Top 10 Most Famous ‘Wild West’ Towns In America

Rosemary August 30, 2021 | 13:31

There are 'Wild West' towns in the US where you can play outlaw. Let’s explore what they are.

Most Famous ‘Wild West’ Towns In America - Photo KnowInsiders

The world’s love affair with America’s Wild West has always burned bright, and nothing in the country’s history compares to the period from 1865 to 1895 when prospectors and pioneers pushed their way towards better lives and scrambled for pots of gold.

We travel to these former frontier boomtowns, most of which still embrace their Wild West past (gun-slinging cowboys, dastardly outlaws, swinging saloon doors, one-room jailhouses, liquor-fuelled shootouts over hands of poker) and show America as it once was.

What is 'Wild West'?

Wild West is the western United States during the 19th-century era of settlement, commonly believed to be lawless and unruly. There was a lot of violence, especially between the new people arriving and the Native Americans who lived there already.

The List Of Top 10 Most Famous ‘Wild West’ Towns In America

1. Oatman, Arizona

2. Dodge City, Kansas

3. Tombstone, Arizona

4. Virginia City, Nevada

5. Deadwood, South Dakota

6. Durango/Silverton, Colorado

7. Fort Worth, Texas

8. Santa Fe, New Mexico

9. Bandera, Texas

10. Cody, Wyoming

What Are The Most Famous ‘Wild West’ Towns In The US?

1. Oatman, Arizona

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Claim to fame: Named for Illinois-born Olive Oatman who was kidnapped for slavery by an Apache tribe and then sold to Mohave Indians (she was eventually set free and became a celebrity), this small mining camp had all the markings of a gold rush boomtown. For a decade, the Oatman mines were among the largest gold producers in America’s West, but in later years the place become another tourist town for visitors passing through the ancient part of Route 66. Nowadays, it’s packed with wild burros (an old Spanish term for donkeys) who roam the streets waiting for their burro chow (hay cubes), which can be purchased in the town. Oatman is also proud of its Hollywood connections; the Oscar-winning How the West Was Won was filmed here and it’s also where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard reportedly spent their wedding night in 1939 (the refurbed honeymoon suite at the Oatman Hotel is one of the town’s key attractions).

See and do: Check out the Gable/Lombard Room at the Oatman Hotel (it no longer takes guests, but functions as a restaurant and museum), stroll along the town’s wooden sidewalks, browse in the kitsch Americana shops, take selfies with the impossibly cute burros, and visit the Oatman Jail and Museum to see its holding pens and sheriff’s office. Don’t miss the Ghostrider Gunfighters spectacular Wild West shootouts and comedy performances taking place daily in the middle of town at 1:30pm and 3:30pm (for $100 you can even stage your shotgun wedding here).

Suggested holiday: Self-Drive Golden California – set off early on day 8 to miss the Los Angeles rush hour and you’ll arrive in Oatman in time for lunch, see the shootout and to explore the town. Then its just a couple of hours drive to Las Vegas where you’ll be staying for the next couple of nights.

2. Dodge City, Kansas

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This famous wild western town located in Kansas got its start in 1847 when Fort Mann was built to protect people on the Santa Fe Trail.

Interestingly, Dodge City is still very famous in modern day. While we don’t always recognize it as the cornerstone of Wild Western towns in the USA, we do use a phrase that gets its origins from this infamous town. That’s right… “Get Outta Dodge” was coined after this area!

Times were hard, however, and it only survived about a year. But, it wasn’t long before a safer fort popped up in the same place, and this eventually led to a town next to it. Then the railroad came, and cows were shipped through on their way to other parts of the country. While it’s now modernized, it still has a lot of bits of old Dodge spread around.

See and do: Take the Historic Trolley tour to visit the original locations of the Longbranch Saloon, Gospel Hill, and the “Deadline”, take a stroll along the Dodge City Trail of Fame in the National Historic District, and visit the legendary Boot Hill Museum to experience the recreated Front Street, circa 1876. Further highlights include swigging a real Sarsaparilla at Miss Kitty's Long Branch Saloon, admiring the remnants of 1865 Fort Dodge (five miles east of the city), and spotting the wagon tracks that are still in existence on the 19th century Santa Fe Trail.

Suggested holiday: One of the reasons Dodge was such an wild frontier town was its location bang in the middle of the country, so it’s not the easiest of locations to reach on a road trip. But you could take a detour from Route 66 or we could tailormake your own adventure taking in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.

