People from American folklore
Billy the Kid
Henry McCarty (September 17 or November 23, 1859 – July 14, 1881), alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West who was linked to nine murders. He was solely responsible for four of them, and he may have played a role in five, alongside other men.
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917), better known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. One of the most famous figures of the American Old West, Cody began performing at the age of 23. He performed in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars.
Cochise
Cochise ( koh-CHEESS; Apache: Shi-ka-She or A-da-tli-chi, lit. 'having the quality/strength of an oak'; later K'uu-ch'ish or Cheis, lit. 'oak'; c. 1805 – June 8, 1874) was the leader of the Chiricahui local group of the Chokonen and principal nantan of the Chokonen band of a Chiricahua Apache.
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (November 2 [O.S. October 22] 1734 – September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies.
Davy Crockett
David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American politician, militia officer and frontiersman. Often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier", he represented Tennessee in the United States House of Representatives and fought in the Texas Revolution.
Doc Holliday
John Henry Holliday (August 14, 1851 – November 8, 1887), better known as Doc Holliday, was an American dentist, gambler, and gunfighter who was a close friend and associate of lawman Wyatt Earp. Holliday is best known for his role in the events surrounding and his participation in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.
Frank James
Alexander Franklin James (January 10, 1843 – February 18, 1915) was a Confederate soldier and guerrilla; who became an outlaw in the post-Civil War period. The older brother of outlaw Jesse James, Frank was also part of the James–Younger Gang.
Jim Bridger
James Felix Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old Gabe in his later years.
John Wesley Hardin
John Wesley Hardin (May 26, 1853 – August 19, 1895) was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, lawyer and controversial folk icon. Hardin often got into trouble with the law from an early age. He killed his first man at the age of 15, claiming he did so in self-defense.
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868), popularly known as Kit Carson, was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and U.S. Army officer. Carson left home in rural Missouri at 16 to become a mountain man and trapper in the West.
Roy Bean
Phantly Roy Bean Jr. (c. 1825 – March 16, 1903) was an American saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, who called himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos." He held court in his saloon along the Rio Grande in a desolate stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert.
Tom Horn
Thomas Horn Jr., (November 21, 1861 – November 20, 1903) was an American cowboy, scout, soldier, range detective, rodeo performer, and Pinkerton agent in the 19th-century and early 20th-century American Old West.