The history of North American horse culture is epitomized by the full-face horse mask in red trade cloth, with black velvet trim and seed blue star and sunburst, that hammered down for $40,000 at Brian Lebel’s Old West Auction in Denver, Colorado, on June 28. Photographic provenance that begins circa 1890 documents this horse mask among the Nez Perce, Blackfeet, Crow, Cayuse and Lakota, roughly 85 years after the increased availability of European firearms had made full-horse leather armor

October 2014
In This Issue:
More In This Issue
- The First Westerns Star
- A New-Old Straight Shooter
- History Unmasked
- A Dangerous and Bloody Citizen
- Masters of Western Art
- The Hat Rules
- A Skirmish with the Bottle Instead of the Braves
- Historical Photos of Charlie Russell
- Rowdy River Town
- The Auteur Who Walked the West
- Westerns Directed by Gordon Douglas
- L.Q. Jones
- October Events 2014
- What is a “bushwhacker?
- What famous Old West characters lived long enough to be filmed?
- Why are so few Western novels based in Nevada?
- What are cowboy bib-front shirts?
- How does Bat Masterson’s story compare with Wyatt Earp’s?
- Keeping the Faith
- Lights, Cameras, Charge!
- Nevada’s Buckaroos, Bonanzas and Boomtowns
- Ambrose Bierce
- The Sundance Kid Rides Again — in New York City!
- High Adventure in Big Sky Country
- Greed and Avarice on the California Frontier
- The Imaginary Doc Holliday Revealed
- The Last Days of Custer
- Rough Drafts 10/14
- Historian Jack L. August’s Reading List Reflects His Love Of The West