WEIRD WILD WEST

From ghost trains to ghost bandits, Wild Bill Hickok to wild camels, here are ten strange stories from America's frontier

- Written by Callum McKelvie

In the 19th century, the young nation of America was growing fast and was well on its way to becoming the world power we know today. The acquisition of vast swathes of land in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 effectively doubled the size of the US, and included territory that now comprises 15 states, among them Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Wyoming. By the late 1860s, the end of the civil war and the growth of the railways led settlers to venture further into the new world than ever before. These rugged new territories (and later the period itself) came to be known as the Wild West.

This was a time of bandits, cattle rustlers and gunslingers. But if folklore is to be believed it was also a time of many curious happenings. These frontier lands were home to serial killers and even spectral apparitions. Some of these stories originated during the period, but others have formed over time and become all the stranger for the retelling.

The truth of many of these stories will perhaps never be known for certain. As with all folk tales and legends, they have been expanded upon and embellished throughout the decades since they first appeared. Nonetheless they are shining examples of the peculiar fascination this period holds, how the unknown can inspire the imagination, and of the many bizarre happenings that were said to have occurred in the Weird Wild West.

THE GHOST BANDIT OF SIX MILE CANYON

NEVADA

With a name that's better-suited to an episode of Scooby-Doo, The Ghost Bandit of Six Mile Canyon is said to be the returning spirit of train robber Big Jack Davis. His story is more eccentric than most, with the line between fact and fiction even harder to discern.