Along the westward-moving frontier, innovation and invention were requirements for survival and the early American settler was indeed a resourceful individual. It is not surprising that in the latter half of the 19thcentury ways were sought and found to utilize the energy provided by that great natural resource of the prairie--the wind.

A novel device of the Kansas territorial period was the wind wagon,sometimes called a sailing wagon. Several were built and in1860 the press gave them considerable attention. They were similar to an ordinary light wagon; weighed about 350 pounds; had a bed about three feet wide,eight feet long, and six inches deep; and were propelled by a sail or sails raised over the center of the front axle. When the breezes blew in the right direction the wagons were reported to skim over the prairies at about 15 miles per hour, with speeds at up to 40 miles per hour.At least one wagon was reported to have traveled from Kansas City to Denver in a little more than 20 days. Upon the arrival of a wind wagon from West port, Missouri, a Council Grove newspaper asked of its readers:"Who says now that the Santa Fe Trail is not a navigable stream." The few wind wagons that were built undoubtedly traveled further in the press than they did on the prairie and horses and oxen remained the basic mode of power for a good many years.

One of the more interesting sagas of Kansas wind wagoning came in 1860.Samuel Peppard, who owned a sawmill on the Grasshopper River near Oskaloosa completed his contraption. Built with assistance from John Hinton, it was dubbed by his neighbors, "Peppard's Folly." Later it was suggested that because 1860 was a year of extensive drought and business was slack, Peppard built his frigate as a means of whittling away idle time. Peppard,undoubtedly, had a more ulterior motive in mind as on completion of the craft, he and his companions set out immediately for the Colorado goldfields.

A fairly detailed and entertaining account of Peppard's journey over the prairie sea can be found at the Kansas Historical Society.Although,not identified by name Peppard received some national notoriety when a correspondent of Leslie's Illustrated Magazine reported the arrival of the wind-schooner at Fort Kearney. In the grand literary style of the day, the correspondent wrote:

The ship hove in sight about 8 o'clock in the morning with a fresh breeze from east, northeast. It was running down in a westerly direction for the fort, under full sail, across the green prairie. The guard, astonished at such a sight, reported the matter to the officer on duty, and we all turned out to view the phenomenon. Gallantly she sailed, and at a distance ...not unlike a ship at sea In front is & large coach lamp to travel by night when the wind is favorable ... A crank and band wheels allow it to be propelled by hand when wind and tide are against them.

For some strange reason, no mention was made of the wind wagon episode in Peppard's obituary. While alive, however, he took pride in relating his experiences with the wind-wagon.

Peppard's wind wagon was neither the first nor the last totraversethe Kansas prairie. From time to time there were other reports of wagons equipped to utilize the state's greatest natural resource as a propellant. In 1877, the Kansas Pacific used sails on handcars. As late as1887,John B. Wornall of Westport carried a small group to a camp meeting. In 1910 it was reported that a sailing schooner had been invented in Louisville, Kentucky.

When LAURA INGALLS WILDER started writing her classic "Little House" book series in 1932, she had no idea of creating fame for herself or the places where she had lived. She wrote simply to preserve tales of a lost era in American history, the pioneer period she vividly recalled from her growing-up years on the mid western frontier in the 1870's and 1880's. When Laura completed her eight-volume series in 1943, she had achieved a lasting picture of pioneer life as she had experienced it in Wisconsin,Kansas, Minnesota, and South Dakota.

"I had no idea I was writing history," Laura remarked when her books were well known both in America and in foreign countries where they were translated. (The books are now printed in over 40 languages.) But readers of all ages accepted the Ingalls and Wilder families as chosen friends. Thousands wrote to Laura at her home on Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. Fans sought out the sites of her books and stopped to visit her in her Ozark Mountain home, right up to her death in 1957at the age of 90.

