Wild Western Town

[Reda]

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So, I'm planning to add some new buildings to my growing town and I'm looking for ideas to add some character. We know western towns had things like banks, saloons, general stores and sheriff's offices.. what are some other lesser known buildings or businesses that no wild west town should be without? The first thing that comes to mind is a Tobacconist which I never heard of till I saw one on TV a little while ago. What else?

Depends on your town. If you are going for a large town or city, you would have most of those. Most would be built of wood, but some would have brick to about waist height. If you want the movie look put it all in and make it all wood (or adobe).

If you are going for the "real" look, take a look at old photos. There is a lot of bad construction. Most buildings are one-story. All the trees have been cut down for firewood or lumber. There's junk everywhere, and buildings can be laid out randomly. Lots of low fences to keep livestock penned. Many buildings served many purposes: dry goods, post office, and some booze in back. Also, buildings tended to be smaller than you think. A lot of houses were one 10 x 10 room with a stove in one corner. At least in Fort Worth (where I am), prostitution was run out of "cribs." Think a long building partitioned in rooms barely large enough for a bed (like a row of portable toilets, just a bit deeper).

Photography studio. Sounds silly, but it was the new thing back then. Any town that had frequent hangings likely had a photographer who took photos of the condemned man (alive or dead) and then sold copies for a penny. (Penny postcards). Most gangs and outlaws sat for a portrait at one time or another.

You say "Big city thing," but a lot of little towns had these things, too, because they were on their way to being a big city. Well, they thought they were, anyway. Firehouse was one of these things. Fire engines were often pulled by hand. Come out to Georgetown, Colorado for July 4th and watch he teams from various nearby towns compete in fire engine races. link

Shipping company "The Wells Fargo wagon is a-coming down the street"

Opera house, if they have pretentions of being great

Courthouse for the county seat

(Back in Kansas, two towns had to have the militia sent in to keep the peace as they squabbled about which would be the county seat)

Glenn is right: you can never have too many saloons, some of which are real hole in the wall places, not the palatial things you often see in the movies.

Laundry (Chinese or otherwise) Real men do not wash their own clothes.

Harvey House (if they are along the AT&SF RR)

General Store

Funeral parlor (maybe a house with the undertaker and his family living upstairs)

Towns in the old west didn't spring up in a vacuum. Usually there would be a proximate cause that would start the town, then it would spread out into other fields. The buildings associated with the cause would be fairly interesting. Usually there's a railroad and/or local water supply involved as well.

-Farming towns grew up around a grain elevator.

-Cattle towns grew up around stock yards.

-Mining towns around mines, often the mines would be on the hillside and the town in the valley.

-Military posts often had towns grow up around them.

Try Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for the period for the state/region your town is located in. They were created to estimate fire risks in communities by categorizing the materials, size, # of stories, and style of structures, as well as available on-site firefighting capacity (e.g. factories' on-site water tanks/pumps, fire doors, sprinklers, etc.). All these factors are taken into account for determination of fire insurance rates as provided by the Sanborn Insurance Company.

This year, for our annual Thanksgiving vacation, we decided to road trip through the American Southwest and visit Saguaro National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and Big Bend National Park. While researching the parks and how much time we would need for each one, I discovered some fun things to do near Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arziona, like the Pima Air & Space Museum, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Mission San Xavier del Bac, and Old Tucson Studios.

I definitely wanted to work at least a few of those into our trip, so we added an extra day to our trip, extending our stay in Tucson from one day to two days. It worked out great because the park is split in half, divided by the city of Tucson, so we did half the park one day and half the park the next day. Each side of the park only took a little over a half day to explore, so we had the afternoons to check out other family-friendly attractions!

Immortalized in more than 400 films and commercial productions, Old Tucson is a premiere film location made famous by movie legends such as John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth Taylor, Steve Martin, Sharon Stone, and Martin Short.

