Welcome to the “My Place” page
 My name is Scott
I run the Rope and Wire website.
My original idea for this page was to give those living in the country the opportunity to tell others about the things that made their farm or ranch so special.
Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that either no one likes to brag or no one lives on a farm or a ranch. Whatever the case, no one submitted an article so I felt it was high time to try something different.
So for now this will be literally “My Place.” I’ll use this page to post a western blog or short articles. They will either be mine, or possibly one from a contributing R&W community member.
The theme will remain Western but the content will change weekly, or there about.
If you click on any of the links to past blog's, you can return to this page by clicking on the My Place button across from my picture.
I hope you enjoy it but if not, might I suggest you “stroll the grounds.” Read a story or watch a movie.
Thanks for visiting.
Scott
A Western Town
I was thinking the other day about the sort of things early western settlers did to make a living. In particular, the men and women who ran small businesses.
I thought about all of the small western towns that took root during the mid 1800’s. The westward migration brought a steady stream of people in search of such things as gold, free land or maybe a brand new start. Because of the huge influx of people moving west, small towns began popping up faster than weeds in a garden patch.
For one reason or another, quite a few of these fledgling town’s didn’t make it, which is why, to this day, the western landscape is littered with their remains. The slowly decaying remains of banks to brothels can be found in almost every state west of the Mississippi.
Western ghost towns are a booming business in their own right. Numerous books and websites can be found on the subject. And a few towns have even been resurrected as successful tourist attractions, bringing in more revenue now, than when they were in their heyday. But ghost towns are a whole different subject. One I will definitely touch on at a later date
Anyhow, as I was saying, not everyone who moved west planned on making his or her living as a rancher or a farmer. There were plenty of entrepreneurs in the mix. They made their way west to start businesses catering to those who were working and settling in newly established mining towns, rail towns, cow towns, timber towns and the like.
Most of these towns began with nothing more than a few large tents. They had their “Anchor” businesses such as a saloon or two, and possibly a brothel, and maybe a general store. If a town was fortunate enough to prosper, more entrepreneurs, especially those who belonged to the building trade, would move in. Constructing more permanent structures for those interested in opening secondary shops such as banks, livery stables, blacksmith shops, bathhouses and restaurants. Maybe even a newspaper and telegraph office at some point.
As long as the towns core industry survived, the town would prosper and grow. Those towns that were more politically organized and forward thinking enough to diversify their core industries, for instance a gold mining town diversifying into lumber, could manage to survive if, for instance, the gold petered out. But the town that was unwilling or unable to make that transition… It dried up, as fast as the well that watered it.
The men and women who traveled west were a diverse group of people. Many of them did come west to try their hand at farming and ranching to be sure. There were many others who worked the land as miners and loggers (lumberjacks, for you Easterners) as well. Towns existed because of these industries, but it was the entrepreneurs such as the cooper and the storekeeper, the banker and the blacksmith, who breathed life into a town. And if they were good at their trade and savvy enough to put intelligent men in positions of power, they survived and grew.
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