In the 19th century, the young nation of America was growing fast and was well on its way to becoming the world power we know today. The acquisition of vast swathes of land in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 effectively doubled the size of the US, and included territory that now comprises 15 states, among them Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Wyoming. By the late 1860s, the end of the civil war and the growth of the railways led settlers to venture further into the new world than ever before. These rugged new territories (and later the period itself) came to be known as the Wild West.
This was a time of bandits, cattle rustlers and gunslingers. But if folklore is to be believed it was also a…