The visiting still goes on. Immediately after Laura's death, the home she and her husband Almanzo built was preserved and opened for readers.In De Smet, South Dakota, a Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society was founded to offer history and hospitality to increasing numbers of summer tourists. Through the years, each of the book sites has joined the ranks of literary-historical spots dedicated to the pioneering spirit and writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

 "The Wilder Trail" begins at Pepin, Wisconsin (Little House in the Big Woods), treks south to Independence, Kansas (Little House on the Prairie), heads north to Walnut Grove, Minnesota (On the Banks of Plum Creek) and further west to De Smet, South Dakota (Little Town on the Prairie). Other restored sites include the Masters Hotel at Burr Oak, Iowa, where the Ingallses lived in 1876 and the Almanzo Wilder Home (Farmer Boy).

Laura would be pleased at the commemoration of her family, her books and the pioneer history she painstakingly recorded. She would be gratified her present-day friends in her old hometowns keep the doors open to the places she called "The Land of Used-to-Be". For you who come to visit,may this photographic journey provide a happy remembrance of what Laura Ingalls Wilder called "stories that were too good to be lost".

The above text has been adapted from Little House Country: A Photo Guide to the Home Sites of Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Pony Express was founded by William H. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors. Plans for the Pony Express were spurred by the threat of the Civil War and the need for faster communication with the West. The Pony Express consisted of relays of men riding horses carrying saddlebags of mail across a 2000-mile trail. The service opened officially on April 3, 1860, when riders left simultaneously from St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. The first westbound trip was made in 9 days and 23 hours and the eastbound journey in 11 days and 12 hours. The pony riders covered 250 miles in a 24-hour day.

Eventually, the Pony Express had more than 100 stations, 80 riders, and between 400 and 500 horses. The express route was extremely hazardous, but only one mail delivery was ever lost. The service lasted only 19 months until October 24, 1861, when the completion of the Pacific Telegraph line ended the need for its existence. Although California relied upon news from the Pony Express during the early days of the Civil War, the horse line was never a financial success, leading its founders to bankruptcy. However, the romantic drama surrounding the Pony Express has made it a part of the legend of the American West.

From http://www.ponyexpress.org/

The most famous outlaw-gunfighter of the frontier Southwest was William Bonney, alias "Billy the Kid". Born in New York City, Billy moved West with his family and eventually became a cowboy in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, working for cattleman J. H. Tunstall. In February, 1878, Tunstall was killed by a rival cattle outfit, and this started Lincoln County War in which Billy played a leading role. This "war" was actually a struggle between two rival groups of businessmen and ranchers. Murders and depredations between the two groups culminated in a three day battle in Lincoln, New Mexico during July of 1878. Billy was one of the group that shot to death Sheriff Bill Brady. "The Kid" was said to have been involved in twenty other murders in his lifetime.

Governor Lew Wallace (also author of "Ben Hur") offered a $500 reward to anyone who would capture William Bonney, alias "The Kid", and deliver him to any sheriff in New Mexico. In 1880, Lincoln County elected Sheriff Pat Garrett and a posse trapped "The Kid" and four companions in a hut at Stinking Springs. After a three day siege, the gang was captured on December 23, 1880.

The first report of his capture was presented in the Las Vegas (New Mexico) Daily Gazette Extra of December 27, 1880. This newspaper was one of the most widely read in the Southwest. The Gazette, along with the Las Vegas Daily Optic, covered the closing of "The Kid's" career more thoroughly than any other newspaper. This was because, at the time, Las Vegas was the marketing center for the area in which Billy operated.

Billy was convicted of murder, and was sentenced to be hanged in Lincoln. However, on April 28, 1881, he escaped from custody, killing two guards. The news of his escape made page one of the Gazette on Sunday, May 1, 1881. The short article was titled "The Kid Escaped", but did not give many details. On May 3, a page four article (page four was where the local news was usually placed) detailed "The Kid's Escape". This account took up an extra column and went into great detail of the escape.

For two and a half months the Las Vegas newspaper carried reports of Billy's supposed whereabouts. During that time he was tracked down by Sheriff Pat Garrett, who cornered Billy only July 15, 1881 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. On July 18, 1881 the Las Vegas Daily Optic carried the story headlined: "The Kid Killed". Thus ended the short life and stormy career of William Bonney -- "Billy the Kid"

While the first rule of care for a straw cowboy hat is to keep it dry, and the second rule is to keep it clean, spills and mistakes do sometimes happen. Usually a damp cloth and a bit of attention are all your hat will need to repair small mistakes. Anything harsher--or wetter--than that would cause the straw to disintegrate.

