Ernest Haycox died in 1950, but he continues to cast a long shadow over Western fiction. In Ernest Haycox and the Western (University Press of...
Haycox: A Literary History
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Articles
A Tragic Mistake
Captain Emmet Crawford was one of the tragic casualties of the Apache Wars. In late 1885, he led a small force into Mexico, chasing Geronimo....
Charles Gatewood and the Johnson County War
Army Lt. Charles Gatewood is best known for his role in convincing Geronimo to surrender to U.S. authorities in 1886. But he was also connected to...
King Woolsey
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....
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...