It just didn’t pay to own ranch land along the Feliz River in Lincoln County, NM. Robert Casey (photo) squatted on the land, building a dugout and...
Bad Luck Ranch
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Articles
How did Settlers and Cowboys Calculate Miles?
How did settlers and cowboys calculate miles? Jason Bledsoe Felton, Delaware Trail riding cowboys had no way to calculate the miles—but the “cookie”...
Shoot the Messenger
Lincoln, NM deserved its reputation as a deadly town. Example: February 21, 1878. Private Edward Brooks is carrying messages from Ft. Stanton to...
Little Gertie the Gold Dollar
The boom towns of the Old West had a shortage of eligible women and that void for the lusty young men was filled by what were euphemistically...
Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln’s origin story doesn’t involve an Indian uprising or a whisky-soaked shootout. The town was founded as Lancaster in 1856, and the reason was...
The Cowboy’s Rope
Cowboys then and now considered roping as the feature that separated real cowhands from gunsels. Even today a cowboy won’t stay with an outfit long...
Don’t Shoot Anymore. I Am Dead.
On May 17, 1853, the legislature passed an act creating the California Rangers, with Harry Love as their captain, and Governor John Bigler signed it...
Johnny Mack Brown
The Alabama “artful dodger” was an All-American halfback at Alabama who scored two of Bama’s three touchdowns in the 1926 Rose Bowl. He was named...
Cowan’s Auction
Regular viewers of PBS readily recognize Wes Cowan from Antiques Road Show and History Detectives. Back in the late 1970s, Wes toiled away on his...
A Deadly Card Game
Josiah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock is best known as a compatriot of Billy the Kid during the troubles in New Mexico. But Doc was no stranger to violence...
The Education of a Killer
Harry Orchard is best known as an assassin for the Western Federation of Miners; his bombs killed more than two dozen people in the early 1900s,...
How Accurate was the Language in the 2010 Version of True Grit?
How accurate was the language in the 2010 version of True Grit? Scott Bachtold Hudson, Illinois You’re probably referring to the fact that many of...