Unlike the cowboy hero, who was always tough, resolute, and supremely masculine, the female lead in Westerns was presented in a variety of character...

The idea of setting aside land for the public's benefit was revolutionary when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill creating the first...

The legend of Johnny Ringo is just that. Ringo was born in Indiana, not Texas.  He dropped out of school at age 14; he was not a college grad (or...

The Oscar-winning Cisco Kid, Warner Baxter, stars as farmer-turned-bandit Joaquin Murrieta, in 1936’s Robin Hood of El Dorado. Though MGM sold the...

On December 10, 1869, fifty-one years before national suffrage, Wyoming became the first government in the nation to give women full voting rights....

The American West begins in St. Louis, Missouri. Many entering the frontier started their journeys by riding on steamboats to jumping-off areas in...

Major Marcus Reno’s reputation is of the coward of the Little Bighorn, the man who let Custer and his men die, who lost control of his command and...

Westerners were known for their compassion especially to women and children especially in those isolated mining camps where women and children were...

In 1973’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bob Dylan played the Kid’s knife-throwing buddy Alias. Was he real? Peter L. Stadlbaur Maubray, Belgium...

Cattle were king in the Old West, an economic and cultural foundation that fed the myth—until the Great Die Off. The summer of 1886 brought a...

Director William Wellman’s career as a filmmaker during the mogul-studio era is a portrait in motion picture history, captured intimately by his son...

During the gold rush era in western history there were many ways to get rich without digging up dirt. One of the most unique money makers was by an...