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Gunfights In The Old West Essay

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1. Prologue: Gunfights in the Old West – an endless source of myths and leg-ends Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, thousands of duels and gunfights took place within the borders of the United States of America, especially in its southern states, the so-called “Great American Desert”. Names that are immedi-ately connected with Old West gunfights are Billy the Kid, Jesse James and Butch Cassidy. The majority of those shootouts were small conflicts that were not fur-ther documented, but the ones that are better known are surrounded by myths and legends, often spread by dime novels and movies. These sources often contain all kinds of fiction or lore that has been exaggerated. “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact...print …show more content…

If a story or rumor was spread back then, every-body just believed it and newspapers publicized it without further research. The problem is that after some time, the truth gets lost or forgotten and the only re-maining source is that particular legend that becomes the new truth. All in all, this topic is literally burdened with clichés and I am very interested to contribute in seeking out the truth that lies behind these Old West gunfights. In my childhood, I often watched Western movies with my grandfather, especially the traditional ones with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart like “The Searchers” or “Winchester ‘73”. I did not know back then that behind all those stereotypes of hero and villain, lawman and outlaw, there are many other factors that lead to such an event, e.g. the social and personal circumstances or economic aspects. This is the main reason for my decision to research on the topic, “Tombstone and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral – The legend of Wyatt Earp”, which was one of the most notorious and influential gunfights that occurred in the Old West. This gritty confrontation, having its 135th anniversary this year on October 26, took the lives of three people, had a large, even deadlier aftermath and turned lawman Wy-att Earp into a national

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