“Come along boys and listen to my tale, I’ll tell you of my troubles on the Old Chisholm Trail.” So sang Gene Autry in his tribute to those hardworking cowboys, whose exhausting life on this famous cattle trail often bore scant resemblance to the romance portrayed in 1930s-80s literature and film. The Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan, Oklahoma, shares that popular lore in its art deco movie theater display. The center’s new $4.5 million facility also offers visitors other lea

January/February 2004
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- New Mexico Piñon Coffee Company
- Narcissa Whitman
- Vera’s Cowboy Done Her Wrong
- From Wild Women to the Wild Plains
- A River Runs Through History
- When did American cowboys stop wearing Levi jeans?
- Did Cole Younger have any children? I ask because a doctor in town comes into my barbershop and claims to be his great-grandson.
- Breaking Out More Shovels
- Zip Zapped!
- Striking Similarities
- Chisholm Trail Heritage Center
- Jack Elam (1919-2003)
- Not Just Another Pretty Voice
- Those Singing Cowboys
- Deadwood Drama
- Vera’s Cowboy Done Her Wrong
- I’ve heard there was a passenger on the Titanic named William P. Longley, and that someone from the family of Wild Bill Longley identified the traveler as the outlaw. Evidently, Longley faked his death only to sink along with the Titanic. Is that true?
- How did Martha Jane Canary acquire the nickname “Calamity?”
- Did the old stagecoach route between Benson and Tucson follow what is today’s I-10?