Rodeo and Wild West Shows are on the map!

It’s probably pretty obvious, me being a painter, that I’m a big visual thinker. I want to see things come alive. Ideas that live in my head eventually need to become visible.

One of these ideas I’ve been working on in my free time is creating a map of the events that make up the first chapter of Windows into the West. Once I started putting everything on a map, I could actually see the story developing.

You can see the idea of performing the West popping up almost spontaneously in different parts of the country. Then the momentum builds and builds until shows, competitions, performers, and ideas are crisscrossing the country and eventually crossing the ocean.

Building the map has also helped me see when and where things were happening at the same time, including some absolutely absurd coincidences.

For example, on July 4, 1869, cowboys gathered at Deer Trail, Colorado, for an early documented bronc-riding competition. Exactly seven days later, only about 100 miles away, Buffalo Bill Cody was serving as a scout with Eugene Carr’s 5th Cavalry at the Battle of Summit Springs.

Buffalo Bill would later reenact the Battle of Summit Springs in his Wild West show, turning an event he had actually participated in into public performance! Almost unbelievable!

So take a look at the map. Maybe you’ll find a new discovery, too!

The map is embedded on my home page. Click any colored pin to open an event and read the notes. Zoom in and out and drag the map to follow the story geographically. The different colors separate the different kinds of events and connections.

Thanks for following along! It’s fun to make art with friends!

-Kim