Articles Archive

How common were stagecoach robberies in the Old West?

by | Oct 23, 2010

How common were stagecoach robberies in the Old West? Katrina Devereaux Mesa, Arizona In Arizona alone, 129 stage robberies took place between 1875...

Did jail cells in Westerns always have a window to an alley?

by | Oct 23, 2010

Jail cells in Westerns always have a window to an alley where pals of the prisoner can toss notes or guns through. How accurate is that? Jim...

Did Old West folks wear sunglasses?

by | Oct 23, 2010

Did Old West folks wear sunglasses to protect their eyes from the sun? David Fuller Storrs, Connecticut Not usually, sunglasses weren’t readily...

Did 19th-century U.S. soldiers carry military ID cards?

by | Oct 23, 2010

Did 19th-century U.S. soldiers carry military ID cards, or their equivalent, as all military personnel do now? James Rowley Laingsburg, Michigan ID...

What are the odds that an Old West cowboy would get into a gunfight?

by | Oct 23, 2010

What are the odds that an Old West cowboy would get into a gunfight? Mike Franklin Poteet, Texas Not high. Cowboys mostly spent their time “keeping...

Ghost Town Travelogues

by William Garwood | Oct 23, 2010

In 1938, teenager Phil Varney moved with his folks from the flatlands of Illinois to the deserts of Arizona. He’d never seen mountains shouldering...

The Cowgirl Way

by Cynthia Green | Oct 23, 2010

When women moved to the American West with the great migration of the 1800s, they left behind some of the constricting rules of femininity, becoming...

In the Footsteps of Lewis and Clark

by Richard H. Dillon | Oct 23, 2010

In the Footsteps of Lewis and Clark, by Wallace G. Lewis, is not just another title in the flood of books about the Lewis and Clark expedition....

Four Years in Europe With Buffalo Bill

by Richard H. Dillon | Oct 23, 2010

Charles Eldridge Griffin’s memoir, Four Years in Europe With Buffalo Bill, makes an interesting sidebar to the biography of William F. Cody and the...