Fernando video 1 : 20 Weird Things In The Old West You've Never Seen

FORGET EVERYTHING you think you know about the Wild West! We're talking about a governor who wore boots made from HUMAN SKIN, getting arrested for having BAD BREATH, and superstitions so crazy they could literally get you killed. The movies got it all wrong. The REAL Wild West was absolutely insane.

When you hear "Old West," you probably picture gunfights and cowboys, right? WRONG. The reality was 100 times crazier and way more disgusting. We're about to count down 20 of the most unbelievable things from the Old West that they NEVER show you in movies. I'm talking about insane laws, disgusting hygiene, and medical "cures" that will blow your mind. Let's get into it!

Bizarre Laws and Public Order

Number 20: The Gun Check-In

You know how everyone in movies has a gun? That's completely wrong! A ton of towns, like Dodge City and Tombstone, had insane gun control. To stop all the violence, you had to check your guns at the sheriff's office or even a saloon. It was literally a coat check, but for your GUN. It didn't stop all the crime, but it proves the "Wild West" wasn't as wild as you think.

Number 19: Public Executions as Entertainment

This is crazy. Justice wasn't just served—it was a full-on public party. They turned hangings into a GIANT festival! I'm not kidding—families, kids, food vendors... everyone would show up to watch. It was a super grim form of entertainment that shows you how brutal life was back then.

Number 18: Sunday Laws

You will not BELIEVE this. Some towns had these weird "blue laws" to keep Sunday holy. One of the absolute strangest? It was ILLEGAL to eat ice cream on a Sunday. ICE CREAM! Nobody knows exactly why, but can you imagine getting fined just for eating ice cream?!

Number 17: Fines Paid in Goods

Out on the frontier, nobody had cash, so the courts had to get creative. If you were found guilty, instead of paying money, you’d pay with stuff. There's a real case where a guy paid his fine by giving the judge and the marshal WARM CLOTHES. Imagine getting a speeding ticket, but instead of cash, you pay the cop with a new jacket. It's actually kind of genius.

### Section 2: Strange Social Norms and Customs

Number 16: Photographing the Dead

This is gonna sound insane, but they took pictures with DEAD BODIES. Especially famous outlaws. To prove they got the bounty, they'd prop up the corpse, snap a photo, and then sell the pictures as SOUVENIRS! People actually BOUGHT these!

Number 15: Gambling as a Respected Profession

Today, being a professional gambler is seen as kind of sketchy. Back then? You could be as respected as a DOCTOR. In some towns, a great poker player was a local celebrity. For a lot of people, gambling wasn't just a bad habit—it was a real, high-stakes career!

Number 14: The Scarcity of Women

This is wild. The frontier was mostly men. In some spots, there were NINE MEN for every ONE WOMAN. NINE to ONE! Guys were so desperate to dance they would literally dance with EACH OTHER. One guy would tie a handkerchief on his arm and—boom—he was the "lady" for the dance.

Number 13: The Courting Ritual of "Bundling"

Okay, dating was WEIRD. To get some alone time, an unmarried couple could sleep in the same bed… BUT they had to be fully clothed, with a giant board separating them down the middle. And sometimes, they would literally SEW THEM INTO GIANT SACKS for the night, just to make sure nothing happened. Can you even imagine that today?

### Section 3: Shocking Hygiene and Medical Practices

Number 12: The Rarity of Bathing

You think you hate showering? These guys almost NEVER bathed. I'm talking WEEKS or even MONTHS. Water was too valuable. If you bathed twice a week, people thought you were a complete weirdo. And get this—the entire family would use the SAME disgusting bathwater before changing it!

Number 11: Community Toothbrushes and Twig Dentistry

This might be the most disgusting thing on the list. Dental hygiene? DID NOT EXIST. Some public places had a SINGLE toothbrush for EVERYONE to use. A PUBLIC TOOTHBRUSH. More often, you'd just chew on a twig. Got a toothache? The blacksmith would just RIP IT OUT with pliers. No dentist, just pliers and a shot of whiskey. INSANE.

