I just finished the entire article. It’s quite good.
I’ve been watching the entire 19 year run of “Death Valley Days” for a couple months now. They produced dramatized dramas of life in the west from about 1840 to 1900. All are based on true stories (some loosely, some following the actual events quite closely). But all the stories tell of the amazing opening of the west from the first wagon trains to the closing of the frontier in 1890. The stories are wonderful and deal quite fairly with the Indians, the Vaqueros, the early Californios and blacks and Mexicans in the west. There are also several episodes about women’s rights and many deal with the woman’s role on the frontier.
I’m up to Season 9 now (1961) and have quite a few seasons and episodes to go.
I had to laugh at “Michelle Gass, the CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., said earlier this summer that the company has seen a huge surge in boot, skirt and jeans sales.” We have a place in North Idaho next door to Montana and our local farm and ranch stores (North 40 and Murdoch’s) carry great selections of western clothes — except they aren’t decoration for the bars in Los Angeles. These are the work and dress clothes for our local ranchers and farmers.
One episode I remembered featured the teenaged Albert A. Michelson, who's name is known to every physics student for the very important series of experiments he did later in life, in collaboration with Edward Morley.
Albert Michelson actually did live in Virginia City, Nevada, as a boy. Since he was born in 1852, he would have been the age depicted in that episode of Bonanza sometime around 1868. That helped me get a grasp on the time in history during which that program was set.
Functional fashion!
Oh my gosh, I’m coming back into fashion and I didn’t even know it
wouldn't buy them to set on fire in the winter..... Wranglers please....