91 Old West Town Names With Intricate Histories

Old west towns used to serve either as a cattle drive, a mining camp, or a railroad town.

Railroad saloons have always been popular with visitors. Are you also looking to visit a historic saloon in old west towns?

Then here are some of the old west town names that will intrigue you.

Old West Town Names That Start With B

Let’s have a look at some of the old west town names that start with B.

Ballarat is a small boomtown in the Panamint Valley in the Mojave Desert.

Bandera has been dubbed the Cowboy Capital of the World. This mining town is worth a visit for its importance in national history.

Bandera, Texas is a town that has seen many bloody fights involving Apache and Comanche Indians and Spanish Conquistadors.

Belcourt, North Dakota, was formerly known as Siipiising, which means 'stream that sings with life-giving water' in Anishinaabe (Chippewa) language.

Bellinge is a Danish village and parish. It is a neighborhood of downtown Odense, located nearby the city. 

Blazer Cemetery, Mescalero is an interesting location that is worthy of a visit.

Bloomfield North, located in the heart of Gold Country, transports tourists back 150 years in this recreated gold-rush village.

Bodie, California, located between Yosemite National Park and the Nevada border, provides a unique opportunity to experience the Wild West.

Boerne is a tiny community 31 miles north of San Antonio and a life-size recreation of an old western town.

Bornes, also known as La Ville des Fleurs, is a town in Mauritius that is part of the Plaines Wilhems District and the Rivière Noire District.

Funny Old West Town Names

Certain town names are very hilarious and can make you laugh. Let’s look at some of the funny old west town names.

Blazer Cemetery, Mescalero is a town where the graves of two individuals who died during the Lincoln County War may be found. 

Cimarron was formerly right up there, with Las Vegas on any list of the most deadly towns in New Mexico.

Clayton Cemetery, Clayton is a location where you will probably meet your first outlaw. Ketchum was slain in Clayton when a botched official hanging resulted in his decapitation.

Deadwood, South Dakota is a gold-rush town where Wild Bill Hickok died in the 1870s and has kept most of its Old West tradition intact.

Dodge City, Kansas is a cowtown formerly guarded by Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

El Paso, located in the far western tip of Texas, was regarded as one of the most hazardous places in the Old West.

Flying J Ranch, Alto is a town where there's a mock-up of an Old West village to immerse yourself in history truly.

Fort Worth is home to many of the best museums of the American Old West in the nation, including the Sid Richardson Museum.

Fox Cave, Ruidoso Downs/Glencoe has been transformed into a bizarre roadside attraction where you can pose with enormous hands or dinosaurs. 

Gonzales is home to the cannon which is a bronze artillery piece built in Spain that is housed at the Gonzales Memorial Museum.

Lubbock is a town that commemorates the culture of the American cowboy.

Mesilla is notable in Billy the Kid’s history because the outlaw was condemned to death in the town's courtroom, which is now home to the Billy the Kid Gift Shop. 

Oatman, Arizona is a restored ghost town that has a live, breathing reminder of its Old West heritage in the shape of wild donkeys that roam on its streets. 

Old Fort Sumner Cemetery, Fort Sumne is an important location in the west.

Pecos, on the state's western border, represents the character of west Texas like few other cities.

Raton is a town thatexperienced a considerable amount of outlaw and vigilante actions.

The Alamo is undoubtedly Texas' most renowned structure, owing to the historic Battle of the Alamo, which took place between February 23-March 6, 1836.

The Masonic Cemetery, Las Cruces, is where Pat Garrett's ashes were interred. 

Tombstone, Arizona is a town where the Earp brothers (Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt) and Doc Holliday fought against the outlaw group The Cowboys.

Unusual Old West Town Names

Some of the wild west town names are so strange. Here’s a list of some unusual and strange old west towns.

Abilene was initially founded in the mid-1800s and grew as a rail hub and cattle market.

Amarillo is a city with the broad, open expanses that drew ranchers to the area in the late 1800s.

Boerne is a tiny community 31 miles north of San Antonio and is a life-size recreation of an old western town.

Cody, Wyoming is named after Buffalo Bill Cody or Wild Bill Cody, and it can't get more Western than that.

Cripple Creek, Colorado was the world's biggest gold camp and produced millions of ounces of precious metal.

Deadwood, South Dakota is a town where gambling and prostitution were huge businesses. Now, Deadwood, South Dakota saloon is a popular attraction. Deadwood, South Dakota is one of the popular wild west towns.

Denver has recently become one of the most popular cities in the country.

Durango is a name without which any list of wild west towns in the United States would be incomplete. The city was home to the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Durango, Colorado’s illustrious past includes confrontations between miners and Native Americans, westward railroad expansion, and cattle rustling.

Fort Smith, the easternmost town on our list, has a strong sense of western history.

Fort Worth, Texas, was founded as an Army garrison in the mid-nineteenth century and became a major cattle powerhouse.

Fort Worth, which promotes itself as where the West Begins, was founded as an Army garrison in the mid-19th century

Fox Cave, Ruidoso Downs/Glencoe has been transformed into a fantastically bizarre roadside attraction where you can pose with enormous hands or dinosaurs. 

