The 10 Most Dangerous Wild West Towns & Saloons

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The 10 Most Dangerous Wild West Towns & Saloons

Saloons, gangs, gambling houses, brothels, and good old fashioned shootouts.

Published 3 weeks ago in Wow

The "Wild West" is pretty aptly named. Dominated by gold-rushers, miners, and railroaders, the Western United States in the late 1800s offered plenty of opportunity and space to society's most ambitious and desperate without much in the way of security, government, or regulation.

The result? Saloons, gangs, gambling houses, brothels, and good old fashioned shootouts.

Here are 10 of the most dangerous places from the Wild West.

1
Dodge City, Kansas
Known as one of the biggest gunslinger towns in the country, Dodge attracted both legendary criminals and lawmen alike. Cherokee Bill, Prairie Dog Dave and Fat Jack all got their start in Dodge, and the town became known as “Wicked Dodge.” Businesses like the Santa Fe railroad even came to Dodge when they wanted to hire gunmen for security.

2
El Dorado Canyon, Nevada
As the name suggests, El Dorado Canyon became known for its lucrative gold mines, with miners settling in the region all the way back in the 1850s. As mines grew, ownership disputes became violent, more like war than business, with many operated by erratic Civil War deserters. With the country otherwise occupied, nobody came to keep the peace.

3
Tombstone, Arizona
Now known as the “Town Too Tough to Die," Tombstone, Arizona was fittingly morbid. In the 1870s, Tombstone featured the region’s largest redlight districts and biggest concentration of saloons and gambling houses. Regular showdowns between law enforcement and gangs occurred in the town square, and today the town stages reenactments of the gunfights.

4
Canyon Diablo, Arizona
Located in the middle of nowhere, Canyon Diablo sprouted up when railroad builders stumbled upon a canyon that would take years to build a bridge to cross. With no law enforcement whatsoever, the town quickly spiraled into typical wild west chaos, and multiple attempts to install a sheriff ended in his immediate assassination. It took the completion of the bridge ten years later to render the town pointless.

5
Fort Griffin, Texas
Built underneath an Army fort in the 1860s, the small town thrived on farming and buffalo hunting. But when Native attacks and a railroad passover left the town less guarded, chaos reigned supreme. Fort Griffin eventually enacted martial law to combat crime, and the town dwindled until its eventual demise in the 1940s. Doc Holliday, Big Nose Kate, John Wesley Hardin, and other notorious outlaws came out of Fort Griffin.

6
Deadwood, South Dakota
Despite the best efforts of the American government to keep men off land reserved for the Lakota-Sioux, the gold rush established a town in the 1870s. Known for its rowdy saloons, gambling, and brothels, Deadwood produced criminals like Wild Bill Hickok.

7
El Paso, Texas
Although more of a city than other towns on this list, El Paso wasn’t without its dangers. Infamously, El Paso featured the 1881 “Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight,” which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

8
Ruby, Arizona
Now a ghost town, Ruby exploded in the 1890s thanks to the discovery of high-grade gold. Attracting rushers of all kinds, Mexican bandits regularly attacked the ill-defended settlement.

9
Bisbee, Arizona
Like other mining towns in Arizona Bisbee suffered criminal gang activity, including an infamous stage coach holdup and robbery turned massacre. Additionally, the town’s mines kidnapped over 1,000 striking miners at gunpoint and transported them to a different town in an effort to deter unionization. This became known as the Bisbee Deportation.

10
Delamar, Nevada
Unlike most towns on this list, crime isn’t responsible for the dangers in Delamar.

In the 1890s, the discovery of gold in nearby Monkeywrench Wash caused the town’s population to boom. Soon, an entire infrastructure of mines and town amenities emerged, owned by Joseph Raphael De Lamar. The mines and silicon dust killed so many men that the town became known as “widowmaker,” housing over 400 widows at one point.