The Ersatz Wild West Shootouts of Palisade, Nevada

During the glory days of the railroad era, the public was gripped by mythic, larger-than-life tales of the Wild West -- people reveled in visions of train robberies, shootouts and attacks by vicious ne'er-do-wells. When one train conductor told a resident of Palisade, Nevada that his passengers were bummed to learn the real west wasn't all that wild, the members of the small town joined forces and began staging their own, entirely fake, train robberies and bandit attacks. What started as a prank became an institution, and over the next few years Palisade would become home to hundreds of theatrical train robberies.

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