With shelves upon shelves of books about the Mexican Revolution in both Spanish and English, it would seem that one more would be unnecessary. But,...
Owen Wister’s Wyoming
Owen Wister’s The Virginian, A Horseman of the Plains, published in 1902, considered to be the first Western novel, is about a black-haired Wyoming...
10 Earp Vendetta Ride Myths
1) Thanks to Hollywood, most people think that the so-called “Vendetta Posse” was assembled after the death of Morgan Earp in March 1882. Wyatt,...
Was John Selman a Bad Guy?
Was John Selman a bad guy? Ron Bolza Slatington, Pennsylvania John Henry Selman was, at best, a badly flawed character. During his checkered career,...
Cattle Call
Since moving to Texas over 15 years ago, I have traveled many miles on the trail of the state’s history and the rich heritage of its cattle culture....
Sins of the Father
In 1864, an irascible 51-year-old Nicholas Earp proclaimed himself a wagonmaster and offered to lead a group of Iowa emigrants to California. Sarah...
Peace on the High Plains
Red Cloud and other Lakota leaders met with Indian Commissioners at Fort Laramie in 1866 intending to negotiate an agreement that would allow safe...
Arizona Pearce Boom to Bust
Few folks driving on the old Ghost Town Trail northeast of Tombstone, through Gleeson, Courtland and Pearce are aware of the fact that it was quite...
Proving Up
Elinore Pruitt Stewart’s Letters of a Woman Homesteader captures the rambunctious spirit of this woman pioneer who set out to prove that she could...
It Always Rains After a Dry Spell
It seems like my entire life has been spent living in a drought. I was born in Mesa, Arizona in 1939 where we lived on a small livestock...
DVD Review: Barquero
For a Few Dollars More and The Wild Bunch propelled former bit players Lee Van Cleef and Warren Oates to Western movie stardom. Van Cleef is the...
Nebraska’s Outlaw Trail
Early law and order came not from lawmen, but citizens, in what is now Nebraska. When the wagon trains left Independence and St. Joseph, Missouri,...