In 1926, Wyatt Earp wrote his autobiography with a friend, John Flood. In it Earp recalled using a telephone in Tombstone (taking a call from...
Wyatt on the Phone: “Can You Hear Me Now?”
read more
Articles
Buffalo Soldier Grub
Buffalo soldiers, officially organized in 1866, were an important part of settling the West. They served in various all-black regiments. Benjamin...
Following Elfego Baca
Who is New Mexico’s most famous lawman? Don Bullis says it depends on whom you ask. Put that question to an Anglo, and—no surprise—the common answer...
A Western Movie Morph
The 1965 John Wayne Western The Sons of Katie Elder went through a bunch of changes before it was produced. Originally, it was to be a historical...
First in War, First in Peace
Perhaps the greatest chief of the Chiricahua Apaches who ever lived, Cochise fought his way through southeastern Arizona and into Mexico in the...
Where did “snake oil” originate?
Where did “snake oil” originate? Robert Tignor Independence, Missouri “Snake oil” comes from 19th-century Chinese railroad workers who used medicine...
The Civil War in Utah
Books chronicling 19th-century Mormon history tend to fall into two camps: apologetic or polemic. John Gary Maxwell’s The Civil War Years in Utah:...
Colt-Walker Revolver
In the opening months of the Mexican War Sam Colt's 1836 Patterson revolver in the hands of the Texas Mounted Rangers proved itself worthy in...
Shot on the Fourth of July
Miners are notorious for a lifestyle of hard work, at times peppered with harder play. Alfred T. Jackson was a Nutmegger (someone from Connecticut)...
Canton Redeemed?
In 1897, Frank Canton—former Texas outlaw and lawman in various locales—was appointed a deputy US marshal in Alaska. He later wrote that he had to...
Showboat Doc
William “Doc” Rowan was a ham in the vein of P.T. Barnum, the circus king of the Gilded Age. For more than 20 years, Doc Rowan shone above...
Tall Paul
One of the tallest men in Arizona territory in the 1880s was Pima County Sheriff Bob Paul. The former stagecoach shotgun messenger had been on the...