April 9, 1892 Johnson County, Wyoming: The column of hard-looking men rode up to within a short distance of the small ranch headquarters just south...
Buck Taylor: The Original King of the Cowboys
When Bill Cody introduced his “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” in 1883 a featured presentation was Custer’s Last Stand. The historic battle had occurred...
Arbuckles Coffee
Long before Matt Dillon, Chester and Miss Kitty wrapped their hands around a warm cup, coffee was a staple on the frontier. In 1849 while surveying...
Action-Packed Western
Smoke Wagon by Brett Cogburn (Five Star Publishing, $25.95) sweeps up the reader and carries them along the well-written, fast-paced journey of...
In Search of the Real Curly Bill
Amazingly, historians know so little about the most famous cow-boy in Cochise County history—“Curly Bill” Brocius. In a journal entry written in...
Buckskin Frank Leslie Murdered Wife Mollie
Mollie Edwards was a prostitute in southeast Arizona when she met Buckskin Frank Leslie. In 1887, Mollie moved in with Frank at his ranch, about 19...
Farewell to Curly Bill
On May 14, 2017, actor Powers Boothe died just short of his 69th birthday. A magnetic and commanding presence, he enjoyed simultaneous stardom as...
What History Has Taught Me: Mark Boardman
My favorite Old West character is Jim Miller. We still don’t know everything he did or all the people he killed. We have more to discover about this...
Whigs and Democrats Go to Blows for Marion
The Tutts were Whigs and the Everetts were Democrats, and both wanted to control Marion County in northern Arkansas in 1844. It quickly escalated...
Arkansas Tom
Oklahoma and the Indian Territory provided some of the West’s wildest history including one of its deadliest gunfights. The battle occurred on...
Suds for Crab Cowboys
Texas's oldest continuously operating tavern can be found in Austin. August Scholz opened his establishment after the Civil War, in 1866, and it...
Davis Waite Demolishes a Corrupt Denver in 1893
When Davis Waite took office of Colorado governor in January 1893, the first order of business: drain the swamp that was the corrupt political...