Vast lands were open, and adventure seemed rampant. In fact, so compelling was the idea of the American West that Theodore Roosevelt noted, "More and more as the years go by this Republic will find its guidance in the thought and action of the West, because the conditions of development in the West have steadily tended to accentuate the peculiarly American characteristics of its people" (Roosevelt). The frontier was still available through the Dime Novel; adventures with the American Indian, gold mining, vast herds of buffalo, and even the railroad were popular; must like space adventures today. This was the great unknown, and, through a series of essays, historian Frederick Jackson Turner noted that while most of the West was at least mapped, the future of the United States would be decided in the West -- thus, once the frontier became an historical relic, it was fair game to be reconstructed through nostalgia, fable, and fiction disguised as fact for the general public (Wright).
One of the most popular figures of American popular culture was scout and frontiersman William Cody. In 1869, Ned Buntline fictionalized Cody's life which many believe marketed the beginning of the Western as a specific genre in American popular culture. Cody capitalized on this interest when he brought his Wild West Show to the east in 1883. This had a cast of 100 cowboys and Indians, sharpshooter Annie Oakley, and a menagerie of wild animals. The circus-like atmosphere brought entertainment and a hunger for more of this genre to the youth of the eastern seaboard well into the 20th...
In essence, Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull (one of the show's guests) invented the Wild West and gave Americans a template from which to build their historical views of the nation and the era (Bridger).
The Adventures of Buffalo Bill from Boyhood to Manhood first published in 1882 and eventually contained 31 serialized chapters. Each chapter was a self-contained story, and each chapter had a major point-of-view to pass on to its readers. Essentially Cody espouses eight major trends that become the archetype of the Western Hero: 1) Skilled frontiersman- "Captain Denhman, don't camp there, sir, for you place yourself at the mercy of the renegades and Indians that are dogging your trail," (Ingram, Chp. XIV); 2) Stands for honesty but does not fear violence for actions of good; 3) A fraternal figure, firmly ensconced in the masculine world; 4) Can work and get dirty -- contrasted to the elite, "urban dandy;" "But Billy, in spite of his lightning driving, managed his team well, and after a fierce run of half an hour rolled up to the door of the station in a style that made the agent and the lookers on stare. But he saved the box and the lives of the passengers, and several days after was transferred from the, Pony Rider line to stage driving on the Overland, a position he seemed to like" (Ingram, Chp. XVII); 5) Needs freedom and fresh air, cannot be domesticated; 6) Devoted to the sacred feminine, mothers, but not a lothario. This ended the fight for the mine; but after a few days' longer work in it Billy found that the vein panned out badly, and selling out his interest in it returned to his home once more, convinced that mining was not his forte, though he certainly
