Psychedelic Cowboys: Shrooms in Old West

VIDEO: How cowboys discovered magic mushrooms on the American frontier

What did cowboys and hippies see in fungi?

(MSN/Footprints of The Frontier) Hidden beneath the legend of the Wild West lies a story few historians dare to tell -- the forgotten connection between cowboys and magic mushrooms.

What's that on those cowpies, Casey? - Shrooms!

As European settlers invaders, loggers, and ranchers spread westward, psilocybin mushrooms* flourished in their wake, sprouting in wood chips, cattle pastures [on dung], and mining camps across the frontier. While whisky fueled the saloons, some frontiersmen and Indigenous healers quietly turned to the “flesh of the gods” for vision, healing, and escape. These fungi spread along the same trails as the pioneers, forming a psychedelic undercurrent to the age of expansion. It’s a chapter of the American frontier buried by religion, shame, and time — until now.

"Magic" mushrooms?

Indoor cultivation of Psilocybe cubensis

Psilocybin "magic mushrooms" (psilocybin-containing mushrooms, commonly known as shrooms [1]) are a type of entheogenic, psychedelic (mind-making), hallucinogenic mushroom and a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain the prodrug psilocybin, which turns into the psychedelic psilocin upon ingestion [2].

The most potent species are members of genus Psilocybe, such as P. azurescens, P. semilanceata, and P. cyanescens, but psilocybin has also been isolated from approximately a dozen other genera, including Panaeolus (including Copelandia), Inocybe, Pluteus, Gymnopilus, and Pholiotina [2].

Psychedelic Gymnopilus luteoviridis

Among other cultural applications, magic mushrooms are used as spiritual medicine (early psychology) and foolishly as recreational drugs [2].

Shrooms were used ritualistically in pre-Columbian [before Columbus] Mexico, but claims of their widespread ancient use are largely exaggerated and shaped by modern idealization and ideology [3].

Natural occurrence

Natural occurrence. Non-psilocybe species of psilocybin mushroom include Pluteus salicinus, Gymnopilus luteoviridis, and Panaeolus cinctulus, formerly called Panaeolus subbalteatus. In a 2000 review on the worldwide distribution of psilocybin mushrooms... More

• Footprints of The Frontier via MSN, 11/11/25; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit