Life on the frontier. Clothing. Amusements and Religion. Frontier towns

Clothing had to be practical, and most people wore the same plain garments day after day. Men wore cowhide boots; woolen trousers or overalls; a wool shirt; a jacket or vest; and a felt hat. Some had socks. A man often wore a red bandanna handkerchief around his neck to protect himself from the dust and cold. Women wore sunbonnets and simple calico and gingham dresses. Cowboys wore leather chaps to protect their legs from brush. Cowboy hats, called sombreros, had a wide brim to shield the eyes, and a deep crown so that the hat would not blow off. Some men bought deerskin clothes from the Indians. Wealthy men and women bought clothes from New York City, London, or Paris.

Many frontiersmen, particularly outlaws and law-enforcement officers, carried weapons. Especially popular were Winchester rifles; Colt revolvers, including the famous six-shooter; and Bowie knives (see Handgun.

Amusements on the frontier varied with the area and the type of settler. Homesteading families on the plains met for square dances, holiday celebrations, and house-raising or corn-husking bees. Miners and cowboys enjoyed spending their leisure time drinking and gambling in the saloons that sprang up in every town. Dance halls called hurdy-gurdies attracted many people, although men often had to dance with each other, because women were scarce. Informal rodeos featured expert horsemanship and other cowboy skills (see Rodeo).

Throughout the West, people enjoyed horse races, shooting contests, and wrestling and boxing matches. In larger towns, settlers welcomed traveling dramatic groups and vaudeville shows. They applauded such famous performers as Edwin Booth, Laura Keene, and Helena Modjeska.

Religion came to the western frontier even before most white settlers arrived. In the early 1800's, Catholic and Protestant missionaries such as Father Pierre De Smet and Marcus Whitman had pushed into the Far West to convert the Indians (see De Smet, Pierre jean; Whitman, Marcus). But new settlements often grew up far from the missions, and people had to rely on traveling preachers called circuit riders Xo perform religious services.

These men rode about constantly. When they arrived in a town, they preached sermons and conducted marriages, baptisms, and other services for people who had sometimes waited many weeks. Among farm families on the plains, circuit riders set up Sunday schools and held summer camp meetings.

Frontier towns sprang up almost overnight. An early arrival in Bovard, Nev., told how he passed through the town in the morning and noticed four or five tents. When he returned in the afternoon. Main Street was 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) long and business was booming in a string of tent saloons. Some towns, such as Butte, Mont., started as shipping points for ore. Others, including Wichita, Kan., boomed as cattle transport centers. Many, such as Tombstone, Ariz., grew up around mines. Transportation centers usually grew and prospered. But most mining camps became ghost towns of rubble and sagebrush after the ores had been worked out or metal prices fell.

Virginia City bustled with activity in the 1860’s. The town perched 6,500 feet (1 ,980 meters) high in the Sierra Nevada, close to Mt. Davidson, site of the fabulous Comstock Lode

Most frontier towns provided few comforts. Miners often slept outdoors in summer, and built a dugout or crude shack in the winter. They might have a tent or make a shelter out of rocks, empty bottles, or packing cases. Two early settlers in Treasure City, Nev., collected all the rocks they could find for shelter against the winter. The next spring, they discovered that the walls were high-grade silver ore worth $75,000!

House furnishings were simple and often homemade. Miners needed blasting powder more than fine dishes. They papered their shacks with newspapers to make them warmer. Today, visitors can sometimes still read about events in a ghost town on the walls of its crumbling buildings. A few wealthy people shipped in furniture, tableware, and wallpaper at great expense. If a town became fairly permanent, the people built board sidewalks on each side of the dirt streets, lined with poles and stakes for hitching posts. Square false fronts made small buildings look impressive.

Life in frontier towns was difficult. People often lacked conveniences, and even necessities. Usually the only water available in mining camps was warm and dirty. Sometimes people hauled water a great distance and sold it for several dollars a barrel. In many areas on the plains, no trees grew.

Because of such shortages, western towns often grew in groups, such as the one built around Virginia City, Nev. The rich silver and gold mines of the Comstock Lode centered around Virginia City, but the town had no wood or water. Other towns grew up nearby to supply these needs. Empire became a smelter town on the Car-son River; Washoe, near the Sierra Nevadas, supplied fuel; and Reno grew up where the local railroad joined the main line of the Central Pacific.

During the 20-year period between 1860 and 1880, the Comstock Lode yielded more than $300 million worth of ore. Because of this great wealth, all the comforts of the day soon appeared in Virginia City. At first, supplies came in by muleback, a few at a time. When a road was built, slow freight wagons brought supplies.

Finally, a railroad served the town with several trains a day. By 1876, Virginia City had 23,000 people, 20 laundries, 54 dry-good stores, 6 churches, and 150 saloons. The vice president of the express company built a four-story French-style mansion. An opera house and several theaters presented Italian light operas, vaudeville, lectures, and even Shakespeare's plays. The miners' union had a library. A local newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise, employed a young reporter who wrote under the name of Mark Twain. At any time, a person might find silver ore in the basement and be worth $1 million the next day. People had to be careful that they and their children did not fall into a neighbor's new mine.