This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
Dime Novels and the Real Life Behind Frontier Heroes
The article traces how dime novel heroes such as Buffalo Bill Wild Bill and Deadwood Dick mirrored or inspired real frontier figures. It notes Ned Buntline and Prentiss Ingraham shaped many legends while actual men like Cody Hickok Omohundro and others lived varied lives as scouts soldiers and showmen.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Elmo Scott Watson
Yesteryear
Dad
Bunk
Daredeath Dick
Captain Cool Blade
Mississippi
Pard
Buffalo Bill
Pete
Ralph
Erastus F. Biddle
Pocket
William Frederick Cody
Kansas
Kansas Pacific Railroad
K. P
Billy Comstock
Edward Zane Carroll Judson
Ned Buntline
Col. Prentiss Ingraham
Wild Bill
California
Joe
Texas
Jack
Pawnee Bill
Capt. Jack
Arizona
Buckskin Sam
Fancy Frank
Deadwood Dick
Diamond Dick
James Butler Hickok
Illinois
Missouri
Overland
Buntline
Deadwood
S. D
John B. Omohundro
Virginia
Leadville
Colo
Cody, Hickok
Omohundra
Chicago
Ingraham
Man of the
Moses E. Muiner
Plains
Montana
Pacific Northwest
George A. Custer
Southern Plains
Wyoming
Black Hills
Hickok
Red Cloud Agency
Nebraska
Ranald S. Mackenzie
Gordon Lillie
Winds
Oklahoma
Cody
John Wallace Crawford
Ireland
Joseph Bruce
Jack” Omohundra
Jane
Martha Jane Canary
George Crook
Black Bills
Frank
Frank Powell
White Beaver
Winnebagoes
Wisconsin
Roving Joe
Maj
Sam S. Hall
Pecos
Laos
Wilmington
Delaware
Joseph B. Badger
Frontier
A. H. Post
Beadle
Badger
Legion
Edward L. Wheeler
Beadle and Adams
Wheeler
Edmund Pearson
Little, Brown and Company
Frank Palmer
Denver
Los Angeles
Richard Bullock
Richard W. Clark
South Dakota
Pearson
Desperado
Mr. Wheeler
Richard Clark
New Mexico
Richard J. Tanner
Norfolk
Neb
Circus
American Legion
Frank Carver
Buffalo Jack
Jack MecCay
Wild Bill” Hickok
James Capon Adams
Seneca Lake
N. Y
James Fenimore Cooper Adams
Brain” Adams
Union