3. Tombstone, Arizona

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As far as Wild Western Towns in the USA go, this one is probably the most recognized. Perhaps due to the infamous movie Tombstone, starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliot, and Bill Paxton, it was a great representation of how events went down back in the day.

This town deep in the Arizona desert was one of the big spots towards the end of the Wild West time period. It was a big mining town, and it had plenty of cultural activities (like an opera house) for the rich folk, and a great selection of saloons, gambling halls, and other less respectable places for the grittier types. It’s most famous for the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and you can still see recreations of this on a regular basis in its original setting, as much of the town is preserved how it was.

4. Virginia City, Nevada

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Located in Nevada’s high desert area, this place is definitely worth the trip. It is under an hour from Reno and Lake Tahoe, which makes it a quick getaway and “something to do,” if you’re in the area!

Head down C Street, the town’s main drag, and you’ll see how Virginia City has held onto its Victorian-era past. Saloons and old fashioned stores adorn this small town. This town struck it rich with silver, but the atmosphere was preserved long after the mine was empty. You can view some museums, take a trip into the mine, stroll down the main street at high noon, or just drink whiskey in a saloon.

Virginia City also boasts a variety of events throughout the year including:

Food festivals

Parades

Christmas Celebrations

International Camel and Ostrich Race

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5. Deadwood, South Dakota

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You might immediately think of a TV series when you hear this name, but it’s far from fictional. Gold was found in the nearby Black Hills in the 1870s, so the town attracted plenty of ambitious people. However, it wasn’t in the safest area, so many of these were a little rough around the edges. Gambling and prostitution were big business, and many locals took the law into their own hands (you know, with their revolvers). Even the famous gunman Wild Bill Hickok was shot here!

See and do: Pay your respects to Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane at Mount Moriah Cemetery (they are buried next to each other), check out historical artifacts at the Queen Anne-style Adams Museum, pan for gold at the Lost Boot Mine, and marvel at the wagons, stagecoaches and carriages at the Days of 76 Museum. Don’t leave without watching the daily shootouts on Main Street, attending the nightly trial of Jack McCall at the Masonic Temple, and nursing a whiskey or two at the rowdy Saloon #10, in sight of the (replica) chair Hickok sat in on the night he died.

Suggested holidays: To enjoy a superb Wild West experience, visiting not only Deadwood and Cody, but also staying at the renowned Ranch at Ucross and visiting the iconic sights of Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower, then look no further than this tour American Parks Trail. Or if you’re looking for a truly epic road trip which features Deadwood plus a dizzying number of “must-sees” then check out this holiday The Great American Road Trip.

6. Durango/Silverton, Colorado

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Wild Western Towns in the USA wouldn’t be a complete list unless including these quaint, mountain towns. Both of these Colorado mountain towns have quite the cowboy character, but one of the best parts is the thing that links them. This narrow-gauge railroad is pulled by a steam engine for 45 miles through a beautiful stretch of mountains. You won’t even need to use your imagination to feel like you’ve gone back in time.

In Durango, the Diamond Belle Saloon in the Strater Hotel of historic downtown is a must-see. During the summer, you can witness a shootout spilling out onto the street and listen to live ragtime music inside the bar. The railroad itself is an American national landmark. It travels through breathtaking canyons where it ends up in Silverton.

7. Fort Worth, Texas

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Begun as the northernmost fort protecting the American Frontier after the Mexican-American War in 1849, Fort Worth didn’t really hit its stride until the cattle industry came to town in the 1870s. Along with new saloons and general stores came Soapy Smith, a con-artist and future Denver crime boss, as well as other unsavory characters eager to milk Fort Worth’s economic boom, a job which became all the easier when the Texas and Pacific Railway hit town in 1876. Fort Worth’s “Wall Street of the West,” its stockyards and the industry that grew up around it, still exist today as the Stockyards National Historic District. Longhorn steer walk the neighborhood’s Exchange Avenue twice daily (at 11:30 am and 4 pm), a lowing, mooing parade best seen with a cold beer in hand from Fort Worth’s oldest saloon, the White Elephant.

