The year 1876 was significant in American history for many reasons. It was the centennial of the founding of the United States, and the country was stretching itself to the Pacific Coast. Baseball's National League was holding its inaugural season. Gunslingers and bandits were ruling the west, with Jesse James and his gang terrorizing people, robbing banks, and murdering those in their way. The U.S. Army was also on the war path, looking to suppress Native-American resistance following the discovery of gold in territories assigned as reservations.
Over the summer of 1876, these events combined to provide the average American with the view that the west was not yet settled, that law and order was lacking. Heroes and villains were forged that summer. Jesse James was hunted down for a bank robbery gone wrong in Minnesota. Colonel Custer chased Plains Native-Americans for miles, before being ambushed and killed with his men in what became known as Custer's Last Stand. The last Native-American victory against the U.S. Army made names like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull known throughout the United States. A legendary gambler and shooter, James Butler Hickok, also known as Wild Bill, was killed during a poker game. Lawman Wyatt Earp had recently moved to Kansas and served as a marshal's deputy, despite his own run-ins with the law. Calamity Jane was already known as a sharpshooter as she cruised the prairies.
These histories became the founding part of the myth of the west and its lawless cowboys, a myth that continues to this day in western movies and in literature. But in 1876, these events were very much shaping the young nation. Fans of history will appreciate how all of these themes work together into a seamless story.
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