Wanted Dead Or Alive

Encompassing some 1.7 million square miles, the West makes up nearly half the United States. Within this vast expanse lay landscapes of every conceivable form: dazzling rock outcroppings rising out of shimmering deserts sweeping through the Southwest, dank rainforests nestled along the Pacific Northwest, epic peaks dotting the Rocky Mountains, tall prairies rustling along the Great Plains, and the sublime sight of the Pacific Ocean reaching the California coast. 

Carefully stewarded by Native peoples for millennia, the lands were pristine, their majesty evoking a return to Eden. But every rose must have its thorn, a lesson those who dared to venture into the great unknown quickly learned as they traveled through intense environmental extremes that required a new kind of “rugged individualism” to survive.  Forged in the fire of self-reliance, they became folkloric figures who embodied American exceptionalism at its peak: tough, durable, dependable, and above all: self-made. 

Since 1607, various groups of settlers have been driven by a need to survey and conquer unknown lands, laboring under what would ultimately become known as Manifest Destiny: the belief that the United States empire has been preordained. As a cornerstone of nation building, the impetus to “Go West” forged a profound sense of connection to those who braved the frontier as the country began its relentless expansion during the 19th century. 

While politicians organized exploratory missions, popular fiction writers of the day kept pace, penning novels chronicling the adventures of settlers confronting the challenges of life on the frontier. Fueled by an intoxicating cocktail of history, legend, and fantasy, James Fennimore Cooper crafted an exotic epic of the frontier for the 1826 book, The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757, which has since gone on to become one of the most popular English-language novels of all time.

By the mid-19th century, a new genre known as “the Western” came into its own, its tales of heroes, blackguards, and brutes stoking the flames of a growing fascination with the frontier. Searching for an archetypal hero to call their own, Americans fell in love with the swashbuckling protagonist who rode horseback through hills and valleys of bluegrass. Dapper and dangerous, these new American men stood at the vanguard of a new world they helped to create — their star power fostering one of America’s favorite pastimes: the cult of personality. But what made the Western unlike all other adventure genres that came before was that the heroes were ordinary men who chose to live extraordinary lives — and becoming the living embodiment of the “bootstrapping” myth. 

Seizing the moment, publishers began pumping out cheaply produced paperbacks known as “penny dreadfuls” and dime novels, stoking the hunger for escapist entertainment with a plethora of affordable and readily available goods. 

Capitalizing on stories of action and adventure unfolding in real time, writers crafted captivating tales of the Wild West at high noon, bringing to market the legends of Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James, and Wyatt Earp who was still alive at the time.

In 1860, the first dime novel, Malaeska; the Indian Wife of the White Hunter, hit the market just as the forces of commerce and nation building aligned just as the country was spiraling into Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862 into law, granting 160 acres of unappropriated public lands to people willing to build the land — an act made possible by 50 years of “Indian Removal,” forcing Native peoples to relocate to reservations in barren and desolate locations across the U.S. Wars were waged. It was in this moment that location and lore became one, fostering romantic fantasies that have become inextricably linked to American identity itself. 

With the federal government subsidizing expansion, a flock of fleet-footed messengers known as the Pony Express delivering the mail across the frontier. Although it went out of business in just 18 months, losing market share to the telegraph, the image of a new nation born on the plains began to emerge. Following the end of the Civil War in 1865, the fractured nation splintered and spread, forging an epic period of expansion far and wide. 

Slavery abolished, many newly liberated Black people went west, putting their skills as cowhands to work. Athletes competed in rodeo, with champions like Bill Pickett going on to invent the sport of bulldogging (now professionally known as steer wrestling). For their accomplishments, they were saddled with the derogatory name “cowboy,” which was later unironically appropriated by white culture. 

Originating in Texas, American cowboy culture draws heavily from Mexican vaqueros, adopting the language of the Latin American frontier (mustang, bronco, lasso, sombrero, chaps), and refashioning it for the West. The cowboy fit snugly in the folklore of the Wild West — a world of lawmen and outlaws living by their wits, strength, and daring amid a barren landscape filled with “savage” Natives.

The official “Old West” began at the end of the Civil War and spanned a mere three decades until the U.S, Census Bureau officially closed it in 1890 — instantly bestowing a wistful patina of romance and nostalgia over the times. As the century came to a close, the lawless landscape of the Wild West became the stage upon which America could play out its fantasies, anxieties, and dreams as it crafted a new identity forged in blood, sweat, and steel.

