Peter Cozzens’s The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West (Alfred A. Knopf, $35) is the most comprehensive,...
War and Peace in the West
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Articles
The Coolest Guy in the Room
Paul Cool was just that: cool. The coolest. And that went beyond the Old West field. Oh, he was the coolest there, for sure. Cool was an...
Preserving Polygamy
Preserving Polygamy became a women's campaign in the late 1800s—a point that will surprise many, who assumed women hated the plural-wife dictate of...
Entertainment and the Arts
Back in the days before radio, movies and television, lectures were a popular form of entertainment in Arizona communities. They ranged from...
The Unbroken Peace Treaty
The young warriors of the Penateka Comanche tribe, several hundreds of them, lined up on one side of their camping ground along the San Saba River...
Their Name Lives On
It started with one Pima basket, bought in the late 1890s somewhere around Phoenix, Arizona. Newcomers to the Southwest—health seekers—found the...
Augusta Tabor
Augusta Tabor’s life with husband Horace wasn’t easy. They struggled from the 1850s through early 1880s, trying to make their fortune. Augusta was...
The Deadliest Enemy
To the uninitiated in the Old West, the ranching business centered on cattle, but in reality, the livestock trade focused on grass and water, so...
The First Woman to “Despise” Polygamy
The first woman to “despise” polygamy was Emma Smith—the first wife of Mormon founder Joseph Smith. Historians note she never believed it was a...
Football near the O.K. Corral
George Parsons of Tombstone wrote this in his diary on January 12, 1882: “Grand football racket this afternoon on Fremont Street near Fourth. All...
Rocky Mountain Rails
The chance to get rich quick as a uniquely American article of faith was virtually born in the West. Almost since its beginning, America was the...
The Wandering Visionary
A hidden assassin with a shotgun blasted Charles Lummis in the face and chest. He was bloodied, blown off his feet, and left to die in the doorway...