Isaiah Dorman’s claim to fame? He was the only black man killed at the Little Big Horn battle. While not much is known about his early life, Dorman...
The Black Man at Little Big Horn
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Articles
Sand Creek Complexity
Sand Creek, like Little Bighorn or Wounded Knee, serves as a lightning rod evoking polemic responses. Gregory F. Michno knew this well when he...
The Cup Spinning Sequence
When then-Director Kevin Jarre first spoke to Val Kilmer about the gun-twirling, cup-spinning scene in 1993’s Tombstone, the actor who played John...
Titans of the West
For fans of Western cinema, 2018 is an anniversary year of great importance as the 80th anniversary of John Ford directing his first John Wayne film...
The Fix Was In
Doc and Jim Manning killed lawman/gunfighter Dallas Stoudenmire at an El Paso saloon in 1882. The pair were charged with murder, and it looked to...
Road Trip!
The long American road trip across the West evokes emotions of freedom and adventure and mental images of windswept plains, awe-inspiring mountain...
Shine Smith
Hugh Dickson “Shine” Smith was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1912 and assigned to a church in Coleman, Texas where he became a “cowboy...
Tracking Down the Killers
The Espinosa family lived in southern Colorado in the 1850s and ‘60s. It’s not clear exactly why, but they declared war against Anglos and Mexicans...
Suckers on the Strip
Louis Mueller always said both Sooners and Suckers participated in the 1893 Cherokee Strip Land Run, and my impression was that he put himself in...
Shoot the Chief
Harry Love is best known for tracking down California outlaw Joaquin Murrieta. But he had other adventures. After a stint in the army, in the late...
The Queen’s Revenge
“Queen Ann Bassett” was a rancher in the Brown’s Park area of northwest Colorado. In 1900, her fiancé, Matt Rash, was assassinated by Tom Horn as...
Tom “Peg Leg” Smith
Peg Leg Smith, ranks right up there with America's legendary mountain men, including Bill Williams, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Joe Walker, Jed Smith...