The Oklahoma town of Enid—population 50,000—is near where J.D. Payne ran cattle at his Skeleton Ranch, which became a stage station on the Chisholm...

Shane has always been a favorite of mine. I especially enjoy the way Ben Johnson played that bad guy who got redeemed. I liked making the 1991 movie...

Since October 1877, Fort Chadbourne, north of Bronte, Texas, has been the same family’s ranching headquarters. Known then as the OD Ranch, Thomas...

Growing up I heard the inspirational story of Lemuel Bolz, a 16-year-old relative who crossed four states on horseback in the late 19th century....

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...

“Daddy, Daddy! Look! There are dinosaurs!” I could not keep myself from grinning when the little boy raced into the museum gallery in Bozeman,...

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,...

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...

“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,...

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)...

Derived from the French word for land, terroir signals those unique characteristics vineyards of a specific region share. The combination of soil...