but living freely on America's western frontier nevertheless appealed to thousands of men. These photos were taken across the American West between the late 1800s and the early 1900s.

But as early as the mid-1800s, the American West was also a mythical place of wide-open plains, cowboys riding the range, and heroic battles pitting brave settlers against savage Native Americans.

Netflix‘s new limited series American Primeval gives a startling look at the American West in the mid-1800s, when Native Americans came to deadly blows with Mormon soldiers, pioneers looking for ...