Western classics, both books and on screens, portray a vision of frontier life that presents a certain mystique, a cliched world filled with cowboys, horses and women in long gingham dresses. But what was it really like for those settlers?
You can get a glimpse into that life with a new HBO Max show called “Back to the Frontier.” It places three American families in a remote location to “reimagine their lives as 1880s homesteaders, challenged to forgo the comforts of the present day for a more analog life on the frontier,” according to the network.
During their time on their latter day homesteads near the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the families tend to their livestock and gardens, make and sell homemade goods and keep up with home repairs and never-ending chores.
But it left us with some questions.
Was their work truly similar to that of homesteading frontierspeople in the American West? How did people living in the Rocky Mountain region actually experience homesteading life?
In 1872, “Out West,” Colorado Springs’ first newspaper published a Q&A to answer inquiries about the new Fountain Colony of Colorado, renamed Colorado Springs that same year.
It gives insight into some of the concerns would-be settlers might have and what daily life was like in the West, including a look at “two young men who took up a homestead with no other property than one cow, an ax and a shovel.”
The paper described itself as a weekly journal devoted to Western interests and information. It was created by city founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer before it became The Gazette the following year.
Its pages were filled with reports on agriculture, railroads expansion, and mining efforts. Warnings of fake diamonds for sale, insect infestation, livestock business successes and a mix of national and international news also showed up.
There was even a “Useful Hints” section giving tips on everything from how to remove grease stains from clothing to how to successfully get your horse out of a burning building.
Here are some highlights from the April 6, 1872 Q&A, lightly edited although some original language, grammar and style is left unchanged, along with errors and inaccuracies.
Questions And Answers. Concerning The Fountain Colony, Of Colorado.
Climate
Q. How cold is it at Colorado Springs?
A. The Winters are mild. The extreme cold ever known here was 20 below zero.
Q. Are the summers extremely hot?
A. No. The elevation, nearly 6,000 feet above sea level, gives a uniformly temperate Summer.
Health
Q. What diseases are relieved or cured by the climate?
A. Inflammation of the Lungs and Bowels are very rare… Some Heart diseases are relieved while some are aggravated. All varieties of Nervous diseases, and diseases of Debility are greatly relived; by the general tonicity of the climate, which has, if any equal, no superior in the World.
Agriculture
Q. What are the kinds of grain cultivated and what are average crops?
A. Wheat averages 28 bushels per acre, Corn 35 bushels, Barley and Oats 35 bushels, Potatoes 100 bushels, Cabbages Beets, Onions, Melons, Cucumbers, and Tomatoes yield largely. Hay does extremely well when irrigated, either of the tame or the native growth producing good crops.
Fruit
Q. What kinds of fruit grow well?
A. So far, Pears and Apples do well. It is believed Peaches also may be raised, but the high temperature of 70 in February followed by severe freezing in March makes it yet a question. Plums, Raspberries, Gooseberries, and Strawberries grow wild on the sides of the Mountains here, and flourish without injury from insects whenever cultivated.
Cattle And Sheep
Q. How do cattle and sheep do?
A. Cattle and sheep are raised here without other food than the native grasses winter and summer, and even during the past severe winter have done well. The business is immensely profitable. The springs and streams of water are however being so rapidly taken up as to lead us to believe that the business will soon reach the maximum in Southern Colorado.
Dairy Farming
Q. Does butter and cheese pay?
A. Yes, in the valleys of the mountains and their base, where springs of pure water are abundant, most excellent butter and cheese are being made, which bring high prices.
Irrigation
Q.How about irrigation, is it not a great draw back?
A. No. For, while it adds to, the labor performed upon each acre of land it increases, the yield sufficiently to pay for the extra labor performed, and, the crop being under control drouth, is defied until success with labor is rendered certain.
