In modern times, men and women in America expect to lead long and fruitful lives. In the second half of the nineteenth century in the Old West, however, the outlook for a long lifetime was grim. Daily existence was hard and unrelenting, and filled with life-threatening dangers. Settlers on the Western frontier faced a variety of hazards, from accidents to shootouts, that led many to meet their end prematurely. Contemporary medical care was unable to cure many dreadful diseases, and many turned deadly. This history chronicles some of the numerous ways by which the inhabitants of the Old West met their maker sooner than they anticipated.

Illnesses, deadly fires, natural disasters, and fatal accidents involving heavy machinery were just a few of the ways that lives could be cut short during this period. The rose-colored glasses of nostalgia (and decades of exciting media about the period) can depict the American frontier as a safer place than it truly was. This book, thoroughly illustrated and carefully researched, presents a gritty truth about what life was really like in the Old West--hazardous, unforgiving, and deadly.