Idaho, a once-thriving mining town northeast of Boise, was the origin of vigilante law.

Oatman is a town in Arizona that may not be as well-known as some of the others, but it does have some distinctive traits.

Pendleton, Oregon was founded as a western trade station where the West is still untamed.

Sacramento, California is one of the state’s greatest sites to experience the wild west’s spirit.

Sidney served as a supply stop at the start of the Sidney-Blackhills Trail, which went directly to gold-rich South Dakota.

Silverton, Colorado became famous for its infamous Blair Street red-light district.

Tombstone, Arizona is well known for the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, including Wyatt Earp, Earp's brothers, Doc Holliday, and a band of deceitful cowboys.

Old West Town Names In New Mexico

There are bullets, liquor, and brothels. There's a reason why the Old West is also known as the Wild West. While many communities in New Mexico were law-abiding rather than lawless, some lived up to their violent reputation. Here are a few of them:

Cimarron is right up there with Las Vegas on a list of the most deadly towns in New Mexico.

Clayton is important in terms of gunslinger mythology because bandit and rail robber Black Jack Ketchum was executed here.

Elizabeth town was the first gold mine in the region, as well as the Mystic Copper Mine, was established in 1866.

Fort Sumner is a place where Billy the Kid (actual name Henry McCarty) was murdered and buried.

Hillsboro attracted criminals passionate about mail thievery, occasionally murder, and especially cattle rustling in the 1870s.

Las Vegas is an old west town that draws its name from the famous Las Vegas.

Lincoln is most known as the scene of the Lincoln County War.

Mesilla is a place whereBilly, the Kid, was condemned to death in Mesilla's courtroom.

Ouray is a ghost town nestled in the San Juan mountains.

Raton, at the end of the 19th century, experienced a considerable amount of outlaw and vigilante action.

Silver City, located in the Owyhee Mountains to the south of the Treasure Valley, is a time capsule.

White Oaks has become a ghost town, with just the No Scum Allowed Saloon still open.

Old West Town Names In California

There are several old towns in California. They can be found in every location, nestled away in the countryside or prominently displayed as a tourist attraction.

A few can only be observed in the bottom of man-made lakes during a drought year. But where did they come from and where did they go? Let’s look at some of the old west town names in California that attract historic tour visitors from across the country.

Alcatraz Island, located off the coast of San Francisco, is one of the most intriguing abandoned towns in Northern California. 

Alcatraz Island was by far the costliest jail in the country due to its isolation and the requirement for round-the-clock security.

Animas Forks, Colorado is rural, a little difficult to get to, and well-preserved (but not in a kitschy, Knott's Berry Farm manner) place and has been abandoned for a long time.

Ballarat is a small boomtown in the Panamint Valley in the Mojave Desert. 

Bannack, Montana is a town that was home to some criminal activities. It is now a state park attracting visitors on a tour.

Bloomfield North, located in the heart of Gold Country, the main street transports tourists 150 years back in this recreated gold-rush trail .

Bodie is described as a town locked in time. During the 1880s gold rush, the trail town of Bodie developed to a population of roughly 10,000 people.

Bodie, California is located in the eastern Sierras and is a long-abandoned town.

Calico is an Old West mining town in the magnificent Calico Mountains in Southern California's Mojave Desert area.

Calico's growth began in 1881, fueled by the discovery of enormous quantities of silver ore rather than gold.

Calico, California is a restored 1881 silver mining colony in the Mojave Desert.

Cerro Gordo, which translates to fat hill, is one of California's most realistic mining old towns.

Courtland, Gleeson, and Pearce, Arizona is where each of the three Arizona Ghost Town Trail pit breaks and has varying degrees of the ghost town. 

Darwin is another of California's nearly historic towns. Darwin French, a prospector who visited the region in 1850, inspired the town's name. 

Hearst Castle is not as primitive as some of California's other ghost towns. 

Julian is a city where most of the gold rush activities took place in Northern California. 

Julian was never abandoned, although the town's motivation for settlement changed quickly.

Keeler began as a freight port on the banks of Owens Lake in the 1870s. 

Locke was recognized as a National Historic Landmark, allowing visitors to admire the architecture, history, and hard work that the town's early Chinese inhabitants put into it.

Madrid is a ghost town on the Santa Fe trail

Malakoff Diggins is a well-known ghost town in California, and it is home to the city's largest hydropower mine.

Pioneertown, a Ghost Town in Southern California, is reminiscent of the Wild West.

Rhyolite was a thriving old town. It formerly had public baths, 50 saloons, and 19 lodging houses.

Rhyolite, Nevada is a town that was set up during the gold rush and attracts visitors to the saloons.

Ruby, Arizona is considered one of the finest maintained ghost towns in the state for its heritage.

Sacramento is a city that was found when John Sutter landed on the American River's coast.

Shasta State was known as the Queen City of the northern mines. 

South Pass City, Wyoming was founded in 1867 following a big gold rush in Wyoming.

St. Elmo, Colorado, founded in 1880 as Forest City, began to fade in the early 1920s. 

The Empire Mine in California is one of the deepest, oldest, biggest, and wealthiest gold mines in the state.