A I write this column from my desk in my office in Iowa City, Iowa, in October 2018, reflecting on the past, present and future state of Western...
Best of the West 2019: Western Books
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Articles
What Can You Tell Me About Living with Consumption in the Old West Era?
What can you tell me about living with consumption in the Old West era? Paul Gortarez Phoenix, Arizona Consumption is an early term for...
Death by Association
For Charles Cooper, being a friend of Chunk Colbert didn’t turn out well. The two were eating with Clay Allison at Cimarron, New Mexico Territory’s...
The Man Who Redeemed The Hamer Name
The story of The Highwaymen, the new Depression-era Western from Netflix, has been a thirty-year obsession for author John Fusco. “Those old photos...
Best of the West 2019: Heritage Travel
Truth be told, I love a long road trip across America and have enjoyed dozens of trips as a young man and as a father. My first travel memories are...
Maurice Kildare and the 1883 Bisbee Massacre
Several years ago, I read an article written by Maurice Kildare about the Bisbee Massacre in which he stated that the men hanged for it were not the...
Did the Apache Call Their Great Leader Geronimo or His Original Name, Goyahkla?
Did the Apache call their great leader Geronimo or his original name, Goyahkla? Al Maurine Tucson, Arizona Geronimo, a prominent leader and shaman,...
Who Assassinated Pat Garrett?
Pat Garrett’s assassination remains a convoluted point of controversy that reads like an Agatha Christie mystery. Was it a contract murder? An...
Lost and Found in American History
For 184 years, it was lost. Then they found a metal military button—eventually, they’d find 39. Then glass trading beads—the first of 434. Then an...
Friends unto Death
William Collins was an associate of Sam Bass, and a member of the Joel Collins (his brother) Gang (photo) that held up a Nebraska train of $60,000...
Was the Notorious Bad Guy Davy Crockett the Grandson of Davy Crockett?
Yep, he sure was Davy's grandson but if grandpa had been around he would have tanned his britches. David Crockett, named after his grandfather, was...
The Death of the Man Who Killed the Man Who Killed Jesse James
Ed O’Kelley has his claim to fame. On June 8, 1892, he walked into a tent saloon in Creede, Colorado, and emptied two shotgun barrels into the neck...