1. Step 1

   Brush your straw cowboy hat regularly with a whisk broom to help keep it clean. The more preemptive cleaning you do, the less you'll actually need to spot-clean your hat.

2. Step 2

   Sponge away any stains with a damp cloth. Never soak your hat or saturate it with water to clean it, as this will cause the hat to lose its shape and possibly even disintegrate. If you accidentally soak the hat during this process--or if it's been soaked by rain--use a clean, dry cloth to sop up as much water as you can without rubbing, then turn out the sweatband of the hat and stand the hat up on the sweatband to dry so that air can circulate underneath it.

3. Step 3

   Mix a bit of liquid  soap and lukewarm water in a small bowl, then sponge away any particularly stubborn stains on the hat with this mixture. Follow the same precautions against soaking the hat as described above.

4. Step 4

   Blot over the places where you applied detergent with a clean, damp cloth to help remove any remaining traces of detergent. Sop up any excess water with a dry cloth, then stand the hat up on its sweatband to dry.

THE COLT LEGEND

"Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal." This post-Civil War slogan would have been music to Sam Colt's ears had he lived long enough to hear it. Yet, even before his death at the age of 47, he knew that his invention of a weapon capable of firing without reloading was a tremendous success throughout the world. Some 19th-century historians have gone so far as to say that Sam Colt's invention altered the course of history. Whatever the case, when all was said and done, no one could deny that Sam Colt had achieved both fame and fortune known to few other inventors.

As a direct result of his invention and the marketing and sales success that followed, Sam Colt and his firearms played a prominent role in the history of a developing America. So popular was the Colt revolver during the latter half of the 1800s that it was perhaps the best-known firearm not only in this country but also in Canada, Mexico, and many European countries.


ORIGINS OF THE COMPANY

Sam Colt's success story began with the issuance of a U.S. patent in 1836 for the Colt firearm equipped with a revolving cylinder containing five or six bullets. Colt's revolver provided its user with greatly increased firepower. Prior to Colt’s invention, only one- and two-barrel flintlock pistols were available. In the 173 years that have followed, more than 30 million revolvers, pistols, and rifles bearing the Colt name have been produced, almost all of them in plants located in the Hartford, Connecticut, area.

 The Colt revolving-cylinder concept is said to have occurred to Sam Colt while serving as a seaman aboard the sailing ship Corvo. There he observed a similar principle in the workings of the ship's capstan. During his leisure hours, Sam carved a wooden representation of his idea. The principle was remarkable in its simplicity and its applicability to both longarms and sidearms. Nevertheless, Colt's idea was not an instant success. At the outset, many people preferred the traditional flintlock musket or pistol to such a novel weapon.

In 1836, Colt built his first plant in Paterson, N.J., then one of this country's fastest-growing manufacturing centers. Sam Colt's uncle, a successful local businessman, was willing to help young Sam form the company. At age 22, Sam Colt was the firm's chief salesman and new business.

Colt soon developed and produced three different revolver models: the pocket, belt, and holster; and two types of long armor rifles: one cocked by a hammer, the other by a finger lever. In all cases, gunpowder and bullets were loaded into a revolving cylinder while the primer was placed into a nipple located on the outside of the cylinder, where it would be struck by the hammer when the trigger was pulled. Despite the generally favorable performance of the product in the hands of early buyers, sales were sluggish. Even though the U.S. government purchased small quantities of the Colt ring-lever rifle and the Colt 1839 carbine, quantities ordered appear never to have exceeded 100.

In 1842, the Paterson company, known as the Patent Arms Manufacturing Co., closed, auctioned much of its equipment, and entered bankruptcy proceedings. Sam Colt then turned his attention to selling the U.S. government on his ideas for waterproof ammunition, underwater mines for harbor defense, and, in association with the inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, the telegraph.

