If not for replica firearms, we’d still be watching movies where the actors shoot it out with 1892 Winchesters and 1873 Colt revolvers—regardless of...
Following Dinosaur Tracks in the West
“Daddy, Daddy! Look! There are dinosaurs!” I could not keep myself from grinning when the little boy raced into the museum gallery in Bozeman,...
Women Writing the West
You could read 100 books on the American West and never hear the voice of a woman. You hear the gunslingers and the sheriffs and the Indian chiefs,...
Texas Kids Revolt
On March 27, 1836, Mexican troops placed a wounded Texian officer in a chair in the courtyard of Fort Defiance. His back was to a 1779 Catholic...
The Exploding Tortilla
“Unaccustomed to the easy-going life of their Mexican neighbors, [old-timers] were not contented to farm a little, eat a frugal meal of frijoles,...
Strychnine, Hollywood Style
In the Old West, the rancher’s cupboard contained a myriad of hazardous substances, ranging from rat poison and lye (caustic soda for making soap)...
From the Bloody Earth: Wine?
Derived from the French word for land, terroir signals those unique characteristics vineyards of a specific region share. The combination of soil...
June 2011 Events
A Western roundup of events where you can experience the Old West. Now through July 31...San Marcos, TX, Revealing Character: Robb Kendrick’s...
1912’s The Invaders
“In the name of the eternal fitness of things, has not this cowboy-Indian obsession gone far enough?” reported Moving Picture World in December...
Nero Clues Us In
Quentin Tarantino, who made an appearance in Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django in 2007, is expected to hand in a Westerns script to the...
Civil War on TCM
Turner Classic Movies is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in April. Two nights of Civil War Westerns will air on April 18 and...
The Deputy: The Complete Series
A whiff of bait ’n’ switch has always circled this series, which ran for two seasons, 1959-61, on NBC. The idea was that Henry Fonda, as Chief...