Homelessness in the Wild West

Wagon Train Oregon Trail

(Article published in Street Speech by the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless) 

When we think of the Wild West, we usually think of cowboys and Indians, Buffalo Bill and shoot-outs at the O.K. corral. In other words, we tend to romanticize this period in our nation’s history. 

Real life at this time was not like the movies.  Real life was generally much harder, much duller, hotter and dustier.  It had little of the glamour depicted by Hollywood.  There were gunfighters, but shoot outs were few and far between and rarely occurred as a face to face standoff.  Being shot in the back was a much more likely scenario.  There certainly were cowboys, though it was a very hard, unglamorous life.  There definitely were Indians, and yes, they were called “Indians,” not the “politically correct” term “Native Americans.”  What we don’t usually picture when we think of the Wild West is paupers and panhandlers, yet both were very much a part of the Western frontier.

Recessions, like wars, have always been an integral part of American history and both have always been major contributors to homelessness. Shortly after our War of Independence, the nation witnessed the first in a series of depressions that have caused tremendous economic havoc. One of the worst was the 1837 crisis and the six-year depression that followed. This was a formidable financial meltdown, even by today’s standards. The origins of the panic were risky speculative lending practices in western states, a sharp decline in cotton prices, a collapsing land bubble and erratic American banking policy. Wages throughout America fell by 30-50 percent. There were no unemployment figures kept at the time, of course, but had there been, they would have been horrific. All of this sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it? History has a way of repeating itself.

Public demonstrations by out of work residents of Boston, Philadelphia and New York City brought out hundreds of thousands of people in 1839 and 1840.  Making conditions even more critical was the arrival of a massive wave of poor immigrants, many from the Irish potato famine.  Major port cities in the east became a hub for the growing concentration of the unemployed and the homeless, greatly taxing public resources.  

Thus the economic hardship in the east became the major motivation for those making the long, often arduous journey west.  The first wagon trains of pioneers headed westward in 1841 along the overland trails- the most famous was the Oregon Trail.  They were in search of cheap land and a better life.    

People looked to the West, specifically California Territory and Oregon Territory, as though it were a biblical “Promised Land.”  Even the farmers of relatively economically unharmed Midwestern and Plains regions felt the wanderlust and started selling out or abandoning their homes and farms to get in on the westward migration. 

       

Then in 1848 gold was discovered in California and thousands of young men set out to make their fortune.
Most of these fortune hunters left for California in 1849 and were therefore known as the “49ers.” Those lucky enough to arrive first were able to find nuggets of gold in the streambeds and made quick fortunes. The gold was literally free for the taking. Yet the majority of those who made the trek out West were not so lucky, especially those who arrived late.

In addition to the lure of gold, others headed west to join crews building America’s railroads.  Both of these opportunities to make money brought waves of Chinese immigrants to America in the mid-1800’s.  They brought with them the habit of opium smoking.  Opium dens, places where opium was sold and smoked, soon sprang up in the alleys of San Francisco’s Chinatown and the Barbary Coast district. 

San Francisco 1849

San Francisco was initially just a way station for picking up supplies on the way to the gold-filled foothills.  In this wide-open town every kind of vice was catered to in the numerous brothels, saloons, dance halls, gambling houses and opium dens.  Lawlessness was rampant.  Prospectors who came into town from the gold fields could lose their fortunes in a flash in a game of cards or find themselves assaulted and robbed in a back alley.

Surprisingly, some of California’s first millionaires made their wealth, not in gold, but in selling supplies to the prospectors.  When the hordes began to flood the city prices on everything rose astronomically.  Eggs could cost $50.00 a dozen and blankets sold for anywhere from $40.00-$100.00.  But just like the unpredictability of the miners striking it rich, it was the luck of the draw for these merchants too.  Some were wiped out by disastrous fires that swept through rows of hastily constructed wooden buildings. In less than two years the city burned to the ground six times.  

As the city of San Francisco grew in population, so did the ranks of the homeless.   The city went from a population of a few hundred in the 1840’s to over 20,000 by 1850.  Alcohol and drugs, particularly opium, were readily available creating a subculture of addicts.  Others became beggars after having failed to strike it rich in the gold fields. They were left penniless after spending everything they had getting to California and buying their mining supplies.  Still others blew whatever they made in panning for gold in riotous living.  Panhandling became a way of life- a life we see again years later among many of today’s homeless.

Sadly, the Civil War seemed to be the saving grace of many of these destitute homeless.  It provided an opportunity for work for many unemployed, rootless, poor and homeless men.  Once it was over, however, its aftermath produced a huge new wave of destitute, displaced and dispossessed people. They included wounded war veterans, freed slaves, and widows and orphans.  The need for assistance was now beyond the capacity of local governments and charity organizations and the federal government became an actor now for the first time in helping the homeless.

Again, the end of the war encouraged many to venture West in search of land, work on the railroads and jobs as cowboys in the cattle industry, which in the late 1860’s started to drive cattle to new railheads for mass distribution.  By the turn of the century most of the opportunities for easy to find work on the frontier were gone.  The railroads were built, the gold rush had ended, the land fenced and in many places the transient cowboy was replaced by the permanent rancher.