Farmers Couldn't Afford Telephone Poles—So They Turned Barbed Wire Fences Into The Prairie Internet

Cavalry Laughed At 'Iron Ponies' — Until 20 Soldiers Rode 1,900 Miles Faster Than Horses

Miners Paid $12 To Ship Laundry To China — While Local Washerwomen Charged More Than Gold Dust

Settlers Thought Buffalo Wallows Were 'Useless Holes' — Until 50,000 Became The Only Water For Miles

Frontier Prisoners Cost $3 Per Day To Feed — Until Convict Leasing Made Them Profitable

Cowboys Dismissed Oxen As 'Too Slow' — While 500,000 Pulled Every Wagon To Oregon

Mail-Order Brides Cost $300 In Newspaper Ads — While 10,000 Women Headed West Sight Unseen

Cowboys Wore Fancy Spurs Worth $50 — While Earning $30 Per Month

Homesteaders Found 10 Million Acres of Gas—Then Burned Buffalo Chips

California’s Dark Secret Is On Its Flag — It Honored The Grizzly, Then Killed Every Single One

Engineers Said Steam Would Replace Mules in Death Valley—Then the Mules Towed the Engine Home

Miners’ Pockets Ripped — Until A $68 Patent Made Levi Strauss $30M From Copper Rivets

Cowboys Thought Coffee Was Just Coffee — Until One $3 Bag Made 'Arbuckles' The Only Word For It

Ranchers Thought Fences Solved Everything—Until Vigilantes Cut 600 Miles Of Wire In The 'Fence Wars'

America Never Had Tumbleweeds — Until One Bag Of Flax Seed Infected The West In 1873

General Stores Marked Up Goods 400% — Until A 500-Page Catalog Bankrupted Them With Penny Prices

Cowboys Ate Hardtack And Beans — While Millions Of Fresh Oysters Were Shipped To Saloons On Ice

Loggers Couldn't Move Giant Timber — Until 60 MPH Water Flumes Smashed Trees Down Mountains

Hunters Used Shotguns For One Duck — While 'Punt Guns' Killed 90 Birds In A Single Blast

Farmers Ready For Drought — Then 12 Trillion Locusts Blocked The Sun And Ate Sheep Wool

Settlers Walked Past Millions — Until 'Bone Pickers' Built A $40M Fertilizer Industry

Dentists Never Expected Gold Rushes — Until Miners Paid $50 For Tooth Pulls That Cost $1 In Chicago

Cowboys Feared Bullet Wounds — But Tetanus From Barbed Wire Killed 3x More Ranch Hands

Settlers Trusted Patent Medicines With 40% Alcohol—While 50000 Became Addicts From 'Harmless' Tonics

Frontier Doctors Performed 2,000 Amputations A Year—With Only 87% Survival Using Whiskey And Leather

Miners Paid $1.50 For Eggs In Camps — While Freighters Made $800 Per Wagon On 300-Mile Hauls

Cowboys Never Knew Stetson's $5 Hat Cost 8¢ To Make—2 Million Sold Yearly Built A $6 Million Fortune

Prospectors Rushed For Gold Nuggets — While Flour Mills Ground $200 Million And Never Risked A Claim

Homesteaders Never Expected Land To Be Free — Then Discovered 'Prove Up' Costs Averaged $1,200

Settlers Thought Borax Was Worthless—Until 20-Mule Teams Hauled $50 Million From Death Valleys Floor

Miners Laughed At Dredges As 'Too Expensive' — Then 1,200-Ton Machines Processed 12,000 Yards Daily

Miners Never Expected Quicksilver To Cost More Than Gold — California Needed 3,000 Tons A Year

Ranchers Called Sheep 'Range Maggots'—40 Million Outnumbered Cattle And Made More Money Per Acre

Homesteaders Shocked As Plows Shattered On 'Prairie Cement' — John Deere's Polish Made Millions

Miners Never Expected Canaries To Outdo Safety Inspectors — 50,000 Birds Detected What Men Missed

Cowboys Laughed At 'Newfangled' Canned Beans—Until 62 Million Cans Outlasted Every Salted BeefBarrel

Miners Called IT "Suicide Liquid" Then Blasted 15 Feet Per Day Through Granite That Took Weeks

Ranchers Dismissed Windmills As 'Useless Toys' — Until 6 Million Pumped Water Where 100 Men Couldn't

Prospectors Chased $2 Billion In Gold — Farmers Dug Up $6 Billion With Simple Shovels

Historians Hid This — Oranges Made More Than Gold While 40,000 Ice Cars Built California

Cowboys Laughed At Steam Engines On Wagons — Until One Replaced 100 Men In A Day

Wagons Cost 20¢ Per Ton, Wire Ropes Cost 9¢ — That 11¢ Difference Made Millionaires

Settlers Couldn't Believe 100 Gallons Per Mile Determined Every Western Town Location

Harvey Girls Had 30 Minutes To Feed 300 Passengers — Built Fast Food Before McDonald's

Railroad Bosses Called Chinese 'Too Weak' — Then 10,000 Blasted 1,659 Feet Through Sierra Granite

Miners Never Expected A Former Gold Rusher To Judge Them — 225-Page Ruling Ended $228M Industry

Prospectors Never Expected Stamp Mills — Until 750-Pound Machines Made Them $3-A-Day Workers

America Lived Through Two Noons In One Day — Corporations Rewrote Time Itself

Railroads Spent $55,000 Fighting Snow In One Month— Until One Spinning Wheel Cleared 15-Day Blockade

Cowboys Quit Cattle Drives After 3 Weeks — Until One $70 Wagon Moved 27 Million Cattle To Market

Texas Ranchers Were Shocked When Refrigerated Railcars—Dropped Cattle Drives 350000 To Zero in Year

Engineers Never Expected Timber Honeycombs To Hold Soft Rock — Unlocked $400 Million In Silver

Americans Never Knew One Train Hauled $300M While Every Outlaw Combined Stole $5M

The Needle That Killed The Wild West — 1 in 200 Americans Addicted By 1895

Americans Believed Bounty Hunters Roamed The Wild West — The Profession Never Actually Existed

Settlers Never Expected One Tornado To Kill 97 In 3 Minutes — Oklahoma's Deadliest 180 Seconds

Pony Express Owners Laughed At 'Morse's Wire' — Until 27,500 Poles Killed Their Legend In 2 Days

Railroad Engineers Never Expected The World's Largest Locomotive — Would Fail To Keep Steam Up

Texas Ranchers Were Shocked When Steel Dust Covered A Quarter Mile In 21 Seconds

Homesteaders Were Shocked When One Sulky Plow Broke What 20 Oxen Couldn't—And Plowed 7 Acres Per Day