There are towns with cowboys and then there are cowboy towns. Full of rich Old West history, the latter is definitely more interesting. These are towns where you’ll surely find guys who look like Sam Elliott in The Big Lebowski, only instead of living out of their element in a big city like Los Angeles, they’re right at home. In these hoedown centers, the spirit of the Wild West is alive and well.

Number 10
Deadwood, South Dakota
Wyatt Earp, “Wild Bill” Hickock and Calamity Jane -- these names are synonymous with the Old West and they all have ties to Deadwood. Don’t think you know everything about this town just from watching the former HBO series; there’s much more to Deadwood’s history than Hollywood portrays. Founded in 1876, the former gold rush town of about 2,300 located in western South Dakota’s Black Hills is on the rebound, thanks in part to the legalization of gambling in 1989. Best of all, the timeless cowboy spirit has survived as well.

Number 9
Miles City, Montana
Any town that can trace its origins to a whisky bar made out of driftwood must be a cowboy town. Also home to Butch Cassidy and Teddy Roosevelt, it could only be Miles City. The Eastern Montana town that grew out of a tavern in 1877 was named after Colonel Nelson A. Miles, a guy who really didn’t think highly of potent potables and never really took a shine to the association. Folks here have since learned to behave. You can still get a shot of whisky in this city of about 8,100, but the biggest attractions now are the Range Riders Museum, the Cowtown Beef Breeders Show and the Bucking Horse Sale. Yee-haw!

Number 8
Sheridan, Wyoming
Wyoming and cowboys are synonymous: The state has a cowboy on its license plate for crying out loud. What’s more, Sheridan was named the No. 1 Western Town in the U.S. by True West Magazine in 2006. So was it without merit? Of course not, this north-central Wyoming town of 16,000 is full of the cowboy spirit. The Little Bighorn Battlefield national monument is nearby and Ft. Phil Kearny is there too. Sheridan’s rich Western history is revisited with the annual Sagebrush Cowboy Gathering, Buffalo Bill Days, Bozeman Trail Days, and several rodeos in between.

Number 7
Dodge City, Kansas
There aren’t many towns with cemetery museums, but once upon a time Boot Hill’s population was growing nearly as fast as Dodge City’s. Today’s cowboy town of 30,000 sprouted in 1872 and grew quite quickly. Not long after, Fort Dodge was established as a troop supply base and outpost for wagon trains. Trains of another kind soon reached Dodge City on the newly completed tracks, carrying scores of passengers and also hauling cattle to meet their maker (or at least dinner plates). Dodge City’s storied and often seedy history is well-documented and displayed for visitors in the Boot Hill Museum and Front Street. In addition to the aforementioned cemetery, the Santa Fe Trail, Fort Dodge and the Gunfighters Wax Museum are must-sees as well.

Number 6
Makawao, Hawaii
The Aloha State has much more than tanned and toned tourists and mustachioed private investigators driving Ferraris. Get to know the real Hawaii and experience more than you ever imagined from cattle country to paniolo (cowboys) and the place they call home on Maui, Makawao. Since the first paniolo were Mexicans who stepped in to help Hawaiians herd cattle in the early 1800s, you could say these were actually the first cowboys to enter the United States. That claim may be taking a bit of historic liberty, but you really should go to this cowboy town of 6,300. Weekend rodeos, especially those around Independence Day, are some of the best and only times to hear “howdy” and “aloha” used in the same sentence.

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