The untamed, wide open western United States. The term dates from the late nineteenth century, popularized by a book title, Adair Welcker’s Tales of the “Wild and WoollyWest” (1891). A publisher’s note on the book said “wild and woolly” referred to the rough sheepskin coats worn by cowboys and farmers, but Franklin P. Adams said “wild, woolly and full of flies” was a cowboy’s expression for a genuine cowboy. Owen Wister’s The Virginian (1902) stated, “I’m wild, and woolly and full of fleas,” which was later picked up in the cowboy ditty, “Pecos Bill and the Wilful Coyote” (ca. 1932) by W. C. White: “Oh, I’m wild and woolly and full of fleas, Ain’t never been curried below the knees.”