- Which cowboy, born Henry McCarty, died at the age of 21? The cowboy whose real name was Henry McCarty, was known to most young boys as Billy the Kid. He was born in the Irish slums of New York City and moved to Kansas, and then New Mexico with his mother. She died of tuberculosis when Henry was young leaving him an orphan at the age of 14. He was arrested and put on death row seven years later, but that's not how he died. Seems he escaped the jail where he was awaiting to be put to death and after a manhunt, was shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
- Which sharpshooter eventually married a fellow marksman after beating them in a shoot-off? Tough question with an unusual answer. Seems that Annie Oakley was pitted against Frank Butler in a shooting contest when they were young. She beat him by hitting 25 out of 25 targets while he had only 24 out of 25. The shooting match was arranged in the late 1800s and Annie and Frank were then married for 50 years. Their relationship was immortalized in the musical "Annie Get Your Gun." They both died three weeks apart in 1926.
- Which frontiersman created a stage show about the Wild West that lasts for 30 years? It all began in 1883 when Buffalo Bill Cody began an out-door extravaganza that highlighted the life in the Wild West. He named his show the "Wild West, Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition." After that show he toured with another show known as "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show" which was an outdoor, circus-like event. After years in the United States it toured Europe where one of his patrons was Queen Victoria. That show lasted for 30 years.
- Which cowboy rose to fame after having his shooting skills memorialized? All began during a gunfight in 1861 when Wild Bill Hickok shot three men who were trying to kill him during a gunfight. But, it wasn't until six years later that the tale of his gunfight was sensationalized in "Harper's New Monthly Magazine." The article brought fame to the cowboy and a special place in history. But, Wild Bill was killed a few years later during a gunfight in Deadwood, South Dakota.
- Which cattleman has a trail named after him that goes through both Mexico and Colorado? This is a tough one since I had never heard of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving who blazed a trail from Texas to Wyoming which is now known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail. The trail was created as a herding trail from Texas through Colorado and helped both make quite a profit moving cattle into new territories.
- Which famous Wild West cowboy was raised Mormon? Ever hear of a guy named Butch Cassidy. I love his movie with the Sundance Kid. Well, Butch was born into a Mormon family in Beaver, Utah. The family farmed and raised cattle. But, Butch left home to work on other ranches to help raise money for his family. At the age of 13 he committed his first crime when he stole a pair of overalls from a store. He had every intention to return with the payment later, but the store owner had him arrested. That may have been the first event that turned him into a criminal. Seems that his time as a Mormon didn't do him much good.
Well, how'd you do partner. Did you get at least one right. Being that I was a make-believe cowboy as a child and watched every cowboy show on TV, I thought I knew just about everything about every cowboy and cowgirl, but I only got the question about Annie Oakley right. Gonna have to watch ME-TV some more, so I am. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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