Westerns History

The Western story begins in 1492, when Christopher Columbus discovers the New World.  Columbus and the other early explorers filled European literature with true-life accounts and illustrations of the "New World."  

Their stories excited the European audience with their exploits and travel.  The "New World" becomes a base for rich stories of fantastic landscapes, striking animals, distinctive peoples, and their terrifying and inspiring adventures.

More Stories About
Westerns History

• An Explorers Journal

• Western Life: The Travel Journal

• The Story Development: The Western Novel

• Popular Fiction: The Dime Novel

• The Biography: Fact or Fiction

• The Stage Brings the Western to Life

• The Wild West Show

• Camera and Canvas

• Location, Location, Location

• Birth of the Western Film

• The Western Moves West

• "Broncho Billy" Anderson: The First Cowboy Star

• Indians in the Early Western

• An Early Western Industry: Bison 101

• D.W. Griffith and his Biograph Studio

• William S. Hart: The First King of the Cowboys

• Larger than Life: Tom Mix

• The End of the Silent Westerns: The 1920s

• The 1920s Big Budget Westerns

• Western Audience Profile