Transportation and communication. Law and order

Transportation varied with the area and the means at hand. Until the railroads appeared, travel was always slow and uncomfortable, and often dangerous. Roads were few and bad, and schedules were irregular.

Most people traveled by stagecoach. A group of passengers could defend themselves more easily against Indians or bandits than a person alone. One famous line, the Butterfield Overland Mail, ran four coaches weekly between St. Louis and San Francisco. The coaches bumped along day and night, covering about 100 miles (160 kilometers) in 24 hours. The passengers, grimy with dust in summer and shivering with cold in winter, tried to sleep on the hard seats. Crude wood or adobe "stations" every 1 miles (1 6 kilometers) or so provided food for both passengers and horses. Travelers faced the constant danger of Indian attack and bad weather. Traveling alone was even more dangerous, but people in a hurry rode horseback. Settlers moving with their families traveled in wagons.

Wagon trains served as the best means of hauling freight before railroads were built. They usually included about 25 heavy, high-wheeled wagons, each pulled by a team of 6 to 20 oxen or mules. People called bullwhackers or mule skinners drove the wagons and guarded the freight. The wagons lumbered along at 1 or 2 miles (1.6 or 3.2 kilometers) per hour, or about 100 miles (160 kilometers) in a seven-day week, because "there was no Sunday west of Omaha." The wagons hauled ore from mines and brought in mining machinery and blasting powder. They carried the food and water that made life possible in desert camps, if blizzards stopped them, the price of flour might soar to $100 a sack. Famous freight lines included Ben Holladay's Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, and the Wells, Fargo line (see Wells, Fargo & Company). Frontier people also used burros to carry goods. Some even used camels, imported from Asia because they could live on the desert (see Camel).

Communication. News traveled slowly, most of it by stagecoach. A letter took months to go from California to the Middle West, and snows in the mountains cut off almost all communication in winter.

The pony express carried the mail between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif., a distance of almost 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers). The service had about 80 riders. Pony-express riders generally made two runs a week over their part of the route in each direction. At first, it cost $5 to send ½ ounce (14 grams) of mail by pony express, so that this volume of The World Book Encyclopedia, for example, would have cost more than $400 to send.

Pony-express riders changed horses every 1 to 15 miles (16 to 24 kilometers), and new riders took over every 75 miles (121 kilometers). The pony express covered more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) a day, so that mail usually traveled from St. Joseph to Sacramento in about 1 days. The trip often took up to 15 days during winter. This remarkable system began in April 1860, but lasted only about 19 months, it was discontinued after the telegraph reached California in October 1861.

Law and order. Farm families on the frontier lived quietly, but crime troubled the mining camps and cattle towns. These isolated settlements sometimes had great wealth in precious metals and attracted people who came to cheat and steal. Others meant well but wanted to have a good time. A mixture of gambling, drinking, and firearms sometimes led to violence. But the West was far from the "wild" place pictured in legend and story.

Crime often resulted from the temptations of gold and silver. Miners who had struck it rich usually celebrated by getting drunk. Then they might be stabbed and robbed, or cheated in a poker game by a cardsharp who used a marked deck of cards. Gold and silver also tempted bandits, who followed shipments on their way to California or to the East. They picked a deserted spot in which to attack a wagon or stagecoach. Criminals also included claim jumpers, who illegally took over mine claims that belonged to someone else. Confidence men (swindlers) often sold worthless stocks. Many dealt in "salted" mines, selling worthless holes after putting in small amounts of good ore.

Horses, cattle, and sheep also provided a temptation for lawbreakers. The animals roamed great areas, and could be moved under their own power. Rustlers stole cattle, drove them to a shebang (hideout), and altered their brands. One valley in the Pahranagat Range of southeastern Nevada became a refuge for rustlers who roamed through Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho. A rider passing through the valley could count as many as 350 different brands on cattle stolen from as many ranches. One story tells of a sheriff who returned from such a robbers' roost looking triumphant. "Get your man?" somebody asked. "No," the sheriff replied, "but I rode plumb through the place without getting shot."

Disturbances also arose from the constant feuding between cattle ranchers and the sheep owners and farmers. The Lincoln County War inflamed New Mexico in 1878 as cattlemen and other groups fought for control of the county. Army troops and Governor Lew Wallace finally quieted the rival cattle ranchers. See New Mexico (Territorial days). In 1892, cattle ranchers in Johnson County, Wyoming, imported a trainload of gunmen to terrorize farmers. The army finally ended this Johnson County Cattle War after several killings on both sides. See Wyoming (The Johnson County War).

The desperadoes (outlaws) usually worked together in gangs, such as those led by Henry Plummer, the Younger brothers, "the Dalton boys," and Frank and Jesse James. They robbed banks, trains, and stagecoaches throughout large areas. Sam Bass once stole $60,000 in gold from a single Union Pacific train traveling through Nebraska. Billy the Kid was said to have killed 21 men. Some of the most famous desperadoes were honest and kindly until drink or anger aroused them.

Then they became killers. But even among lawbreakers, the code of the West demanded that people give each other a chance to defend themselves. A gunman who shot from behind or attacked an unarmed person was considered a coward. Outlaws who obeyed this code had many friends and admirers in spite of their crimes. They symbolized the independence and vitality of the West, and many legends grew up around them. Sooner or later most were shot or hanged.

Law enforcement. When Americans settled unorganized territory in the Far West, they brought with them federal, state, and local laws from their former homes. But these laws did not always help new communities. Often they did not take into account new and different situations, such as cattle rustling. Even when laws suited a community, enforcement was hard because of the great distances between settlements. For example, the sheriff at Pioche, Nevada, was responsible for law and order as far away as the mining camp of El Dorado, 300 miles (480 kilometers) distant.

If the sheriff did capture a murderer, there was often no jail to hold the prisoner. And the outlaw's friends might kill innocent citizens to free the prisoner. Everyone had to be ready to "shoot it out." Judge Roy Bean, "the law west of the Pecos," held court in his saloon in Langtry, Texas, with the aid of a single law book and a six-shooter.

But law-abiding people lived in all parts of the frontier, and sooner or later they established order. The West often found law officers as fearless as the outlaws themselves. Many served as federal marshals. Tom Smith, the marshal of Abilene, Kansas, did not drink or swear, but he shocked a tough cattle town into behaving by knocking out armed men with his bare fists. The Texas Rangers also helped maintain law and order (see Texas Rangers).

The citizens themselves provided another answer to the problem of law enforcement. They banded together in groups of vigilantes to capture and punish criminals. Sometimes these groups killed innocent people in their haste, but most victims deserved the punishment they received. See Vigilante.

Indian fighting disturbed the frontier for many years. The federal government had reserved large areas of Western land for Indian use, but land-hungry white settlers constantly moved into these areas. Agents of the Indian Bureau tried to protect the Indians and to enforce laws for both Indians and whites. But most frontier troops, stationed in about 100 posts throughout the West, agreed with the claim many Westerners made that "the only good Indians are dead Indians." In 1864, an Army force killed nearly 300 peaceful Indians near Sand Creek, Colorado. Such events, and the revenge they in-spired, aroused the whole frontier. For the story of Indian wars in the West, see Indian wars.