In 1845, however, units of the U.S. Dragoon forces and Texas Rangers engaged in fighting the Indians in Texas credited their use of Colt firearms for their great success in defeating Indian forces. U.S. War Department officials reportedly were favorably impressed. As a result, when the Mexican War began in 1846, Capt. Samuel H. Walker, U.S. Army, traveled East, looked up Sam Colt, and collaborated on the design of a new, more powerful revolver.

The U.S. Ordnance Dept. ordered a thousand of the newly designed revolvers, which Sam Colt called the "Walker." Suddenly, Colt was back in the firearms business but without a factory. He turned to Eli Whitney, Jr., son of the famous inventor of the cotton gin, who had a factory in Connecticut.  It was there that the order was manufactured and shipped by mid-1847.

THE 1850’s: EARLY SUCCESS

In 1851, two significant developments had a major impact on the future of the company. Sam Colt became the first American manufacturer to open a plant in England, thereby solidifying his reputation in international markets. And he began purchasing parcels of property in what was then called the South Meadows, an area of Hartford that fronted on the banks of the Connecticut River. The parcels sold at remarkably low prices because they were often flooded.  To address the flooding, Colt privately commissioned a two-mile-long dike.  The dike cost twice as much as the 250 acres, but the new plant, operational in 1855, was protected from the river's uncontrolled flow.

Colt’s factory was equipped with the most up-to-date metalworking machinery available and was capable of turning out 5,000 finished handguns during its first year of operation. Knowledgeable of the latest achievements of New England's world-famous machine tool industry, Colt lost no time in specifying interchangeable parts, some 80% of which were turned out on modern precision machinery. Sam Colt is reported to have said, "There is nothing that can't be produced by machine," and his factory's production machinery achieved a remarkably high degree of uniformity for the mid-19th century. Typically, the metal parts of a Colt revolver were designed, molded, machined, fitted, stamped with a serial number, hardened, and assembled.

An unabashed promoter of both his company and the City of Hartford, Colt raised the distinctive onion-shaped dome, topped with a cast-bronze rampant colt, over his factory.  That assured that every Hartford resident and visitor who saw the dome would ask about it and learn the Colt success story.

In 1855, Colt incorporated his business in Connecticut as the Colt's Patent Fire Arms Mfg Co., with an initial issuance of 10,000 shares of stock. Sam Colt retained ownership of 9,996 shares and gave one share to each of four business associates, including E.K. Root, his trusted factory superintendent and an inventor in his own right. By 1856, the company was producing 150 weapons a day; and the reputation of Colt firearms for exceptional accuracy, reliability, workmanship, and design had spread throughout the world.

Business success brought Colt fortune and fame.  He became one of the ten wealthiest businessmen in the U.S and was awarded the honorary title of “Colonel” by the Governor of the State of Connecticut in return for political support. Colonel Colt had long enhanced the beauty of his firearms by adding engraving and gold inlay, but as the renown of his firearms spread, he expanded his engraving department. Colt's show guns and presentation pieces, exquisitely engraved and generously inlaid with gold, consistently won prizes at international trade fairs. Many were presented publicly to heads of state, including Czars Nicholas I and Alexander II of Russia, King Frederick VII of Denmark, and King Charles XV of Sweden.

Colt's Patent Fire Arms Mfg Co. sold its product line through a small force of traveling salesmen, known as agents, and through 15 to 20 jobbers who acted as wholesalers selling large quantities to individual retail outlets. The company also maintained sales offices in New York City and London. In addition, the sales department accepted direct orders at the plant from the rich and famous, friends of the Colt family, and those ordering large quantities.

Decades ahead of his time, Sam Colt was later recognized as one of the earliest American manufacturers to realize fully the potential of an effective marketing program that included sales promotion, publicity, product sampling, advertising, and public relations. His success made him perhaps the richest man in Connecticut and a pillar of the Hartford community. When Sam Colt built his home, Armsmear, an ornate mansion replete with greenhouses and formal gardens on the western edge of his armory property, it was deemed fitting that it should be one of New England's grandest residences. Armsmear remains standing to this day and is now an Episcopal home for the elderly.

