Water and crackers are all that sustained Ignace Wagner for a week when he arrived in San Francisco, California, in 1852. He borrowed some money and...

Some have called Grant County (NM) Deputy Sheriff Dan Tucker “Dangerous Dan.” And his gun notches are estimated at somewhere in the double digits....

Was John Wesley Hardin as deadly and fast to shoot as folks claim? Ronald Bolza Slatington, Pennsylvania Many Old West experts position John Wesley...

In 1858, friction between the Mormons in Utah and the federal government led to a brief encounter known as the Mormon War. The United States,...

The U.S.-Mexico border has long been plagued by outlaws and bandidos from both sides of the line. Some of the most infamous to ply the no man’s land...

Spur Award-winning nonfiction writer Jefferson Glass was born and raised in Oregon. He grew up knowing the tales of the Oregon Trail, Lewis and...

University of New Mexico Distinguished Professor Paul Andrew Hutton has balanced the academic with the popular for his entire career. He loves a...

The story goes that Frank Hamer was working for Dan McSween around 1900. The rancher asked the 16-year-old to kill someone for him; Frank refused....

Scott Stine’s A Way Across the Mountain: Joseph Walker’s 1833 Trans-Sierran Passage and the Myth of Yosemite’s Discovery (University of Oklahoma...

Canyon Diablo proved to be a formidable barrier to travelers along the 35th Parallel in northern Arizona. In 1881 the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad...

When the United States acquired much of the Far West as a result of the War with Mexico much of the area was Terra Incognita, known only to a few...

He was a freighter, a scout, a gambler, a lawman and an actor (a bad one by his own admission). His real name was James, but someone called him...