Dutch Henry Borne (also spelled Born and Bourne) was one of the most prevalent and notorious livestock thieves in the West. It’s surprising he isn’t...
The Notorious Dutch Henry
read more
Articles
The Lens of History
Since the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, the entrepreneurial “Big Four” rail barons of the Central Pacific...
Gunfight at the Chandler Ranch
According to Cochise County Deputy Sheriff, Billy Breakenridge, Richard “Zwing Hunt,” was one of the baddest of the bad hombres in that...
What History Has Taught Me: Dolan Ellis
As a kid, we lived on a small farm in eastern Kansas, where I literally had no playmates. My play consisted of doing little farm chores (gathering...
A Warning for Abolitionists
Anthony Bewley was a Methodist pastor south of Ft. Worth just before the Civil War. He was outspokenly abolitionist, and that angered his...
Morgan Woodward
Actor Morgan Woodward is known for many things, most of them unpleasant: he’s so good at playing bad that, “although it was an unwritten law that no...
Arizona’s First US Marshal
Milton Duffield was a seasoned gunman, claiming his first victim in 1854. That reputation must have helped him in some ways; in 1863, he was...
Dead Man Running
Ruben Flanoah “Noah” Wilkerson stepped out of Joe Erimmer’s buckboard, and after thanking him for the ride from Parachute, Colorado, mentally...
Attacks on the Butterfield Stage
A True West reader recently asked, did the Butterfield Overland and Mail in Arizona ever come under attack? And where in the Arizona were the...
Did Old West Cowboys Really Wear Bib Shirts?
Did Old West cowboys really wear bib shirts? Barbara Young Little Rock, Arkansas Bib shirts were popular military wear and worn by militias and...
Old Jails
We always see on Hollywood westerns, the jails in towns like Tombstone, Dodge City are portrayed with large windows with bars to prevent escape. But...
The Tragedy of Texas Jack
Texas Jack could have been the person about whom the phrase “tall, dark and handsome” was coined. And Giuseppina Morlacchi was a heartbreaker. She...