Number 10: Seam Squirrels

Because they never washed their clothes, people were CRAWLING with body lice. They called them "seam squirrels" because they lived in the seams of their shirts! It was a non-stop, itchy nightmare that could literally kill you with diseases like typhus. People had to boil or BURN their clothes just to get rid of them!

Number 9: The Communal Saloon Towel

Saloons were disgusting. They had ONE towel hanging at the bar for EVERY single customer to wipe the beer foam off their mouth. ONE towel used by dozens of guys all day long. People were spitting tobacco juice everywhere, and sometimes travelers would SLEEP on the spit-covered floor. It was a breeding ground for germs.

### Section 4: Weird Superstitions and Beliefs

Number 8: The Cursed Cowboy Hat

Cowboys had some crazy rules, and the number one rule was: NEVER put your hat on a bed. Ever. They believed it would cause fights, bad luck, injuries, or even DEATH. It probably started because of lice, but it became this huge superstitious rule that everyone followed.

Number 7: Fear of the Color Yellow

This is so random, but rodeo cowboys were TERRIFIED of the color YELLOW. They believed it was the unluckiest color on Earth and that wearing it would get you seriously hurt in the arena. A cowboy would rather ride a chicken than wear a yellow shirt.

Number 6: St. Elmo's Fire

Imagine you're out on the plains in a storm, and suddenly your horse's ears and the cattle's horns start GLOWING with this spooky, electric blue light. They had no idea it was just static electricity, so they thought it was GHOSTS. It would cause a massive panic among the cattle and the cowboys!

Number 5: Burying the Dead with Their Vices

When outlaws died, they didn't go empty-handed. They were literally buried with their favorite gun, a deck of cards, and a bottle of whiskey. It was like a starter pack for the afterlife, to make sure everyone knew they were a hard-living legend, even in death.

### Section 5: Food, Diversity, and Daily Grind

Number 4: Survival Cuisine

You would not survive on an Old West diet. Forget campfire steaks. We're talking biscuits so hard they'd break your teeth. And when things got really bad? They ate whatever they could find. Squirrels, snakes, prairie dogs… even BUGS. You ate what you had to, or you died.

Number 3: The Diverse Cowboy

Hollywood COMPLETELY lied to you! They show nothing but white cowboys, but the truth is, ONE IN FOUR cowboys was Black. ONE IN FOUR! And tons more were Mexican or Native American. These guys were the absolute backbone of the West, even if they don't get the credit they deserve.

Number 2: The Barber-Surgeon

Need a haircut? Go to the barber. Need a tooth pulled? Go to the barber. Need minor SURGERY? You guessed it, GO TO THE BARBER. Since they had steady hands, they were the town's all-in-one doctor. It is absolutely wild that the same person cutting your hair could also be cutting you open.

Number 1: Boots Made of Human Skin

And at number one, this is the most messed-up thing I have EVER heard. There was this outlaw, "Big Nose" George Parrott. After he was executed, a doctor literally SKINNED HIM and had his skin tanned to make a pair of shoes and a medical bag. And then that doctor, who later became the GOVERNOR of Wyoming, WORE THE HUMAN-SKIN SHOES to his own inauguration party! I am not making this up. That is the most insane, horrifying story from the Wild West, period.

So, from public toothbrushes to literal human-skin boots, the REAL Old West was a thousand times crazier than anything you'll see in the movies. It was a non-stop battle for survival where everything was weird, gross, and unbelievably dangerous. These stories just prove that history is way, way stranger than you think.

Which one of these facts blew your mind the most? Let me know in the comments RIGHT NOW! And if you can't believe how crazy history is, do not forget to DESTROY that like button, subscribe for more insane stories, and ring that bell so you never miss a video! Thanks for watching.