Q. Can the lands of Fountain Colony be well watered?
A. Yes. But not without skill, expense, and time
Fuel, Lumber, Lime, And Stone
Q. Have you any Wood, Lumber, Lime, Building-stone or Brick Clay near you?
A. From a short distance west of the Missouri River for a stretch of nearly 500 miles, until you reach the foot of the Rocky Mountains the country is destitute of all this, but here within three miles of the mountains we have near us an abundant supply of all the above materials
Scenery, Mineral-Waters, And Other Attractions
Q. Has Colorado Springs any other attractions which may promise a large and permanent growth?
A. Yes! The most beautiful scenery of the Rocky Mountains, equal to anything in Europe, and only excelled by the almost inaccessible Yosemite Valley. Among the rare beauties are the Garden of the Gods, the fabled home and ruined castles of Jupiter before his historical residence in Asia and Greece. The ruined-walls are still standing, reaching some parts 317 feet in height, and are the wonder and admiration of all beholders.
Not the smallest of our attractions is the near presence of the snow-crowned summit of Pike’s Peak, that rears its lofty head 14,336 feet above the level of the sea, and whose top can be reached by all who have the courage and strength to do so.
Located just opposite the town, and five miles up the Canon of the Fountain at Manitou are a group of mineral springs which have received attention from the early Spaniards. They are highly medicinal, and are attracting people from all parts on account of their healing qualities.
Indians And Wild Animals
Q. Are there any Indians near who are likely to be troublesome?
A. There are a few friendly Ute Indians here who have not been and could not be if they would, troublesome. They boast that they never killed a white man, and they are as harmless and inoffensive as are the Indians in New York, Michigan or Wisconsin. The warlike and hostile Indians are many hundred miles to the north, west and south of us, and are cut off from us by lines of heavy settlements.
Q. What wild animals have you, and what kinds of snakes?
A. We have the Black Bear, and the Coyote, or small prairie wolf, neither of which attack anyone if let alone; but the former make a desperate fight when, wounded or pursued. We have none of the large yellow rattle-snakes of New York and Pennsylvania, and but a few of the little prairie rattle-snakes once so common in Indiana and Illinois.
Game And Fish
Q. Is there good hunting and fishing in the vicinity?
A. Yes. Antelope abound, and black—and white-tailed Deer, Mountain Sheep and Elk, in considerable, quantities. Trout, abound in the mountain streams tributary to the Platte and the Arkansas.
Future Prospects!
Q. What are the prospects of your growth and development?
A. We are in correspondence with 2,500 families and we shall acknowledge a disappointment if we do not close the year with at least 2,000 people located in town and on the farming lands within three miles of town. We hope for even more.
Labor And Wages
Q. What are the wages of the country?
A. Carpenters $3.50 to $4.50 per day; Masons $6 to $7; day laborers $2 to $2.50. Laborer’s day board is from $5 to $7 per week. Female help commands from $5 to $10 per week including board.
How To Emigrate
Q. What should a person have with him?
A. Generally family pictures and choice, paintings, with good carpets, bed and bedding. Many persons sell some of their more valuable goods and invest the money in land, living more simply for a few years in their new homes. Families traveling on the cars should provide a good Lunch Basket to save expense. Be careful of "Confidence men," don’t lend money on any security to strangers.
Pre-Emption And Homesteads
Q. Can a person without means go on Government Land with hope of making a home successfully?
A. Doubtful. We have heard of two young men who took up a homestead with no other property than one cow, an ax and a shovel. They lived on flour and potatoes purchased from the sale of butter made from one cow, while they built a cabin and commenced in a small way the cultivation of land. Where such an effort would once succeed, many others would fail.
A family should possess means enough to purchase at least four cows, a stove and a few house-hold goods, an ax and a few tools, and a few month’s supplies, and own with others, if not alone, a team, a plow and a wagon. With this much and determination, one can take up wild Homestead lands and not only make a living, but a good home. But without it, one had better get close to neighbors, and depend partly on employment by those who have means.
The Kochis family outside their sod house in 1914, the same year that they successfully earned the title to 160 acres of land under the Homestead Act. 
A group of homesteaders at the Dearfield settlement, about 65 miles northeast of Denver.
Q. What then is the benefit to poor men in migrating from the large and over crowded cities?
A. This. Your labor brings a higher price, while the substantials such as beef, fuel and shelter are much cheaper and the social chasm between labor and capital is reduced from a great gulf to a small stream. Fortunes are made so rapidly here that we have to respect all men, for how can we tell who is to be rich?
HBO’s “Back to the Frontier,” premiered in July and aired its final episode at the end of August.