Casting itself as the civilizing conqueror, Americans could cheer on their proxy in the time-honored battle of good and evil, imbued with the fervent wishes, hopes, and dreams of a young nation shattered by the Civil War. The open plains offered an opportunity to begin anew. The land of the free and the home of the brave was there for the taking, drawing a mixed lot of explorers, prospectors, ranchers, and settlers, to say nothing of the criminal element. Stories of train robbers, masked bandits, raids, and shootouts traveled from town to town, planting the seeds for our cultural obsession with spectacle, true crime, copaganda, and white savior fanfic. But while pulp novels were all the rage, the public jumped at the chance to get up close and personal with the real men and women of the Wild West. 

If you wanted to know how the West was won, soldier and buffalo hunter William Frederick Cody was just the man for the job. Cody won the name “Buffalo Bill” during a buffalo-shooting contest, wherein he slaughtered 68 animals in eight hours — a small drop in the bucket compared to the purported 4,282 buffalo he was said to have killed between 1867-8. One year later, Cody, then 23, skyrocketed to fame when his life story, Buffalo Bill, King of the Bordermen, ran as a serial on the front pages of the Chicago Tribune. 

After winning a Medal of Honor while serving in the Indian Wars, Cody made his stage debut in 1872 and embarked on his second act as a showman. In 1883, Cody founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a circus style affair that toured the U.S. and Europe for three decades. Featuring headliners like sharpshooter Annie Oakley and Métis leader Gabriel Dumont, the shows combined rodeo entertainment, races, and historical reenactments to bring the live wire energy of the frontier to the masses.

Cody crafted the blueprint for Western lore by spotlighting events like the Battle of Little Bighorn, mythologizing the story of “Custer’s Last Stand,” as well as more general bison hunts, train robberies, and Indian War battles. The grand finale was “Attack on the Burning Cabin,” in which Buffalo Bill unites with cowboys and vaqueros to vanquish the marauding Natives who attacked a settler’s cabin.   

In 1893, Cody added the “Congress of Rough Riders of the World” to the show’s title, celebrating the international arts of horse culture. That year they performed to a crowd of 18,000 at the Chicago World's Fair, where historian Frederick Jackson Turner also appeared. “The frontier has gone,” Turner announced, reading from his newly published paper, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” 

Popularizing the importance of the frontier, Turner asserted that American identity was forged in the West at the intersection of “civilization” and “savagery.” Here a new breed of Americans emerged to meet the new demands of circumstance and survive, whether that meant fighting wars, staking claims, or delving into criminal enterprise. 

As the forerunners of empire, they prized freedom and individualism above all things, becoming the swashbuckling protagonists of America’s origin myth. As the nation strove forth into the twentieth century, industrialization pushing forth progress at a rapid pace, the Wild West quickly acquired the glowing patina of nostalgia that only grew stronger with the passage of time, spurring an explosion of literature, film, television, music, fashion, comics, and pop culture ever since.

Hollywood has had a deep affinity with the Western since the earliest days of film, its fate inextricably intertwined with the genre it helped to popularize. From the outset, Westerns were a hit with the public and could be easily produced at large, open-air studios and desert locales, both to be found en masse in this brand new city. Like the San Francisco miners of 1849, the film industry heard the call and headed west in search of gold, only to discover America's bottomless appetite for celebrity, fantasy, and escape — the perfect ingredients for a spectacular new form of entertainment.

Combining America’s dueling passions for freedom and justice, the Western formed the bedrock of Hollywood by following a simple yet provocative pattern: crime, pursuit, and retribution. Holding audiences tight in its fast paced grip, the Western promulgated alluring notions of American manhood as the strong and silent type in the form of movie stars like Gary Cooper and John Wayne: men of action who could take on all comers and navigate the elements to survive in a lawless and unforgiving world.

Long steeped in the American experiment and its attendant hierarchies, Hollywood fashioned Western icons that reflected the times, each incarnation evolving to hook into the zeitgeist. During the golden era (1920-1960), the Western emerged as a beloved form, and stars like Buck Jones and Tom Mix could easily command high production budgets for their films. 

After taking his talents from Wild West shows to young Hollywood in 1910, Mix became one of Tinseltown’s earliest and longest shining stars, with a career that would span a quarter of a century. Maintaining his position at the top, Mix made sure he looked the part, building a long-term partnership with saddlemaker Eddie Bohlin. 

Hailing from Örerbro, Sweden, Bohlin ran away from home at age 15, sailing to America and settling in Montana to work as a cowboy. He opened his first silver and saddle shop across the street from Buffalo Bill Cody’s Irma Hotel in Cody, Wyoming. He connected with a vaudeville show manager and got an unexpected shot at the big time: performing at the brand new Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in 1922.

