Emmy Award-winning writer-producer Kirk Ellis grew up all over Texas, but today, when he is not working in Los Angeles, he makes his home with his...
Kirk Ellis
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Articles
His Final, Frantic Defense
In the last seconds of his life, Col. George Armstrong Custer tried to bite off the nose of the warrior who was killing him. It was June 25, 1876 at...
Will Rogers in Arizona
During the 1920s the federal government decided to build a dam on the Gila. Unfortunately, the surveyors picked an unusually wet year. They picked a...
Patrolling the Border for Unwanted Immigrants
They provided cheap labor, and they were blamed for white unemployment. Rampant racial sentiment in the U.S. would result in an 1882 exclusion act,...
Top 10 True Western Towns of 2016
Don’t lie awake worrying that our history has been forgotten. After compiling this list of great Western towns, we know it’s in good hands. Across...
Frank Canton’s Assassination Squad
In the late 1880s, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association put together an assassination squad, led by the infamous lawman Frank Canton (photo). The...
Doc Holliday: Deadly Killer?
A recent television series referred to Doc Holliday as a “vicious killer” but Doc’s reputation as the “deadly dentist” is greatly exaggerated. One...
“You Got Me!”
In Westerns when a bad guy is shot, he invariably dies a clean death, i.e. quickly and neatly. But in real life mortally wounded outlaws could...
“I am A Friend to any Brave and Gallant Outlaw”
Belle Starr said that, the “bandit queen” who liked her men, her moonshine and her stolen horses. There's a part of her legend that speaks of...
Western Events for February 2016
Western roundup of events where you can experience the Old West! ADVENTURE Eagle Tour & Loon Watch Vian, OK , February 6: This tour of Sequoyah...
John D. McDermott
Being born on the same day as George Custer, I have known about him practically all my life. My great-grandfather McDermott, who was born in 1870,...
Bleeding Kansas
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 really lit the fuse of the Civil War. The measure allowed citizens in those territories to decide whether or not to...