Steve Friesen recently retired after 22 years as director of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave. He is the author of Buffalo Bill: Scout, Showman,...
Building Your Western Library: Steve Friesen
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Articles
A Pall to Bear
So the question is: Did Wyatt Earp need pallbearers at his funeral in 1929? After all, his remains were cremated. It wouldn’t take six men to carry...
A Rash Decision
Matt Rash came to Colorado’s Brown’s Park in the 1890s to start his own ranch. It ended up costing him his life. Rash ran afoul of Ora Haley, a...
Washington Steps in–Almost
Things were way out of hand in Cochise County, Arizona Territory in early 1882. Morgan Earp was assassinated by unknown gunmen while playing pool...
Curly Bill Brocius
The outlaws of Cochise County during the 1880s were a hard breed and the fact that Curly Bill was one of their leaders says something of his...
A Drive for the Birds
Henry Hooker is best known as a major cattleman in Southeast Arizona during the Earp-Cow-boy times. But before that, he tried a different venture....
Crazy Facts You Never Knew About Custer’s Last Stand
Tragically dying on June 25, 1876, with his men at his last battle, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer has lived on as an integral part of America’s...
Was “Little Gertie, the Gold Dollar” Real?
Was “Little Gertie, the Gold Dollar” real? Ramona Briggs Denver, Colorado Old West boomtowns had a shortage of eligible women, a void often filled...
Shipping Cattle to Market by Rail
Have you ever watched those trail driving movies and wondered what happened after the cattle were delivered to the railhead at Abilene, Dodge City...
Theodore Roosevelt, That Damned Cowboy
“Now we’ve got that damned cowboy as President!” Senator Mark Hanna exclaimed referring to Vice President Theodore Roosevelt after President William...
A Race for The Copper Queen
In the spring of 1877, a government scout named Jack Dunn was winding his way down what later became known as Tombstone Canyon in southeastern...
Romance and the Buffalo Hunt
Nancy Cooper clearly fired up Charles M. Russell’s imagination when they met in 1895 (a year later, 32-year-old Charlie would marry 18-year-old...