Wild West

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Name given to the period in the American West when crime and disorder posed a major problem in its newly established communities. Rapid settlement, such as that experienced during the California gold rush 1848–49 or the cow towns of the early US cattle industry, meant that many towns sprang up without the necessary forces of government or law and order. Despite the lack of effective policing, the majority of communities experienced little crime or its associated problems. However, the myth of the lawless West became one of its most powerful images; the outlaw Billy the Kid, frontier law officer Wyatt Earp, and the sharpshooter Calamity Jane are among the most famous figures to emerge from the West.

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