40 Wild Old West Photos That Make Us Feel Lucky To Live In the 21st Century

Hacking down massive trees by hand; houses built from sod; travel by bumpy, dusty stagecoaches. These were just a few of the trials that folks had to put up with in the days of the Old West. Today, we can only marvel at the toughness and resilience of those people from the 1800s. So take a look at these 40 remarkable images that show just what life was really like in the Wild West.

40. At the saloon bar

Here we are back in the days of the Wild West in that most familiar of settings: the saloon bar. The first thing you might notice is the fact that the drinking den’s entirely lacking in females. Presumably, it wasn’t considered proper for a lady to be drinking with these ruffians. There also appears to be a severe shortage of chairs. We think we prefer today’s bars, featuring both women and seating.

39. McDonald’s Brickyard

It’d be hard to argue that these men look happy in their job. They were working at McDonald’s Brickyard at Round Pond in the Oklahoma Territory during 1894. Obviously, back then all the heavy lifting was done manually — there isn’t a mechanical aid anywhere in sight at this open-air workplace. Heaving one of those handcarts loaded with bricks around must’ve been backbreaking toil.

38. Bill Scott, minor and miner

One bleak reality of the Old West was child labor, as this image shows. Seen late in the 19th century, this lad in his somewhat oversized clothes is called Bill Scott. And according to the original caption, he was just eight. Complete with pipe and pick, he was ready for a day’s work in the coal mines of Clarksburg, West Virginia.

37. Manhattan

Here’s a shot of Manhattan, but we aren’t in New York. In fact, we’re in Nevada, in the Manhattan that was established there back during the 1860s. This shot’s actually from the early 20th century, not long after gold had been discovered near the town. As you can see, the subsequent gold rush caused a certain amount of mayhem on the main street. They could surely do with some asphalt surfacing to tidy things up a bit.