| Few periods in American history have been more romanticized than the era of the "Wild West." The period began with the first European colonial settlements in North America during the early 17th century, but what can be regarded as the classic era of the Old West — with its cowboys, gunslingers, prospectors and outlaws — stretched from around the 1850s to the early 1900s. Dime novels and Western movies created a frontier myth in which rugged men rode out to conquer a barren landscape and fight "bad guys," and the image became a popular and enduring part of American culture, despite the many historical inaccuracies involved. |
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