The western genre is an art form easily recognizable for its epic depiction of frontier life, cattle drives, train robberies, lawless lawmen and barroom brawls. But aside from these usual trappings, the West has an untold past where the ballad of cowboy meshes with that of the fantastic. Here dinosaurs, retro-futuristic inventions, monsters, the paranormal, dragons, and, yes, even bigfoot square off with the likes of a lasso and six-shooter. So saddle up and prepare to ride past the borders of our existence, off into the expanses of the unknown.

There appears to be little what rivals the human imagination. For it is truly a remarkable thing that infinite dreams can spring forth from such a finite mind as an inventor. But not all inventors see the fruits of their labors. At times, mechanical wonders are too large in scale, too grand in ambition, or too costly to produce that they never leave the drawing board. The following is a testament to those dreams deferred. Here one will find such contrivances what dare to test the boundaries of human ingenuity and defy the limits of natural law.

Not all stories are “stories.” Some are merely assertions. But no matter the extent of our learning, irregardless of what we think we know, the unknown of human knowledge greatly dwarfs all that has been brought to light. What is more, simply because a claim is extraordinary does not make it false. It is then not due to an error in our judgement we entertain the fantastic but to the wisdom that we are human, judgmental and ridiculously overconfident of our station in the universe. Be warned, separating fact from fiction here is no minor task. Think you’re up to the challenge? Oh, “little human creature,” just you try, we dare you.