Helpful Links

A few links members have found helpful.

Penski:

Wells Fargo has a wonderful website
about stage coaches at http://www.wellsfargohistory.com/stagecoach/stagecoach.htm

There
is a Wells Fargo musuem nearby with one of their original stagecoaches.
They used to fit up to NINE people in that stagecoach - must have been
very petite men and women in the Old West!

"Do you ever get the
feeling that nothing right is ever going to happen to us again?" - Kid
Curry


The URL for a ghost town site that has
some really neat names and history is:



www.ghosttowns.com
Ghislaine:

I came across the following site while
doing research. It contains a comprehensive list of links to articles
in over 20 categories about the Old West:

LEGENDS OF AMERICA: A
Travel Site for the Nostalgic & Historic Minded

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/LA-OldWestLegends.html


The blurb reads, in part, "From outlaws, to gunfighters, to the
American cowboy, and buried treasures on the frontier, Old West Legends
provides tales, biographies, and in-depth history into the lives and
times on the American West."


While reading "Revival," I googled faro
to learn more about the game and discovered a website that not only
explains the rules but also lets you play the game online for free. It's
really easy to learn--and fun! Here's the URL:

http://www.gleeson.us/faro/


Here's a link to a newly-published book
that looks like it could be very useful for writers:

Early
Justice and the Formation of the Colorado Bar by David L. Erickson at
<http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_10921190>


I posted the link on another site as well (so apologies if
you're seeing this again) but here's more info about the book:
"You
will pick it up, leaf through it and get caught in a moment of old
Denver at its most flamboyant: from its formation in 1859, through World
War I."

"You will travel in time from Coronado through the
Louisiana Purchase, then brush past our early, short-lived organization
as Jefferson Territory, followed by the formation of Colorado Territory;
and your trip will be complemented by views of how the early pioneers
and miners provided justice at the beginning, swift and final; later,
measured and, many would say, obscured. First there were the miners'
courts, the people's courts, the frequently formed Committees on Public
Safety (vigilantes) and later into the district courts."

"In
less than five minutes, you can ingest an episode of an often-quirky,
occasionally outrageous but always entertaining adventure of one or more
of the early movers and shakers, well- dressed hustlers or courageous
persons with heart and vision."


Here's a link to a cookbook from the
early 1880s, found when I was researching food for my VS story:

http://www.archive.org/stream/appledorecookboo00parlrich/appledorecookboo00parlrich_djvu.txt


It's the complete text of "The Appledore cook book: containing
practical receipts for plain and rich cooking"

The formatting
is a bit weird in the beginning but it's fascinating reading! Here are
two recipes:

Coffee:
Put one cup of ground coffee and one
pint of cold water into the coffee-pot; set the pot on the fire and boil
ten minutes after it comes to a boil; then turn in a pint of boiling
water and a piece of salt fish skin about an inch square. Boil ten
minutes longer, then turn in half a cup of cold water and set one side
five minutes; turn into another pot, and send to the table. Always serve
boiled milk with coffee.
(I'm thinking it's the fish skin that
makes Heyes' coffee taste so bad...)

AND

To Sweeten
Tainted Meat:
Cover the meat with sweet milk, and let it stand an
hour or two, and, unless the meat is very bad, it will make it perfectly
sweet. Soaking in saleratus water is also good. [Saleratus = sodium
bicarbonate] (No wonder people didn't live so long back then...)

----------




I found this link on Carolyn's board
and want to post it here for anyone who hasn't seen it. It converts
amounts of US$ in a specified year to a sum in another year. For
example, I can figure out how much $500 in today's money would have been
in 1883 (it's $9914.50). Now I'm really wondering about the fees the
boys earn for the jobs they do!

http://www.austintxgensoc.org/calculatecpi.php

----A couple weeks ago in chat, I offered to
post the links to articles I used to research my VS story, as interest
was expressed in reading them, so here are the most interesting ones:

About
Skiing:
http://www.coloradoinfo.com/wintervacationplanner/history-of-skiing

http://www.plumasskiclub.org/long.html

http://www.plumasskiclub.org/pdf/denverpost.pdf
http://www.plumasskiclub.org/pdf/nevada_appeal%20.pdf

http://www.skimuseum.net/history.html

http://www.boston.com/travel/explorene/specials/ski/articles/2008/01/10/reliving_days_long_past/?page=full


About the Railroad:
http://www.durangotrain.com/history

Just came across the website The Wild
West the other day, at: http://www.thewildwest.org/

It has lots of
links embedded in the text on the homepage as well as links in the Cowboys
section in the toolbar at the top.

Found some more interesting links just
now; they're all connected to a website by someone names Sam Hane:

Popular
Songs in American History, with sections on post-Civil War, Gold Rush,
and Cowboy songs; click on a song and it takes you to a page with lyrics
and a midi to hear it:
http://www.sam-hane.com/sass/songs/

Sam
Hane's Cowboy Songs and Barroom Ballads; click on a link and you get the
lyrics (but no sound):
http://www.sam-hane.com/sass/songs/

A
webpage about the Schofield revolver; lots of interesting and real
technical stuff:
http://www.sam-hane.com/sass/schofield/

Timeline
of American history; lots of interesting, less-known, facts:
http://www.sam-hane.com/sass/time1a.htm#1880

beejay:

This site has links to many western
sites:

It is Old West History Net http://www.oldwesthistory.net/

Talma:




I've
found another couple of sites, one is really about cowboys but the bit I
find most interesting is about the Code of the West

http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/cowboy/code.html

and
the other is 19th century reproductions for use in re-enaction etc; I
thought the pictures of the clothes and personal items especially
fasinating.

http://www.ushist.com/index.html


I must admit to not having seen Pirates
of the Caribbean so it didn't register!

