Bob Paul was one of the greatest of all frontier peace officers. His extraordinary life of high adventure—first as a whaler in the South Pacific,...
Buffalo Tracks
In the Rockies of Western Montana, I have the most perfect view of a buffalo. It’s inspiring, humbling, beautiful, majestic. Char-grilled, eight...
Sam Sixkiller
Sam Sixkiller: Cherokee Frontier Lawman is a very important book, if only for the fact that it is one of the first, if not the first, biographies of...
Butch Cassidy, My Uncle
For some time Bill Betenson has been promising an update to his great-grandmother’s book, Butch Cassidy, My Brother. This book, Butch Cassidy, My...
County Fair Fixin’s
“At Healdsburg, the first county fair, we received a silver butter knife for the best butter,” recalled Mrs. Eliza Gregson, who had arrived in...
Feud-Mania
The dictionary defines a “feud” as a “long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans.” This...
Hardin Goes to Blazes
In the late summer of 1895, El Paso, Texas, was John Wesley Hardin’s town. A few months earlier, the attorney had been brought in to help his...
Colt’s Equalizers
“God created men; Col. Colt made them equal.” So goes the oft-repeated quote about Col. Samuel Colt and his legendary firearms. Yet Col. Colt made...
The Hand Saw Man
Gary Barker could tell you how old log cabins fall apart. He had spent a decade as a YMCA camp caretaker in Minnesota, using best guesses, luck and...
September 2012 Events
Western roundup of events where you can experience the Old West ADVENTURES Beginner Horsemanship & Confidence Building Seminar Gila, NM,...
John Wilder
I fell in love with the West when I first heard the story of my maternal ancestors crossing the Oregon Trail in 1851 to settle the territory...
The Chinatown War
Hatred, especially racial hatred, was, like greed, a powerful force in the West of 1871. Scott Zesch reminds us in The Chinatown War of a massacre...