What can you tell me about the badges of the Arizona Rangers? Dennis MooreWickenburg, Arizona I wrote to my good friend Bill O’Neal, author of The...
Was Wyatt Earp the model for the Peace Officer statue?
I recently visited the Arizona Peace Officer Memorial at the plaza in front of the state capitol in Phoenix. Was Wyatt Earp the model for the...

Our Favorite Western Reads of 2012
If ever an Old West lawman deserved his due, Bob Paul did. Several have made a run at sharing his story, including Roy Young, who uncovered new...

Burns’s Biographer
I knew better than to play cards with historian Mark Dworkin. He had the ultimate poker face. During a trip to Georgia, several years ago, we had a...

Lee Anderson
The secret to training a horse is absolute trust. Being a prey animal, horses, by nature, fear humans. We are predators and, without trust, a horse...

Tapped Out!
October 15, 1894 A political rally is being held in Tucker’s Saloon in Bruneau, Idaho. After the speeches have finished, words are exchanged between...

True West’s Best Art & Collectibles of 2012
For those collectors who can afford to spend a million and some change, this was a great year to score some fantastic pieces by Howard Terpning. The...

The First 60 Years of True West Magazine
Joe Small followed a hunch. Every time he ran a letter about Old West badmen in his Sporting Magazine, his mailbox would bulge with responses, so he...

Trailing Billy
Last October I made my umpteenth trip to New Mexico from Arizona where I live. Like the preeminent Billy the Kid scholar Fred Nolan and master...

Heritage Travel of 2012
To promote Arizona’s centennial, our contributing editors Jana Bommersbach and Arizona State Historian Marshall Trimble teamed up with Executive...

Firearms of 2012
“We’ve long held a fascination for the gunmen of the Wild West, and firearms enthusiasts have been especially interested in the hardware used by...

Our Favorite Western Music of 2012
More Western music is being recorded and performed today than at any other time, but the question is: Who is listening? For the most part, Baby...