The Wild West!

THE MYTH

You`ve all seen films like Young Gungs and A Fistful of Dollars. In these 'Westerns' the American West is portrayed as a rough but exciting place to live.

The 'good guys' are portrayed as honest, hard-working cowboys who live alone in the wild. The are handsome and strong, skilled horseman and hard drinkers. By the end of the film yhe 'bad guy' has always been defeated. He is either arrested or killed. The town has been saved and the good cowboy rides off into the sunset.

But the American West wasn't really like this. Over the years a myth has been created by writers and movie directors, a myth that they want us believe in. New films like this are still being made about the romantic 'Wild West'. Byt what was it realliy like?

THE REALITY

In reality, the American West was a vering boring place. The majority of people were farmers. Their farms were isolated and neighbours didn't see one another for weeks at a time. As the land was cultivated and homes were built, more people moved in to the area. As in all towns, ther were criminals but the majority of people were honest and hard.working.

When golg was discovered in California in 1848, thousands of men went there to get rich. Many men found a little gold and then spent all their money in the many bars that had been opened. There were gunfights and men were killed. However, this type of life was not typical.

In fact the cowboy, who plays such an important role in all 'westerns', was only in the American mid.west for about 20 years, from 1870 to 1890. And even during this period, yhe life of a cowboy was very dull. Most cowboy's days were spent in the saddle, rounding up cattle and struggling against the dangers of heat, cold, stampedes and hostile Native Americans.

It was all very differet from the Hollywodd version.