American Indians called the Sharps buffalo rifle the “Shoots Far Gun,” or the gun that “shoots today and kills tomorrow,” and for good reason. In...
Wyatt Earp Myth Busters
Did Wyatt Arrest Ben Thompson? This alleged arrest has driven researchers batty for decades. The most famous account appears in Stuart Lake’s Wyatt...
An Outlaw with a “Faultess” Figure
Arizona authorities in 1902 reported 22 train robberies in the territory. Lawmen, including the Arizona Rangers rounded up and shot down more than a...
Hot Times in Hillside Boom Towns
Fires were always a serious threat to frontier towns, hillside communities were the most vulnerable. The boomtowns of Bisbee and Jerome all burned...
Tombstone Jackpot
The most famous gunfight of the Wild West era took place on the streets of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, on October 26, 1881. Over the past 135...
Unsung Hero?
Deputy Jim Flynn ran unsuccessfully for city marshal of Tombstone on January 3, 1882. Two weeks later, working as a policeman, he disarmed and...
A Western Life Well Lived
Charles Stone is best known as an infamously treated scapegoat. In his concise and well-sourced biography, Blaine Lamb—author of The Extraordinary...
The Loomis Gang
One of the forerunners of Old West gangs controlled parts of Upstate New York in the first half of the 19th Century. The Loomis Gang was led by six...
Broken Lance
The spoiled first three sons—Richard Widmark, Hugh O’Brian and Earl Holliman— of Spencer Tracy’s cattleman character can’t abide their half-breed,...
Burt Alvord’s Train Robbing Posse
Burt Alvord was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, his IQ numbers would pretty much match his waist size. The hobbies included practical jokes,...
Can a person ride his horse to death?
Ben Herndon Los Angeles, California Horses can run fast only so long, depending on the conditioning and the breed. Quarter horses are bred for...
The Fix
For more than a century, the Thomas Sharkey versus Robert Fitzsimmons fight of 1896 has been an ugly blemish on the complexion of Wyatt Earp. Dozens...