Wyatt and Josie Earp had no children of their own. But they did have someone they considered to be like a son—and ironically, he was the real son...
The Earps Raise a Behan
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Articles
Johnny Lingo: Tis the Season
Celebrating Christmas in today’s American West essentially follows similar trends found around the country. One notable exception is Las Posadas: a...
The Other Woman
Contemporaneous newspaper accounts of “Wild Bill” Hickok’s marriage to Agnes Lake in 1876 reported a favorable view of their relationship. Accounts...
A Bond Sealed with a Shot in the Behind
Actors John Wayne and Ward Bond were compatriots for more than 30 years. Both played football at the University of Southern California. Both got...
Courtship and Marriage in the Territories
One might say Asa Mercer was a "marriage arranger." In 1861 he became a founding father and first president of the University of Washington. He was...
Building Your Western Library With Leo W. Banks
As a youngster, Leo W. Banks watched too many TV and movie Westerns. The summer before entering Boston College High School, the Jesuits sent out a...
Pioneer Women in the West
Back in the 1960s I used to perform the old folk song, “Waggoner’s Lad.” The first line went like this: “Hard luck is the fortune of all womankind....
Drop ‘Em! Belts or No Belts?
In the movie Open Range, Boss (Robert Duval) and Charlie (Kevin Costner) rough up some bad guys. And just to humiliate them, Boss orders them to...
Where The West is Still Wild…
See Cave Creek (hometown and World Headquarters of True West magazine) in all its frontier town glory at this year’s Wild West Days on Nov 3-5. ...
6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Wyatt Earp Edition
People used to play a game called “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” The rules: you had to be able to find unusual connections to the actor in six or...
The Real Frank James
Nobody asks, “Who is Jesse James?” Books, movies, newspapers, dime novels have all shared his story, from the days when the bank and train robbing...
Do we Know who Killed Bob Dalton?
Do we know who killed Bob Dalton? Paul Randall — Tucson, Arizona. The shooter who fired the shot that killed Bob Dalton on October 5, 1892— from a...