8. Santa Fe, New Mexico

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Claim to fame: Surrounded by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Santa Fe is the third-oldest permanent European settlement west of the Mississippi. Established in 1608 by the Spanish who came up from the south, the city has long served as the capital of the Kingdom of New Mexico, the Mexican province of Nuevo Mejico, the American territory of New Mexico (which contained what is today Arizona and New Mexico) and, since 1912, the state of New Mexico. Now a designated UNESCO Creative City for its flourishing arts scene, it has earned its place in history as somewhere where northern traders and trappers could trade with the southern Mexican Indians, and where western silver could be exchanged for artisanal products and local turquoise. It was also where outlaw and federal fugitive Billy the Kid spent his teen years (he was famously captured by Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1880 and locked up in the old Santa Fe jail).

See and do: Spend time at the Museum of International Folk Art, The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and the Museum of Indian Art and Culture, and swoon over the amazing art installations at Meow Wolf - an arts collective part-funded by Game of Thrones author and Santa Fe resident George R.R. Martin. Don’t miss the San Miguel Mission, the Loretto Chapel, and the nearly 400-year-old Santa Fe Plaza - a National Historic Landmark most famous for its Indian and Spanish markets and lovely central park lined with grass, trees, and benches.

Suggested holidays: A fabulous escorted tour which highlights superb historic locations and glorious national parks is The Magnificent Southwest, on which you’ll spend two nights in Santa Fe. This great city also features as a day trip on one of our most popular flydrive itineraries Self-Drive Route 66 or this fabulous route which takes in Yellowstone - Self-Drive American Grandeurs. Or you can spend two nights in Santa Fe with this superb itinerary travelling through the spectacular scenery of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico - Self-Drive Four-Squared.

9. Bandera, Texas

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Claim to fame: Deserving of its “Cowboy Capital of the World” moniker, this Texas Hill Country site that hosted many a bloody battle between Apache and Comanche Indians and the Spanish Conquistadors was named for its red bandera (meaning banner or flag) that was flown to define the boundary between hunting grounds. Most famous as the staging area for the last great cattle drives of the late 1800’s, life here is as much about the cowboy heritage (honky-tonks, chuck wagon dinners, saloons, dude ranches) as the 120-mile Medina River that thread through the town and into the backcountry. And then, of course, there’s the annual festivals that keep the spirit of the Wild West alive, including the Cowboy Mardi Gras, Wild Hog Explosion, Spring Fling, Bandera ProRodeo, Cowboy Capital Christmas NIGHT Parade, and Mayhem on the Medina.

See and do: Spend time at a dude ranch, marvel at 40,000-plus Wild West relics at the Frontier Times Museum, take a walking tour to see the original jail and county courthouse, wander along historic Eleventh Street, and visit the St. Stanislaus Catholic Church (the second-oldest Polish Catholic Church in the USA). Equally visit-worthy is the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum, the Town Mountain Miniatures Museum, and Polly's Chapel - the picturesque church hand-built in 1882 by Mexican-born scout turned minister Jose Policarpio ”Polly” Rodriguez.

Suggested holidays: Self-Drive Talkin' Texas – takes you from Dallas Fort Worth to Austin, with two nights in Bandera and then onto San Antonio finishing in Houston. Following a similar route Saddle Up to Texas - Family Self-Drive, has a three night stay at a ranch near Bandera.

10. Cody, Wyoming

Top 10 Most Famous ‘Wild West’ Towns In America

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Claim to fame: Much more than just a gateway for Yellowstone National Park, this self-proclaimed “Rodeo Capital of the World” was named in honour of William Frederick Cody – the charismatic American showman known by local folk as Buffalo Bill (or sometimes The Colonel). Anyone wanting to get to grips with the buckaroo spirit of the Wild West will be rewarded with a dizzying amount of attractions that serve as a reminder of the town’s past; not least in the downtown area that teems with cowboy apparel shops, atmospheric saloons, and wallet-friendly steakhouses. It’s also home to the Old Trail Town - an awesome collection of artifacts such as the grave of mountain man John Johnson, the original cabins used by Wild West outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a saloon frequented by the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, and the home of Curley - the Crow Indian scout who famously survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

See and do: Visit the giant Buffalo Bill Centre of the West for its five themed museums (Buffalo Bill Museum, Plains Indians Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, and Cody Firearms Museum), book a ranch tour to learn how to safely shoot a rifle, and take a drive on Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway - the road connecting Cody to Yellowstone’s east entrance. If you’re here between June and August, the nightly Cody Nite Rodeo is a must-do for its bucking broncos, lasso-swinging cowboys, fearless horse riders, and audience sing-a-longs.

Suggested holidays: To spend time in Cody and experience a slice of the Real America then this is the road trip for you - Self-Drive Wyoming's Wind River Country.