Long Haired Sam Brown led a gang in California’s Calaveras County in the 1850s. He was dealing cards in 1855 when a Chilean miner grabbed someone...
A Deadly Card Game
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Articles
Blood on the Earth
Two months separated the 1868 clashes between the U.S. military and the Indians at Beecher Island and the Washita River. One is known for heroism on...
Not a Chip Off the Old Block
Ed Scarborough isn’t as well-known as his lawman father George, who killed John Selman. But Ed made his own mark. He originally served as posse...
Boone Gets His Man
Boone May is not the biggest name in Old West annals, but he was a terror to outlaws in the 1870s—first as a shotgun messenger for the Cheyenne and...
Lost Pick Mine
Arizona’s rugged central mountains, with their brawny mountains and twisting, boulder-choked canyons were a perfect place to lose a mine. Coronado’s...
Lewis & Clark-Inspired Whiskey
After explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark found limestone springs in 1804 that later generations used to fill water barrels on their way...
How Tombstone Got The Right Look
You can’t have an authentic set without authentic costumes. But even though Tombstone would begin filming more than two months before the start of...
American Barnstormers in Mexico
During the Mexican Revolution American adventurers, especially barnstorming pilots were much in demand by both sides. In 1911 during the early...
Mary Kidder Rak
Among the wide gamut of working women in the West were not only schoolteachers, nurses, restaurateurs, seamstresses, good time girls and even...
Building Your Western Library with Orin Vaughn
Influenced by the radio and TV Western heroes of his youth—like the Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy and Gunsmoke’s Matt Dillon, author...
What Was the Most Popular Weapon After the Civil War?
What was the most popular weapon after the Civil War? Wes Shinn Saratoga Springs, New York After the Civil War, the most popular weapons were those...
The Absolute Best Historically Accurate Westerns
To put it mildly, we at True West have been overjoyed—nay, overwhelmed—by our readers’ responses to the deceptively simple question: Which is the...