Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, 1890
{photo by Royale Photographie, Vuillemenot Montabone 188 Via Nazionale – Roma (Italia) (Royale Photographie) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons}
This week we take a fun look at the adventurous Wild West! There are SO many videos, movies, and tv series set in this time period, and we won’t even try to link to them all here. (Here’s a list of Western movies with age recommendations from Common Sense Media, and another list of Westerns for Kids and Teens.) But we hope you can enjoy some of these videos and websites, if you have time for a little something extra this week. Parents, please preview the following to make sure they are appropriate for your kids:
VIDEOS:
Ken Burns’ The West, Season 1 – An epic miniseries, currently available to stream for free with Amazon Prime. Or you can also watch it on Netflix.
Old Mill Days Calistoga – From Travel for Kids (a fun YouTube channel!), this is a promo video about the Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park in Calistoga, where kids can step into the 19th century during their Old Mill Days events. The video shows various activities such as sawing a log by hand, making corn husk dolls, watching a blacksmith at work, spinning wool into yarn, crushing apples to make apple juice, and listening to live music.
Annie Oakley – Here’s a vintage video featuring sharpshooter Annie Oakley, the “Little Sure Shot” of the Wild West, from the Library of Congress.
Biography: Annie Oakley – From the Biography channel:
America the Story of US: Heartland – This episode, all about the Wild West, is part of a longer documentary series:
The First Cowboys – A 45-minute old Wild West history documentary:
Kit Carson | PBS America – Here’s a clip from a PBS America’s Wild West Week:
Geronimo and the Apache Resistance – Here’s another clip, from a PBS documentary:
The full documentary can be found here.
The Real West: Buffalo Bill – This is part of a documentary series from the History Channel:
Butch Cassidy and the Outlaw Trail – About an hour long, this documentary tells the story of the infamous Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch:
Gunfight at the OK Corral Reenactment – From historic Tombstone, AZ. The beginning is a little slow, but he also walks around town and shows some of the buildings, inside and out. Skip to about 8 minutes in for the gunfight reenactment:
Landscape of History: The Nez Perce National Historic Trail – This video follows the journey taken by the Nez Perce Indians in 1877, as they fled their homeland, pursued by the US Army:
Frontier House 2002 – This is episode one of a TV series about three modern-day families who go “back in time” to live like 1880s homesteading pioneers in Montana. You can find the other episodes on YouTube, or purchase the DVD.:
A similar series called Pioneer Quest is another option that is currently available to stream for free with Amazon Prime.
Calamity Jane – “Fluff,” but a fun family movie. This classic 1953 musical starring Doris Day is loosely based on the lives of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock. This is a link to rent it from Amazon.
Walt Disney – A Cowboy Needs a Horse – We will end with this fun vintage short from Disney:
WEBSITES:
The Wild West – There’s much to explore on this site! Be transported back in time to the American Wild West as you learn all about cowboys, American Indians, and outlaws. Read about famous people from this time, play games, and find songs, poems, recipes, and more.
Adventures Into the Past – This website has several interactive activities related to The West, life in the 1800s, and Native American tribes. Requires Flash.
The Wild West Crafts and Printables
The Great Railroad Race – Learn about the building of the transcontinental railroad.
Frontier House online activities
Closing of the American Frontier, 1870-1900 – Images from 6 exhibitions.
The West Virtual Museum Exhibits:
- Bandelier National Monument: The Pueblo people
- Chaco Culture National Historic Park
- Death Valley National Park
- Navajo Portraits at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site
- Nez Perce National Historic Park
- Grant-Kohns Ranch National Historic Site
Quotes from Chief Joseph of the New Peace Tribe – There is info about him here too. Scroll down to find the quotes.
Field trip idea…? We found this Paso Robles-based company, Harris Stage Lines, which offers field trips for students to step back into the 1800s and experience a taste of the Old West. If you can gather enough classmates, this might be fun!
There’s also the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, if you find yourself going down that way.
Do you know of other local places that offer similar experiences? Please share in the comments below!
