The question about hygiene in the West came up the other day from someone wondering if cowboys brushed their teeth. Well, some did and some didn’t....
The Redoubtable Toothbrush
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Articles
Custer’s Gold
“GOLD!” proclaimed Dakota Territory’s Bismarck Tribune, August 12, 1874. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s Black Hills expedition had discovered...
The Bird Cage Theater
Tombstone’s fabulous Bird Cage Theater opened December 23rd, 1881 to a raucous crowd territorial Arizonans. There’s no doubt in the realm of legend...
A Shootout Between Friends
Billy Collins was the younger brother of Sam Bass associate Joel Collins—but he didn’t learn from his sibling’s death at the hands of lawmen in...
Who has Jim Bowie’s Knife from the 1836 Battle of the Alamo?
Who has Jim Bowie’s knife from the 1836 Battle of the Alamo? Ben Moskowitz South Amboy, New Jersey Nobody knows. Like most, if not all, of the...
Monkey Business
A half-scale saddle that advertised Buffalo Bill’s Wild West act of a monkey riding a goat was among the top historical lots to hammer down past its...
Mysterious Dave and the Preacher
One day a young man calling himself Brother Johnson came to town and soon his youth and enthusiasm was attracting large crowds. He dazzled them with...
The Robber Revealed
“Captain” Bill Coe led a gang of rustlers and robbers that roamed the Oklahoma Panhandle into New Mexico and southern Colorado during the...
How Good was Mail Service in the Old West
The California Gold Rush put westward expansion on steroids. Californians were demanding better mail service, which up to then had been almost...
175 Years of Pioneer Spirit
Throughout 2018 Oregon will be commemorating an epic event the foretold the history of the west. 175 years ago, the first wagons struck out on the...
Eternal Texas Rangers
The history of the Texas Rangers is the story of real people surrounded by the legends and the legacies of that historic organization. In Texas...
A Vigilante Pays the Price
Nat Kinney led the Bald Knobbers, a vigilante group that patrolled the Missouri Ozarks in the mid to late 1880s. A farmer, merchant and...