By YEET MAGAZINE | Updated 1408 GMT (2208 HKT) September 29, 2021

These widespread practices in the Wild West show how wild the times really were

Valley fever

Nasty fungal infections were a common and even permanent danger to the people of the Old West.

A hard day spent riding the land or dragging a cart through nature is enough to make anyone a little hot and sweaty. And this is precisely the environment in which these various fungal infections like to develop. One of its particularly violent irritants was the fungus Coccidioids, which was widespread in the territories of the American West. It gave rise to a nasty infection known as coccidioidomycosis or Valley Fever.