Jim Harkey and Jim Barbey were both riders at the Cottonwood Mott Line Camp in west Texas in 1880. Nobody knew of any trouble between the two Jims—at least until one day when they were out on the range.
Harkey began singing “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” For whatever reason, Barbey objected and told him to stop. Harkey refused—and Barbey shot him out of the saddle. Before he died, Ha

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