1860 TO 1900:  WAR, THE DEATH OF SAM COLT AND GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN WEST

Samuel Colt's health began to fail late in 1860 as the country moved toward Civil War. Prior to the actual declaration of war, Colt continued to ship his product to customers in southern states, but as soon as war was official, Colt supplied only the Union forces. The Armory was running at full capacity by year-end 1861, with more than 1,000 employees and annual profits exceeding $250,000. Samuel Colt died on January 10, 1862, at the age of only 47, having produced in his lifetime more than 400,000 guns. His estate was reportedly worth $15 million, a fantastic sum for the time.

Following Sam Colt's death, control of the company remained in the capable hands of Mrs. Elizabeth Colt and her family until 1901, when the company was sold to a group of investors. During that 39-year period, a number of significant events and developments impacted the Colt product line.

The Colt Armory and adjacent office structure burned to the ground in 1864, causing the suspension of all but limited military production for almost three years. The factory was rebuilt and, at Mrs. Colt's direction, was constructed to be as fireproof as possible. In 1867, the company began production of Dr. R.J. Gatling's machine gun, a semiautomatic firearm operated by a hand crank that turned a cluster of six to ten barrels while feeding ammunition into the breech.

Further change and growth came in the 1870’s.  In 1872, Colt began to manufacture its first breech-loaded revolver that used self-contained metallic cartridges. That gun became world-famous as the Single Action Army^® Model 1873 and it was designed to use metallic ammunition that contained its own primer. In the years just prior to introduction of the 1873, thousands of percussive Colt revolvers had been converted to use a front-loaded, center-fired cartridge and there was pent-up demand for a gun designed for the new cartridge.  The Single Action Army was an immediate sales success.  Eventually, it became the stuff of legend as the “Peacemaker”® and "the gun that won the West." Between 1873 and 1941, Colt produced more than 350,000 Single Action Army revolvers of varying caliber, including almost 40,000 of the .45 caliber model sold to the U.S. government.

 Product expansion continued during the 1880s, Colt introduced a full line of firearms ranging in size from concealable derringers to hammerless shotguns.

The line encompassed a large number of double action revolvers in various calibers, slide and pump action rifles, and the first revolvers with swing-out cylinders for easier loading. As its fame and reach grew, Colt Firearms had no single competitor. Smith & Wesson offered the greatest competition for the Colt line of handguns. Where rifles and shotguns were concerned, Remington and Winchester were the strongest competitors.

 No other U.S. company produced as many fully automatic rifles, best known as machine guns, as did Colt Firearms. In large part, this was due to Colt’s long and profitable relationship with John Moses Browning. As early as 1891, Colt Firearms worked with Browning to produce a gas-operated, air-cooled (later water-cooled) machine gun.  That gun was first delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1897 and was destined to play a major role in both the Boxer Rebellion and the Spanish-American War.

The Colt-Browning relationship included not only his machine guns and the well-known Browning automatic rifles (BAR) but also the world-famous Colt .45 semiautomatic pistol. Because of its effective stopping power, the Colt .45 was purchased in large quantity by the Department of the Army and, as the Model 1911A1, became the standard-issue sidearm during both World War I and World War II. Colt delivered approximately 2.5 million Colt .45 pistols to the U.S. government alone and also offered the pistol for sale commercially with tremendous marketing success. During both World Wars and subsequent military actions by the U.S. Armed Forces, Colt was a major producer of sidearms, rifles, machine guns, BARs, and antiaircraft guns for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Cowboys

“Here was all these cheap long-horned steers over-running Texas; here was the rest of the country crying out for beef -- and no railroads in Texas to get them out. So they trailed them out, across hundreds of miles of wild country."
Teddy Blue Abbott

From the southernmost tip of Texas, cattle trails pointed north -- the Shawnee, the Chisholm, the Western, the Goodnight-Loving. They all led to railheads, where the cattle were loaded into freight cars bound for eastern markets.