Mix soon discovered Bohlin and was blown away by the high-quality, handcarved silver and leather goods. With the star’s encouragement and support, Bohlin brought his shop to Hollywood and was soon creating costumes and accessories for films like Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments'' and “The Days of Daniel Boone.” Bohlin’s custom skills were in demand, and as his client list swelled to include Ray “Crash” Corrigan, Will Rogers, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Ronald Reagan.

Bohlin’ customs saddles, which brought him great fanfare from exposure on the silver screen, were elaborately designed affairs replete with tooled leather, engraved plates, concha shells, precious gemstones, gold totems and ornaments that took several weeks to create. Bohlin’s top model, the “P.K. Wrigley,” was listed at $5,750 in 1941 ($117,645 in today), elevating the Western saddle to the realms of fine art. Wisely using these high-end pieces to promote his business, the Bohlin Shop flourished. From 1923 to 1980, they produced and sold over 12,000 saddles helping to popularize the latest styles in Hollywood — and beyond.

Although the Depression put an end to the high-end productions, the Western soldiered on, adopting a more lean and mean aesthetic that lent itself to the mood of the times. During the postwar era, Hollywood embraced the psychological Western like High Noon, The Searchers, and Shane, using the newly emerging widescreen and Technicolor capabilities to play up the cinematic experience. 

Television had arrived, and quickly found its niche offering a constant flow of low budget content beaming straight into people’s living rooms. Westerns flooded the airwaves accounting for nearly 50 shows by the late 1950s. Adults had shows like Colt .45, Maverick, and Bronco while children were given more “wholesome” fare in the form of cowboy puppet named “Howdy Doody” that headlined his own show, and The Lone Ranger, a character inspired by Bass Reeves, a Black man born into slavery 1838 in Arkansas.

Reeves took his freedom during the Civil War, trouncing a member of the slaveholding family and fleeing to Indian Territory, the final stop on the Trail of Tears. After the war Indian Territory became home to Black, native, and white people living together in freedom for the first time, though it was far from a mythic “melting pot” as racial tensions frequently gave way to violence. 

With rape, robbery, and pillaging on the rise, the feds sent in the U.S. Marshals to restore order. Though few in number the Marshals were fearless and tough. In 1875, Reeves became the first Black U.S Marshal west of the Mississippi in 1875, embarking on a 32-year career that would see 3,000 felons arrested and 14 outlaws killed. He was a master of disguises, going “undercover” as a traveling hobo, dirt farmer, or burned out cowhand, frequently working with local natives from the Five Tribes, whose languages he spoke.

In 1933, The Lone Ranger made its debut on Detroit radio and quickly shot to the top, with 20 million Americans tuning in three times a week. By the end of the decade, the Lone Ranger was a box office bonanza, and in 1949 it was beaming into homes across the nation, refashioning the cowboy for Boomers in their baby years. 

Seeing gold in them there hills, ad man Leo Burnett dreamed up the greatest cowboy of them all, the Marlboro Man, in 1954 to sell filtered cigarettes to men. For half a century, the ruggedly handsome, hardworking horseman cast an image of noble dominion, and in doing so secured Marlboro’s market share. 

At the same time, Elvis Presley ushered in a new era of rockabilly style and sound that found its groove with a brand new phenomenon: youth culture. As the first generation of teenagers came of age during the postwar economic boom, they helped reshape American identity, centering it around the newly emerging phenomenon of youth culture. Embracing the rebellious spirit of the West, teens donned the denim and leather, and soon created frontiers of their own where bikers, hustlers and outlaws reigned supreme, celebrated in 1969 films like Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy.  

As both the mainstream and the counterculture embraced the liberatory ethos of the Wild West, the constant commercialization of the genre resulted in a proliferation of one-dimensional characters and plots until it was revived in 1960s Rome. A new generation of Italian filmmakers working during the Dolce Vita years introduced Dubbed “the Spaghetti Western.” Featuring shameless anti-heroes and despicable villains, desert landscapes and shantytowns, the Spaghetti Western triumphantly subverted traditional tropes in favor of complex and nuanced political commentary.

Sergio Leone's groundbreaking 1964 film, A Fistful of Dollars, cast Rawhide star Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name who breezes into town, wreaking havoc on feuding smuggler families. (The film was closely based on Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, resulting in a lawsuit by Kurosawa’s estate against Sergio Leone. They settled out of court for a reported 15% of worldwide receipts plus $100K, along with proper credits and the exclusive distribution rights to the movie in Japan.) Afterward, Eastwood rebranded himself as the iconic antihero, becoming America’s answer to John Wayne whether appearing in Westerns or Neo-Realist thrillers during the 1970s.

