How would you like to go to a gun show with me without getting out of your comfortable seat? In recent months, there have been some colorful and...
Armchair Gun Show
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Articles
Lawrence Murphy and the Lincoln County War
Lawrence Murphy’s name is synonymous with New Mexico’s Lincoln County War. He began his business there in 1869, monopolizing mercantile goods and...
“Big Ed” Burns
“Big Ed” Burns was a con man of the first order, roaming the Midwest and West from the 1860s until around 1920. In 1877, he was head of a bunco gang...
Queen of the Kansas Cowtowns
Dwight Eisenhower enjoyed sitting on his porch listening to old men tell stories about a famous town marshal they knew named Wild Bill Hickok. As a...
A ‘Gem’ of a Saloon
Al Swearengen—yes, the real one, on whom the TV character was based—built the Gem Saloon in Deadwood in 1877. It was the most prominent...
Saved by YouTube
"Grandma, you can find anything on YouTube,” Erin Ghedi’s 17-year-old granddaughter, Gabby, told her four years ago. What Erin and her husband, Jim,...
Lotta Crabtree
During the time the famous dancer Lola Montez was living in Grass Valley, the only woman who was friendly to her was the proprietor of a local...
Marie Delores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert aka Lola Montez
The women who played the frontier theaters---singers, dancers and actresses—had a head start on the road to success simply because they were women;...
Red Hot for the Crowd
In 1879, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe chugged into Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory, the railroad brought in a wide variety of food that...
Buffalo Bill Busted
William “Buffalo Bill” Cody was a lucky man. From a hardscrabble youth that began in a log cabin in Iowa Territory, he grew up to survive the Civil...
What Rifles Did the U.S. Cavalry Carry During the Frontier Era?
What rifles did the U.S. Cavalry carry during the frontier era? Paul Gordon - St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. Following the Civil War, the U.S. Army...
Trooper’s Tales on the Southwest Front
Typically, biographies related to the Army in Trans-Mississippi West feature officers. Soldiers in the Southwest Borderlands 1848-1886 (University...