In less than two decades six million steers and cows were moved along them; so many, one trail driver said, that in places the dust was knee-deep to the cattle. The men who brought them to the railroads were given a new name "cowboys."

They were a mixed group: former Confederate cavalry men and immigrants who had only recently learned to ride; there were Indian cowboys and African-Americans -- and Mexican vaqueros, whose ancestors had introduced cattle to the West centuries earlier. A cowboy, one westerner observed, is "just a plain bowlegged human who smelled very horsey at times."

"In person the cowboys were mostly medium-sized men... quick and wiry, and as a rule very good-natured; in fact, it did not pay to be anything else. In character, their like never was or will be again."
Teddy Blue Abbott

Edward C. Abbott was born in Cranwich, England, and brought to the West by his parents as a boy. Hoping the open air would improve his frail health, his father let him help drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Nebraska when he was just 10 years old. The experience, Abbott said later, "made a cowboy out of me. Nothing could have changed me after that."

"My family and I went separate ways, and they stayed separate forever after. My father was all for farming... and all my brothers turned out farmers except one, and he ended up the worst of the lot -- a sheep-man, and a Republican."
Teddy Blue Abbott

The cowboys' average age was 24. They were paid so badly, and worked so hard, that two-thirds of them made only one trail drive before finding something better to do. They owned their saddle, but not the horse they rode -- and they rode it day and night.

For a man to be stove up at thirty may sound strange to some people, but many a cowboy has been so bunged up that he has to quit riding that early in life... My advice to any young man or boy is to stay at home and not be a rambler, as it won't buy you anything.
James Emmit McCauley

"If a storm come and the cattle started running -- you'd hear that low rumbling noise along the ground... then you'd jump for your horse and get out there in the lead, trying to head them and get them into a mill before they scattered to hell and gone. It was riding at a dead run in the dark, with cut banks and prairie dog holes all around you, not knowing if the next jump would land you in a shallow grave."

"The singing was supposed to soothe the cattle and it did... The two men on guard would circle around with their horses on a walk, if it was a clear night and the cattle was bedded down and quiet, and one man would sing a verse of a song, and his partner on the other side of the herd would sing another verse; and you'd go through a whole song that way... I had a crackerjack of a partner in '79. I'd sing and he'd answer, and we'd keep it up like that for two hours. But he was killed by lightning."
Teddy Blue Abbott

After up to four straight months in the saddle, often in the same clothes every day, eating every meal at the chuck wagon, drinking nothing but coffee and water, the cowboy's job was finally done -- he was paid for his work, and turned loose in town.

"I bought some new clothes and got my picture taken... I had a new white Stetson hat that I paid ten dollars for, and new pants that cost twelve dollars, and a good shirt and fancy boots. Lord, I was proud of those clothes! When my sister saw me, she said: "Take your pants out of your boots and put your coat on. You look like an outlaw." I told her to go to hell. And I never did like her after that. "
Teddy Blue Abbott

Cowboys were big spenders, but while businesses profited, all the cowtowns soon became wilder than their permanent residents liked.

The Marshal has posted up printed notices, informing all persons that the ordinance against carrying firearms or other weapons in Abilene will be enforced. That's right. There's no bravery in carrying revolvers in a civilized community.
Abilene Chronicle

Gun control ordinances were common; cowboys who insisted on carrying their six-shooters in town risked fines and imprisonment. To make sure the laws were obeyed, some cowtowns resorted to hiring notorious gunmen -- Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Wild Bill Hickok -- to keep the peace.

Morally, as a class, cowboys are foulmouthed, blasphemous, drunken, lecherous, utterly corrupt. Usually harmless on the plains when sober, they are dreaded in towns, for then liquor has an ascendancy over them.
Cheyenne Daily Leader

One by one, the cowtowns would declare themselves off-limits to the Texas herds and the cowboys who came with them.

"Then I went home. After I got home my father said to me one night: 'You can take old Morgan... and plow the west ridge tomorrow.' Like hell I'd plow the west ridge. And when he woke up next morning, Teddy was gone."
Teddy Blue Abbott

(from PBS.org)