By the end of the decade, the cowboy had expanded into revelatory new forms, finding whether incarnation as space age mercenary Hans Solo in the blockbuster film Star Wars or taking shape as one of the Village People, singing “YMCA” alongside a cop, construction worker, biker, and Indian chief. Kermit the Frog memorably sported a ten-gallon hat and matching cowboy boots for a showdown with a fried frog legs franchise restaurant owner who bears a striking resemblance to Colonel Sanders.

The secret to the West’s enduring allure lies in its ability to continuously reinvent itself while staying true to its cultural roots. From the broad-brimmed cowboy hats that shielded the eyes and the face from the desert sun to taper-toed knee high boots with a chunky heel and dangling spur, Western wear has long been a staple in the fashion industry. With its stylish use of materials like denim, leather, suede, cotton flannel, flashy buckles and hand-tooled belts and boots, the rough hewn silhouette is both tough and tender, lending itself to a broad array of applications. 

Recognizing its enduring allure, fashion designer Ralph Lauren transformed the aesthetic into multiple diffusion lines, tapping into the nation’s hunger for authenticity and rugged elegance. “I think the spirit of Western style has a rugged elegance and authenticity that people want to relate to. There’s both a sensibility and honesty to the clothing that gives it an enduring appeal,” Lauren said at the time of the 1979 opening of his Ralph Lauren Western shop inside Bloomingdale’s on Manhattan’s posh Upper East Side.

As a first generation Jewish American growing up in the Bronx, young Ralph Lifshitz shrugged off his ethnic roots and was reborn as Ralph Lauren, purveyor of classic Americana. Ushering in a new age of lifestyle marketing, Lauren developed a series of apparel lines and collections over the years including Denim & Supply, Polo Western, and RRL (Double R) — the designer’s most personal line that draws heavily from Western themes and Americana that shape his aesthetic sensibilities and feed his creative energies.

With the election of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, America’s obsession came full circle as they elected the B-list actor who starred in several vintage Western films to the highest office. Nicknamed “The Cowboy President,” Reagan played the part to the hilt, kicking off the postmodern spin on the Wild West. In recent years, the genre has exploded to include Black, Native, and Mexican perspectives, as well as more expansive looks at sexuality and masculinity in films like Brokeback Mountain (2005), which was adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx.

A far cry from its humble penny dreadful beginnings, the Western novel has come a long way over the past century. Although the genre’s popularity has waxed and waned, the quality has only improved, most notably with the works of authors Cormac McCarthy, Elmore Leonard, and Larry McMurtry, who won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for his Western novel, Lonesome Dove. 

While country music has long thrived as a regional staple, it has largely done so outside of the mainstream, with select artists like Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn achieving crossover status. In the 1970s, country began to go pop as it fused elements of folk and rock with its honky-tonk roots. The nation went country as TV shows like Hee Haw brought cowboy culture into America’s living rooms while musicians like Kris Kristofferson and Dolly Parton had crossover success in Hollywood films like A Star is Born and Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

But the greatest crossover of all time came in 2019 when Lil Nas X remixed Hip Hop and country music to create “Old Town Road,” the longest charting number one song in Billboard history. The rapper paired up with everyone from country singer Billy Ray Cyrus to K-Pop stars BTS to create remixes that paved the way for what Dallas native Bri Malandro coined as the “Yeehaw Agenda,” a celebration of Black cowboy culture that took the worlds of fashion, music, and film by storm.  

The moment perfectly aligned with Hollywood’s ongoing love affair with the Western film, which was resurrected with films like Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man (1995), the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men (2007), Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012), and the Jay-Z produced The Harder They Fall (2021), which centered stories of Black and Mexican cowboys of the Old West. 

The Western continues to thrive by adapting to contemporary narrative and concerns, reinventing itself for a new generation seeking a story of survival against the odds. As the 21st century hit its stride, the Space Western went into hyperspeed, with a wealth of movies and TV shows following in the steps of Star Trek and Star Wars — most recently the cult sensation, The Mandalorian, in which a lone bounty hunter goes on the lam to protect an unusual child from the Imperial forces. 

More than a century after the West was won, new generations of Americans have felt a profound connection to the lawless landscape of a mythic past that continues to fuel the American Dream. And the Western, with its promise that we may finally return to paradise provided we are willing to do whatever it takes to win, has become the stage upon which we cast our hopes for a better future before we ride off into the sunset.