The Wild West, the American frontier, holds a special place in American history. Western films depict it as a place where the rules didn't apply, and where scores were settled with gun-slinging and shootouts. Early 20th Century Historian Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the frontier was not just a place, but a “process” that transformed people into the quintessential American. If settlers weren’t chasing gold, they were rounding-up cattle, or tilling open farmlands. Under the facade that Hollywood created, a life that was harsh and unforgiving.