga of Joaquin Murrieta, Famous ...
by Walter Noble Burns · University of New Mexico Press · Paperback · 304 pages · ISBN 0826321550

First published in 1932 and never reprinted since, this historical drama re-creates the life and adventures of Joaquin Murrieta, a Hispanic social rebel in California during the tumultuous Gold Rush. Published during the Great Depression, at a time of mass deportations of Hispanos to Mexico, this sympathetic portrait of Murrieta and Mexican Americans was a unique voice of social protest. The author romanticizes the pastoral society of Mexican California into which Murrieta was born and introduces the protagonist as a quiet, honest, unpretentious, and reserved resident of Saw Mill Flat, California. But the rape and murder of his wife, Rosita, by racist Anglo miners unleashes his vengeful rage. Picking up his pistols, Murrieta tracks and kills Rosita's murderers and defends Hispanos against violence and dispossession by rampaging gold rush miners. Richard Griswold del Castillo discusses the significance of Murrieta to twentieth-century Mexican Americans and Chicanos and of Burns's history to contemporary understanding of the mysterious social bandit.« less

Gold Rush Capitalists: Greed and Growth in Sacramento [Book]
by Mark A. Eifler · University of New Mexico Press · Paperback · 280 pages · ISBN 0826328229

Sacramento, California, was one of the largest cities in the West during the later half of the nineteenth century. Situated between the bay and the Sierra foothills, Sacramento seemed to fit a pattern of natural urban growth that capitalized upon natural resources and transportation routes. The city was also the capital of one of the most powerful states in the nation, but oddly, it has received little attention from urban historians. As a supply center for gold rush miners in the mid-nineteenth century, Sacramento was visited daily by thousands of wide-eyed adventurers who wrote detailed letters and journals about their travels in the West. Hundreds of amateur reporters compiled a rich record of the early years of city development, providing a rare opportunity for researchers to trace the economic and social development of a western city. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the city was also battered by a series of natural and man-made disasters and one of the most violent land riots in California's history. Through this turmoil, Sacramento's many resident and visiting observers commented on what they perceived as the strengths and weaknesses of its urban leaders in great detail, thus providing a window onto the seemingly daily struggle for leadership and authority in a boom city. Eifler takes the reader on a journey into early western urbanization with his study of Sacramento. He examines the earliest founding of the city by speculators looking to cash in on gold rush trade, uncovering the rampant competition between a handful of men intent on creating a city that would dominate the mining trade. The arrival of thousands of miners into the region, who had their own ideas about what role a city should play in an isolated mining frontier, provides another complication in Sacramento's growth as miners and city founders clashed on nearly every civic issue. Rising tensions between these groups erupted into open warfare just twenty months after the city's founding. Eifler analyzes the aftermath of the riot, which discredited both founders and miner/settlers and gave rise to a new urban commercial class removed from the labors of mining. Thus, Sacramento's residents sought to create stable urban institutions that could, hopefully, safely negotiate the travails of unrestricted commercialism.Gold Rush Capitalistsis an engaging, valuable glimpse of western urban development through the eyes of classes and individuals often at odds with each other but never completely divorced.« less

Gracias,

Glenn

[FifteensAway]

Yeah, all of what Glenn said and Joaquin Murietta (see The Legend of Zorro - though I mostly watched Catherine Zeta-Jones, hubba-hubba - for a misplaced interpretation of the Murietta legend.  And lots of stage coach robberies, bank robbers, train robbers, rustlers.  Yeah, California is a neglected field for the early (not as early as Glenn's!) Old West gaming.  Study it up, folks.  And, for fun, rewatch (or watch) Paint Your Wagon.

And having said that, just why am I aiming further east?  Well, Apaches and Lakota (Sioux to the uninformed), and Texas longhorns (I ain't got nothing against them innocent cattle, it's the ornery two legged rattle snakes I have a problem with).  But that doesn't mean I won't have games inspired by California based events, no sirree.

And did you know the iconic tumbleweed is NOT native to America.  Seems it came here from Italy.  But don't anybody tell Roy Rogers that!  Why, Trigger would jump right out of his taxidermed skin.

[warlord frod]

And having said that, just why am I aiming further east?  Well, Apaches and Lakota (Sioux to the uninformed), and Texas longhorns (I ain't got nothing against them innocent cattle, it's the ornery two legged rattle snakes I have a problem with).  But that doesn't mean I won't have games inspired by California based events, no sirree.
 

This is my reasoning for aiming further east as well. I also enjoy the region of California and Zorro.