King Woolsey, was one of Arizona’s best-known pioneers during the 1860s. He prospected for gold in Arizona before the Walker Party arrived in 1863....
King Woolsey
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Articles
Hazards on the Long Trail
The Long drives from South Texas to Kansas from the 1860s to the 1880s were roughly six hundred miles and took about six weeks. I should have taken...
Geronimo Finds Jesus?
It was 1903, and Apache leader Geronimo staggered into a Dutch Reform Church at Ft. Sill, OK, where he was being held as a prisoner of war. He was...
Back to Basque
Basque immigrants hailed from a region that stretches across the Pyrenees Mountains into France and northern Spain. They first arrived in America...
A Brief but Violent Career
Bill Cook grew up in the Indian Territory, where he also made a name for himself. Born in 1873, he was busted for whiskey peddling in 1893. After...
Sarah “Great Western” Bowman Reportedly Died of a Tarantula Bite. Is Tarantula Venom that Poisonous?
Sarah “Great Western” Bowman reportedly died of a tarantula bite. Is tarantula venom that poisonous? David Duggan Shelton, Connecticut “Contemporary...
Sometimes the Bear Gets You
There was a real-life Grizzly Adams (but very different from the 1970s TV character). John Adams was born in Massachusetts in 1812 and went West...
A Plague of Flea Market Billys
The conversation all started with a letter from my hometown, Buffalo, New York. Rob McElroy had sent a note to the Yahoo group “Photo History” about...
The Texas Cattle Drives
Although there were cattle drives prior to the Civil War their heyday came in the years that followed. The war had pretty much depleted the beef...
Muddied Waters
Frank Waters’ 1960 book The Earp Brothers of Tombstone was once considered an authoritative look at the Earps, as seen through the eyes of Virgil’s...
From the Frontier’s Frontlines
Ordered West: The Civil War Exploits of Charles A. Curtis, edited by Alan and Donald Gaff (University of North Texas Press, $39.95), is a long...
Fake News Guru
In the 1920s, Oatman, Arizona, was a boomtown, and while the discovery of gold and the prosperity of the mines were always tabloid fodder, a bizarre...