“I love the smell of napalm in the morning!” These were the words of Robert Duvall’s character, Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, in the classic 1979 film...
Cutting Through the Smoke
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Articles
150 Places to Celebrate Kansas’s 150th Birthday
There’s no place like Kansas. We’re talking about the Central/ Sunflower/Wheat/Jayhawk State. This state has more nicknames than Bob Boze Bell (but...
Rock ‘n’ Roll Pony Express?
You wouldn’t think that movie director Peter Bogdanovich and rock star Tom Petty would inspire a documentary film on the Pony Express of the 1860s,...
How Did Davy Really Die?
March 6, 1836 Just after midnight, Gen. Santa Anna orders his 2,064 troops to move toward their assault positions. Select soldados (soldiers)...
Full Steam Ahead
Steve Hauff, was the only man in the room of Steampunk enthusiasts not dressed in funkified Victorian garb With his degree in Victorian history,...
No Davy? No Dylan
The Great Coonskin Cap craze of 1955 resulted in the Great Raccoon Shortage of 1955. In the absence of fresh pelts, desperate furriers remodeled...
Alamo’s New Defender
James Butler Bonham faced his moment of truth in the pre-dawn of March 6, 1836. He and a handful of Texians reportedly manned an elevated artillery...
Where the Bodies Are Buried
In the hills outside the northeastern Oregon town of Baker City is a cemetery not unlike many that dot the old mining towns of the West. Except this...
Honor in Sacrifice
Death—that one great certainty of life—haunts us all. It terrifies us—like children fearful of the dark—all the while calling to us, fascinating us,...
Coffee with Lizards?
We’ve all heard of coffee with cream and sugar, but with lizards? Yep, such a concoction was drunk in Texas in the late 1800s. “At one of the dances...
A Deadly Oasis
It occurs naturally, everywhere in the West. It has a special affinity for the state of Nevada where it commonly exists in groundwater in amounts...
Cowboys & Steampunkers
Inspired by the Victorian era of buttoned-up gentility and amazing new mechanical inventions, Steampunk designers seek to rekindle a sense of awe...