Have you heard the tale about the teacher who inspired a seventh-grade class to dig up an 1800s Montana fur trapper buried by a California freeway...
Freedom from the Freeway
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Articles
Dinner at the Devil’s Inn
Sometimes survival is a matter of listening to your inner voice warning you to leave. Several travelers to Labette County had mysteriously...
A Trifecta of Westerns
For character actor Strother Martin, 1969— the year he turned 50-- was a banner year when it came to Westerns. He was in three big ones. He was a...
Hopalong Cassidy
Life sometimes follows art. William Boyd was a silver-haired matinee idol who began his career as a leading man in silent movie romances with a...
What was the “Badger Game?
What was the “badger game?” Robert Tignor Independence, Missouri Dating to the 19th century, the badger game is arguably one of the most reproduced...
Treasures from the Basement
For more than half a century, nobody remembered Evelyn Cameron or how she documented early Montana Territory days. Her name didn't appear in history...
The Culture Bearers
The West provided a fount of opportunity for women. They ran the wide gamut of characters from wild and woolly women to the stalwart, calico-clad...
The Wizard of the Colorado River
During her arduous journey into the war zone of Arizona in 1874, Martha Summerhayes gave high praise to a riverboat pilot, Captain Jack Mellon,...
Grande Dames of the West
In May 1888, a host of well-dressed and polished guests crowded into the fashionable lobby of the Windsor Hotel in St. Helena, California, to catch...
A Life Cut Short
Charlie Connelly was a man who did his duty—unto death. Connelly was from Indiana, usually working as a teacher. At age 40, he and his family moved...
Tombstone Trivia
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 Original Rhinestone Cowgirl
Bobbie Nudie had a simple motto: “It is always better to be looked over, than to be overlooked.” Her real name was Helen Cohn, but she lived the...