Did guys actually exist in the Old West who made their living as bounty hunters?
Steve Drake
Gladewater, Texas
Bounty hunters were a varied assortment of mankind. On the frontier, bounties were offered for animals, Indians and outlaws. The most famous bounty hunter was Jim Kirker, a former mountain man, who found he could make far more money working for the Mexican government in the 1830s and ’40s collecting Apache scalps than he could skinning beaver. He led a band of hell-for-leather scal

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows