It’s been called the West’s bloodiest gunfight. Hugh Anderson and Arthur McCluskie met in the middle of the main street in Medicine Lodge, Indian Territory in July 1873. The duelists emptied their guns into one another; both were severely wounded. The combatants then crawled forward and stabbed each other to death.
It’s a great story, but it didn’t happen. The only report of the fight was a fanciful tale in the New York World. There was no Medicine Lodge in Indian Territory. And Hugh

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus