"The Hollywood version shows anyone and everyone fighting over water rights and land, but what we discovered is that, in reality, people understood the negative consequences of fighting and instead found civil ways to resolve their disputes," Anderson said. Corral in Arizona Territory), there were also periods of peace that lasted long enough for the settlers to figure out society's rules in a makeshift kind of a way. While battles worthy of John Wayne's portrayals did happen (for instance, three people died in the 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. "It's depicted almost as a state of anarchy where there was fighting amongst the Indian tribes, then along came the Europeans to join in," he said. This lack of a centralized government is partly responsible for our collective imagining of the Wild West as a rowdy and fierce place to live, Anderson explained. Importantly, much of this vast expanse of terrain was pre-statehood at the time, which meant there wasn't much federal oversight.
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