When Peter Cooper created America’s first steam engine, Tom Thumb, in 1830, he unknowingly built a machine that would become a symbol synonymous...
Rail Barons, Train Palaces, and Great Locomotives
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Articles
Friends or Foes?
It was November 1893, and two men who had fought off the Johnson County (WY) invasion the previous year had it out in the streets of Buffalo....
Angel of the Mining Camps
Many women came west in the 19th century to pan out some dream but none can match that of a pretty Irish immigrant named Nellie Cashman. A restless...
Lozen, Woman Warrior
“Lozen is my right hand. . . strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy,” said the Apache leader Victorio about his sister. She also...
On the Hunt for Geronimo
Five thousand against 140! With Geronimo’s breakout from the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona on May 17, 1885, the U.S. Army conducted the most...
Asa Mercer
Asa Mercer left quite the legacy. As a young man, he was one of the early settlers of Seattle—where he helped found and became the first president...
A picture hanging in a restaurant in Prescott, Arizona, is labeled, “Wyatt Earp.” Is this a photo of him?
Tom Isler Madera, California I have never seen this photo published in any of the Wyatt Earp biographies; somebody would have published it if the...
The Myth of Whiskey
Not all American West pioneers walked up to bars, like Hollywood Westerns often portray, and ordered shots of whiskey. In fact, most would have...
Wyatt the Farmer?
In June 1880, Philip M. Thurmond walked around the newly formed mining camp of Tombstone and asked for the vital statistics of every person he could...
The Henry Rifle
The legendary Model 1873 Winchester, has been called the favorite "Fighting rifle of the Old Civilian West." The granddaddy of Model 1873 and all...
Tales of a Legendary Western Life
J.P.S. Brown writes books about the true life of the cowboy, not the saloon and bodice tales that so enthrall other practitioners of the genre. His...
Happy’s Not-So-Happy Blunder
Somebody with a sense of humor, with more than a touch of irony, must have nicknamed John Morco “Happy Jack.” Happy? Accounts record him as an...