With full bellies, we set out to explore this awesome wild west town, snapping photos in front of the western storefronts, wandering through old buildings, checking out vintage equipment, and of course, peeking in the shops and stores like:

We also stopped in the Old Tucson Story Museum to learn the history of Old Tucson and see costumes worn in Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza and wandered over to snap photos with The Reno locomotive that has been in more than 100 movies and television shows.

In addition to all the various live entertainment options included with your Old Tucson admission, there are also rides and activities you can participate in at no extra charge (which we really appreciated).

If you have little kids, there is also an Antique Car Track where they can drive the cars (like the ones at Disneyland), the Toltec Mine, and a Wild West Carousel you can ride as many times as you want.

Before calling it quits for the day, Brian, Natalie, and Carter stopped by La Plaza Ice Cream for some cool cones and we listened in on one of the guided film tours, covering 70 years of film and television history.

With 22 years experience as a graphic designer and 16 as a web designer/creative agency owner, Jennifer helps small businesses build brands, create content, and grow profitable online platforms. Her renowned business systems and automations allow her business to thrive while she travels with her husband of 21 years and two teenagers, squeezes in daily workouts, tries new recipes, embarks on ambitious craft projects, speaks at events, facilitates workshops, and leads online courses.

Before I visited Wyoming I thought I knew all about the Wild West: gun-toting cowboys, cattle ranching and endless fighting. An image that seemed to be confirmed as I drove to Cody, home of the legendary Buffalo Bill, passing through towns that could have passed as movie sets. Cody itself may be primarily a place where tourists stop on their way to Yellowstone National Park, but for me it was the place where the Wild West came alive.

The Cody Heritage Museum is a small museum in a house that once belonged to the influential DeMaris family. It tells the story of Cody from its beginnings, from agriculture and ranching, to mineral exploration and the coming of the railroad, to the present day tourist industry. It also includes profiles of prominent local families.

For a different perspective, visit the Cody Mural and Museum. This is housed in the Church of Latter-Day Saints, built by Mormon settlers in the mid-20th century. The detailed and impressive mural covers the upper walls and ceiling of one room, and shows the history of the LDS church, from its origins and early persecution, to the founding of Salt Lake City.

The small museum inside the church is devoted to thestory of the Mormons in Wyoming. In the late 19th century a group ofchurch members were sent by the elders in Salt Lake City to settle the area andengage in missionary activity. Later they moved into Cody and established achurch and community there. (Curiously, there was no mention of the Mormonsettlers in the Heritage Museum.)

Later I stood in the wide main street (presumably arelic of cattle-herding days) and gazed at the tall mountains in the distance.There were pioneer-style houses, western-style diners and references to BuffaloBill everywhere. I started to wonder whether the whole thing was a pastiche, aninvented reality for the benefit of tourists.

But in the evening I sat in one of those diners, surrounded by people eating oversized steaks. There was western memorabilia on the walls and people were dancing to a country and western band. These were not tourists, but local people enjoying an evening out. Clearly the culture of the Wild West is alive and well.

We had the opportunity to visit Cody, Wyoming during a 3000 mile road trip. It is filled with so much historical significance, yet still retains its quaint feeling. Thanks for this chance to reminisce about one of our favorite trips.

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Claim to fame: The quintessential land of cowboys and cattle situated at the crossroads of America, Amarillo was established in 1887 when Abilene developer J.I. Berry selected this well-watered spot along the way of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad (FW&DC). Known as Oneida (this later changed to Amarillo - Spanish for yellow - for the colour of the soil on the banks of the nearby Amarillo Creek), it grew from a 500-strong tent camp for railroad workers to a hard-nosed cattle town complete with big skies, big steaks, big barbeque joints, and big quantities of oil. It now hosts a number of famous rodeos (including the Coors Cowboy Club Ranch Rodeo, Working Ranch Cowboy Association, and World Championship Ranch Rodeo), as well as the annual Polk Street Cattle Drive where the streets of downtown Amarillo are filled with around 60 Texas longhorns making their way to the Tri-State Fairgrounds.

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