Jesse West and Joe Allen are best known for hiring Jim Miller to kill Gus Bobbitt in Ada, OK in 1909. The three, along with B.B. Burrell, were...
The Good ‘Ol Cash Stash
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Articles
Cowboy Lingo, Tall Tales and Bald-faced Lies
A few years ago I went with “Warrior Tours” sponsored by Wrangler Jeans to the Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan with a group of champion rodeo cowboys...
Forewarned & Forearmed
March 11, 1884 Fresh off the train from Austin, Texas, newly minted drinking pards Ben Thompson and John King Fisher, the acting sheriff for Uvalde...
Them Ain’t Cowboys; Them’s Ostrichboys
One of the most unusual yet lucrative types of ranching came into fashion around 1900 in Arizona’s Salt River Valley. With a head- ‘em-up, move...
A Pistol For Dragoons
With the adoption of the U.S. Dragoons on March 5, 1833, the U.S. Army found itself woefully lacking in pistols for a mounted unit. Handguns at that...
Let’s Hang This “Damned Nuisance”
History tells us that in the Old West, the rope was an instrument of both justice and injustice—sometimes they hanged the right guy for the right...
Deadly Enemies in Trinidad
John Allen and “Cockeyed” Frank Loving were two sporting men in Trinidad, Colorado in the spring of 1882. Both were noted shootists—and on April...
A Colonel’s Secret Weapon
As the small train of wagons drew within sight of Fort Phil Kearny, the weary travelers rejoiced. “I could have clapped my hands for joy,” one wrote...
Happy Belated, Will Rogers
Even folks who know little about the old west know about Will Rogers, the cowboy philosopher, entertainer, writer who seemed to know just what to...
The Doctor Doolittle of Rattlesnakes
Arizona prides itself on having an abundance of eccentric. Bill Esenwein had to be somewhere near the top of the list. He was a desert rat, writer...
Old Vaquero Saying
“Para una madre, no hay mal hijo.” (To a mother, a bad son does not exist.) Doesn’t matter if it’s Billy the Kid, John Wesley Hardin, Jesse James or...
Thank You, November
This winter month gives us lots of reasons to celebrate the Old West: from rodeos to women's rights, from Roy Rogers to Annie Oakley, from one of...