"How were flat roofs in Western towns covered?" Topic

I'm in the process of making a town in the Wild West for bank robberies, outfitting cattle drives, entertainment for lovesick cowboys, and of course shave and a haircut.
No dawdling bartenders!

All of my kits have flat roofs. What were they covered with to keep rain and snow out?
I'm getting mostly laser cut MDF and also a few resin buildings. All have flat roofs.

Tarpaper I believe.

Indeed, but also Tar and Gravel was used and even flattened cans!

Thanks for the information, guys.

There was also tarred or waterproofed canvas. Depending on the location, sod could be used. A well off place might have tin or steel, especially if they are close to a railhead.

also tin sheeting

One note though, corrugated iron or tin roofs were expensive, so quite rare.

All of the above are good.
It would be a function of year built and how close to a point of supple. Early years and distant for supply, Canvas in various forms would by most common. Often treated with oils, wax, or tar, fires were common. In areas with wood cutting, planks with tarred joints. Tar-paper would soon be the most dominate roofing. The sod roof where common in very dry areas (adobe) and as the roof of farms too distant from supplies to use anything else. (the first settlers of prairie areas).

Not realized by many is that under that tar paper was dirt and/or sod for insulation. It can get pretty darned cold out west here!

My building in my small town was built in 1885 as a bank at the train station. I sold it when I lost my leg and we got the description and records from the courthouse annex. One of my rooms was a built in vault. It still had a flat roof when I had it gravel and tar in 2016.
The description said it had tar paper initially.
My grandparents house in the Randolph county backwoods was built in the 1860s and is still there. It had a high angle roof with a thick tar paper which can be seen in the closets as well as newspapers used as insulation. A tin roof was added in the 1920s as a wedding present and before they had kids. They did not have an indoor toilet until 1964. My grandmother Nelson never spent a night away from home.

Just a suggestion. I used very fine grit emery cloth (grey sandpaper) from the big box hardware store for the roofing on my western bldgs. You could also print out a sheet of paper using the grey color to your liking using Word

!
Well, that just saved me a bottle of Elmer's glue and a $5 USD bag of ballast.
Great suggestion.