Historians of the American West have written dozens of books on trailblazers and overland trails in the past six decades, but Jim DeFelice’s West...
Flying Light
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Articles
The Power of a Book
Author Helen Hunt Jackson wanted the public to better understand the plight of Native Americans—much as Harriet Beecher Stowe had done for black...
The Road to and from China
Anson Burlingame is a name mostly forgotten today. But over a 22-year period, from the early 1860s through mid-1880s, he was well known in two...
What History Has Taught Me: Rudolfo Anaya
Rudolfo Anaya shot to stardom with his first novel, 1972’s Bless Me, Ultima, which got rejected by New York and Boston publishers, and found a home...
Jim Leavy
Jim Leavy was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1842. His name was often misspelled Levy and this has led some to believe he was Jewish however there is no...
A Watch to Die For
Dave Tutt walked onto the town square in Springfield, Missouri, at 6 p.m. on a Friday. He was about to face off with a known adversary, “Wild Bill”...
The Strike and the Spinoff
Clint Walker, who died recently, is best known for portraying the title character of “Cheyenne” for seven TV seasons between 1955 and 1963. It was a...
The Calamitous Martha Jane
Thanks to Hollywood, Martha Jane Canary's story has come down to us in a somewhat romantic version. Army scout, Indian fighter and barroom brawler....
Recycling a Western
“Sugarfoot,” the late ‘50s TV Western produced by Warner Brothers, wasn’t a new idea. It was based on a 1954 film The Boy from Oklahoma, starring...
Did Ranches have Ice Houses?
Did ranches have ice houses? Ray Burden Beckenham, Kent, England Ice houses on the frontier could only happen if a rancher lived in the north...
Legend of Black Bart
Taking his name from a dime Western novel, Charles E. Boles (or Charles Bolton, as he was known) robbed 28 Wells Fargo stagecoaches between 1875 and...
Idaho City: Queen of the Gold Camps
In 1862, the Boise Basin roared to life with a red-hot case of gold fever. Miners poured in and Idaho City and other towns sprouted. By the...