Wild West Land Blog

Page 65:

Then came rules and regulations that had to be obeyed. Some of the bigger wagon trains were little travelling republics or kingdoms with their own laws, judges and courts where men could appeal against the decision of the president. If an emigrant grew impatient while the wagons waited for better weather, or for hostile Indians to move on, and decided to go off alone, he could be brought back at the point of a gun.

Each wagon carried a load of between 1,800 and 3,000 lb. of stores and personal equipment. There would be huge quantities of flour, bacon, coffee, beans, rice, salt and, in place of sugar, molasses. Sometimes, of course, fresh meat was obtained on the way with the aid of the emigrants’ guns, but it wasn’t always wise to go firing off guns in Indian territory. There was one case of a youth who took a shot “for fun” as he put it, only to bring down a horde of painted devils who killed half the entire company before they were driven off.

Page 64 of the album continues the story of the wagon train - you’ll need to start reading from the first post for this to make sense!

How did these pioneers of the West travel? Was it comfortable? Was it well organized? Was it very slow? In the first place, no family, or even two or three families, would be wise to travel alone. They waited until sufficient emigrants had gathered at Independence, St. Joseph or Council Bluffs on the Missouri river, then they organized themselves into companies until a great wagon train was made up, maybe of a hundred or more wagons and as many families. True there were smaller trains, but the bigger ones were safer.

Then, in due course, everything would be arranged. Each member of the wagon train would pay an agreed amount into the treasury. In the case of the Charleston Company, one of the best-planned treks across the continent, the amount was three hundred dollars. With this money stores were purchased, guides and scouts engaged and other necessities paid for.

My post about modern day wagons yesterday led me last night to hunt down my copy of a recent book on the great migration west by covered wagon: Wagons West: The Epic Story of America’s Overland Trails

Frank McLynn’s story of the quarter of a million American pioneers who trekked from Missouri to the American West between 1840 and 1849 is simply fantastic to read and makes you realise that modern day adventurers have it easy with their back-up crews, GPS navigation, satellite phones and modern day medical kits!

The story of pioneer life was celebrated in the 1950s and 60s on the classic Western television series ‘Wagon Train‘ which starred Ward Bond and Robert Horton.

It proved so popular - #1 in the Nielsen Ratings for the 1961-1962 television season according to Wikipedia - that it’s said Gene Roddenberry sold his Star Trek TV show to the American networks as “a Wagon Train to the stars.”

I picked up a 1961-issue Daily Mirror kids comic-style album last year in a junk shop that idolises the show. It’s a fab read and I want to share the artwork so am going to post the cartoons for the ‘Wagon Train’ story over the next week or two. The first one is below - the caption reads:

“Gold! Gold for the picking up!” The thrilling message came winging its way out of the West, and the forty-niners, the 25,000 men, women and children who travelled clear across a continent to search for untold wealth in the earth, joined the hundres of thousands of others who had already crossed from east to west by covered wagon drawn by teams of oxen or horses.

If only there was gold in them there hills today, now that the US national debt is running at more than $10 trillion!. If you want to take your mind off the state of the stockmarket you can buy a few episodes of the Wagon Train TV show on Amazon.co.uk

Honda car adverts - always clever, going that little bit further to stand out from the crowd.

Well now you can take your Civic for a spin down Avenue K outside Lancaster, CA and listen to Rossini’s William Tell Overture (the Lone Ranger’s theme tune) played by your tyres passing over well placed grooves on the road, LP-style.

Best be quick though as the road is going to be paved over later this week after complaints from nearby residents. If you can’t make the trip watch the video to hear the music:

It’s funny how something as simple as watching a kids DVD can send you off on a wild goose chase or, more accurately, a wild jackrabbit chase.

I have always loved the short film that preceded Disney Pixar’s 2003 film The Incredibles. Boundin’ must have been popular as it wound up being Oscar-nominated and is a great extra to watch on the UK DVD boxset.

The film features a sad little lamb taught the benefits of positive thinking by a legendary Jackalope - I haven’t seen Wall.e but I guess Disney films must have an upbeat message - and the lyrics voiced by animator Bud Luckey are hilarious:

Then a-boundin up the slope
Came a great American jackalope.
This sage of the sage, this rare hare of hope,
Caused to pause and check out the lamb.
“Hey kid, why the mope?”

“I used to be something all covered with fluff,
And I’d dance in the sunlight and show off my stuff,
Then they hauled me away in a manner quite rough
And sheared me and dropped me back here in the buff.
And if that’s not enough
Now my friends all laugh at me
Cause they think I look ridiculous, funny, and pink.”

“Pink? Pink? Well, what’s wrong with pink?
Seems you’ve got a pink kink in your think.
Does it matter what color? Well, that gets nope.
Be it pink purple or heliotrope.
Now sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down,
When you find that you’re down well just look around:
You still got a body, good legs and fine feet,
Get your head in the right place and hey, you’re complete!

How does watching Boundin’ lead me onto jackrabbits? Well many years ago I picked up a legendary cowboy postcard that features a rider ‘Saddling up Big Jack’.

After spending an hour looking for this travel treasure it turns out there’s an entire industry built up around the jackalope/jackrabbit! In fact you could collect a boxful of postcards featuring the furry critters: Jackalope Postcards - Flying, riding, seated, standing, the list goes on.

Roadside architecture in America has always been used to pull in the punters if you’re running a restaurant, rock shop or any kind of tourist business. So have a look through this great collection of Roadside Big Critters featuring rabbits.

Browsing on, there’s even a band on MySpace if you’re into experimental rock music. My favourite connection though has to be this modern day Photoshop masterpiece - the Area51 Cowboy:

I had to buy a copy of Andy Riley’s book of cartoons after stumbling across his take on the truth behind the Wild West:

I love the limited set of characters squeezed into a ‘Wild West’ only 80 square feet in size! Could you re-enact most western movies with that lot? The saloon certainly looks like it’d be a squeeze.