The Wild West's heyday lasted about 35 years  between the end of the civil war in 1865 right to the end of 1899.

When the civil war finally ended in 1865 there were thousands of unemployed soldiers, many of them became cowpunchers but employment was hard to get and for many it was decided that it would be easier to live outside of the law, they headed west and the law followed after them.

It was a time of gunfighters and lawmen and these pages will tell of the most notorious.