Wild Bill Hickock, a folk hero of the American Old West
This building mural of Wild Bill in Abilene, Kansas this past spring, really caught my eye. He was a soldier, spy, wagon master, scout, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, showman and actor in the 1800’s. He was Abilene’s Marshall for some time and the city claims him as their own. He married a circus owner in 1876 and managed to stay with her for two months before he joined a wagon train going to Deadwood, South Dakota to search for gold. He was playing poker just a few months later in a Deadwood saloon when a loser gambler shot him in the back, killing him. His hand Aces and Eights, became known as the “Dead Man’s Hand”. I thought it quite fitting that the mural is on the side of a gun shop.
Beautifully captured Lou Ann, as a boy I was an avid reader of the wild west history, as for the building its a type of shop you would never see in the UK:)
@gazzatron@beryl@radiogirl@henrir@pcoulson@ludwigsdiana@mittens@carolmw@ziggy77@joemuli@mave@gilbertwood@happypat@olivetreeann@365karly1 This is a “digital mural”. I think the artist digitizes a photograph and uses a projector to shine it on the wall, which he then paints with the image. We went to Wild Bill’s Grave in Deadwood, SD last year, Calamity Jane is buried next to him. His grave is a shrine really, people have left empty liquor bottles, playing cards, money, crosses, old broken guns all over his grave. Really quite a sight. Thank you all for your wonderful comments and favs, I appreciate every one.
