Few if any historical eras are more storied and romanticized than the American Wild West. In 1800, there were only 16 states in the Union. A new concept, manifest destiny, had taken hold of the public’s imagination. By envisioning America as a promised land, a kind of new Eden, Americans began to see themselves as a chosen people of God, compelled to spread their country and the philosophy at its core, to the many corners of the Earth.

The Federal Government began a massive campaign of land purchase and expansion, securing huge portions of the continent through the Louisiana Purchase, and eventually, war with Spain. Gradually, Americans asserted political and physical dominance over the America we know today, by the dawn of the 20th century, 29 new states had taken shape. The indomitable enterprising spirit of the pioneers and hardy independence of cowboys, the tragic suffering of the Indians and terrible cruelty of bandits and outlaws, all are endlessly mythologized in books and movies. To the people of the time, the Western frontier was the land of opportunity, the country of prosperity. It was the backdrop of the American dream, the notion that in our unique and just society, wealth and power were not the birthright of an aristocracy, but earned by the sweat of one’s brow. Men made their own destinies on the lonesome prairie and the hot salty desert.

The frontier was the last great unknown in this part of the world, a vast realm of chaos and unchallenged nature waiting to be tamed. Like pirates before them, outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James were born tough and died bloody. They embraced the anarchy and reveled in the freedom of a lawless land. At the same time, the West made ordinary men into heroes. Settlers, entrepreneurs, and lawmen like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson carved a nation out of pure wilderness, and created order in Nature and among man. Throughout our site, we have a huge selection of wild west period accessories, western replicas, and western guns to help commemorate this incomparable time in history.