I did find a more
succinct summary of it here though from the site Ghislaine posted

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-CodeOfTheWest.html

Iona:

I found a website which has some
womderful desert photos. I never thought the desert could be so
beautiful.

www.wildnatureimages.com/Sonoran%20Desert.htm
ndakkid





I
first read this article about broom-making at the Wyoming Territorial
Prison in our local paper a few weeks ago, but they didn't have it
online. I went searching and came up with this link.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1766329~Broom_factory_at_Wyo__prison_opening_to_visitors.html

Try
as I might, I just can't see our boys making brooms. Kid wouldn't have
the patience, and I cringe to think of what the corn stalks would do to
Heyes' lovely, delicate fingertips.

FYI: I wanted to look up how much $100 would've been in 1880 and found that the link to the website mentioned above where I used to do that no longer works. A quick web search came up with an alternate website that does the calculations:

http://measuringworth.com/calculators/ppowerus/

For coffee without the fish skin:



“Well, Aunt Jane,” said Grace, very gravely, “I suppose I am to write down Rhoda’s recipe. Number 31. About enough coffee, some hot water, as many eggs as you happen to have, stir it all up together, and let it boil till its done. Is that it?”



“I think, perhaps, I can make it a little more definite, and easier for other people to understand,” said Aunt Jane, “but I’m afraid I shan’t be able to put Rhoda’s judgment into the receipt-book.”



No. 31 – TO MAKE COFFEE.



One quart boiling water, half a pint ground coffee, one egg, half a pint cold water; mix the coffee first with the egg, (which should not be beaten,) then with the cold water very thoroughly; put it in the coffee boiler, pour on the boiling water and let it boil fifteen or twenty minutes, then set it where it will not boil, and throw in one-half gill of cold water.



“How much is a gill, mamma?” asked Amy.



“A gill is a quarter of a pint; half a tumblerful, or about two small wine-glassfuls,” said her mother. “A half gill may be measured by putting four even tablespoonsful of water into a cup and noticing how high they come up. Then you will always have your measure at hand.”



(Six Little Cooks, or, Aunt Jane’s Cooking Class, by Elizabeth Stansbury, pub. 1877).
I did a web search and, Fortitudine, that looks like a great book! Do you have a hardcopy of it? Others like it? I bought the Appledore Cookbook and it's fun to read through it; I've never actually made anything from it, though. Highly doubt I'll make fish-skin coffee--though I am having company this weekend...

Here's a link to the Six Little Cooks book, for anyone interested in checking it out:
http://books.google.com/books?id=c-yZcBXD7o0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Six+Little+Cooks,+or,+Aunt+Jane%E2%80%99s+Cooking+Class%22&source=bl&ots=KdjkOGZJM7&sig=g9H4xuBtR7WEO5OQk3ZCwh78dGA&hl=en&ei=LAaYTIHHMoeisQO1koGdDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Ghislaine, I have a small collection of late 19th/early 20th century cookbooks, but I read "6 LIttle Cooks" online. A great site for traditional American cookbooks is Michigan State University's online library, Feeding America. There's one by a railroad magnate's cook that is the kind of food the robber barons would have enjoyed in the 1880's. Just reading Good Things To Eat makes my mouth water.

Was looking for some information regarding prices of telegrams in the 1880s and came across this website page. Although it is a fan site for Dr. Quinn, the "bank" page has some very interesting tidbits. It also references a book which looks interesting as well, which I will be ordering (link for the book from Amazon also below).

http://www.drquinnmd.com/bank.html

http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Guide-Everyday-1800s-Guides/dp/0898795419

Frankie:

"Got this link from another site but thought some of you may like it - it might get a few bunnies hopping - she said hopefully!

http://www.archives.gov/research/american-west/ "

Has anyone posted this link? If so, this is a repeat, I guess.

http://www.tombstone1880.com/archives/

For those interested in the history of the Texas Fever that almost destroyed the Texas cattle industry, here's a link to a good short article on it:



http://www.texasescapes.com/CFEckhardt/Texas-Fever.htm

For those of you who may not be familiar with it, This Day in History (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history) is a daily roundup of Important Things that happened on each day of the calendar year and is organized by topic or time period.

Scroll down the list and you reach the day's event for the Old West. Today, for example, it's about The Great Diamond Hoax (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-diamond-hoax-is-exposed?et_cid=49023426&et_rid=810234944&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.history.com%2fthis-day-in-history%2fthe-great-diamond-hoax-is-exposed).

I found a wonderful site listing the Old West outlaws and famous folks, their pictures (that get bigger when you put your mouse over them), dates, what they were wanted for, and how they died. Really interesting.

http://www.jimwegryn.com/Names/Cowboys3.htm

Hmm... I wonder if Heyes and Kid Curry ever met up with any of them?

Wow - I guess Heyes and Kid got all the good looking genes of the outlaws!!! Not one of them was the slightest bit attractive.