No more unusual story has emerged from Texas’s long and bitter struggle for independence than that of John Christopher Columbus Hill. The account of...
The Strangest Adoption in the History of the West
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Articles
The Escape of Augustine Chacon
Augustine Chacon was one of the last of the hard-riding desperadoes who rode the outlaw trail in the closing days of the 19th century. He was a...
Marvin “Red” Burton
Marvin “Red” Burton is in the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. But one of his bravest acts came as a McLellan County deputy sheriff. He and the sheriff...
Gambling with Men’s Lives
By 1848, John C. Frémont was a national hero. He had led three expeditions into the Great American Desert, and his maps opened the frontier West to...
Friends in Film
John Wayne had a number of actors that he liked working with (and made sure that they had plenty of film opportunities). Hank Worden was toward the...
Joe Felmer’s Mule
Old timers used to say, “Anybody who’s ever tried to put a braid in a mule’s tale knows a thing or two more about the subject than someone who...
A River of Life
In Patrick Dearen’s Bitter Waters: The Struggles of the Pecos River (University of Oklahoma Press, $29.95), the author documents the many challenges...
Classic Gunfights: Die Hard
“The Sheriff is on the Warpath” November 1, 1867 Sheriff Harry Morse “is on the warpath....” Or so declares the Oakland Daily News. The sheriff of...
A Different Blazing Saddles?
John Wayne almost made an appearance in the comedy Western, Blazing Saddles. Director Mel Brooks was eating lunch in the Warner Bros. commissary one...
Did most Old West lawmen always carry guns?
Did most Old West lawmen always carry guns? Allen Pogue Flagstaff, Arizona Most Old West lawmen went unarmed, much of the time. Marshal Tom “Bear...
Yellowstone’s Early Explorer
Charles W. Cook participated in several important episodes of Montana’s frontier history, but sometimes his accomplishments seem destined to remain...
The Trapper’s Rendezvous
Like gold dust on the mining frontier, beaver fur was the medium of exchange in the mountains. Unique to the American industry was the rendezvous...