In the 17th century, New Mexico’s vaqueros imparted (under duress, most likely) their “secrets” of horsemanship to the Plains Indians. With these...
Speaking Horse
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Articles
NRA’s Cowboy Celebration
“When fact becomes legend, print the legend!” So goes the words of the great film director, John Ford, when asked about portraying truth in his...
Dodge City’s All-Stars
The formation of the Dodge City Peace Commission took place 125 years ago this June, so I’m wondering, “Why all the hoopla?” Okay, so there isn’t a...
Charlie Russell’s Newest Painting
Charlie Russell showed off his newest painting at this year's C.M. Russell Art Auction. Impossible, you say? The esteemed cowboy artist did so...
Diabetes in the Old West
To the frontier doctor in the 1800s, the term “diabetes” referred to the patient who produced excessive amounts of urine. The term “diabetes” is...
Forting Up On the Apache Trail
Ominous clouds threaten rain as I pull off Highway 80 near the Arizona-New Mexico border at the Skeleton Canyon monument. I debate whether or not I...
Great Secrets of Our National Parks
Through blowing snow, a pair of cowboys rode across the top of a mesa, searching for stray cattle. Quaker rancher Richard Wetherill and his...
Trophy Hunting in Yellowstone
A journey along the “Grand Loop” of Yellowstone National Park in the late 1800s was a true adventure. An elite traveling public toured from five to...
I Will Kidnap No More Forever
Tourists had been sojourning in Yellowstone National Park each summer since just after its establishment in 1872. They kept coming during the summer...
Golly, What a Gully!
Theodore (“Don’t call me Teddy!”) Roosevelt earned lasting fame by charging up a Cuban hill in 1898. His greatest legacy in this country might be a...
Columbia, California
Hildreth’s Diggings was a tent and shanty town housing the thousands of miners attracted to today’s Columbia after Dr. Thaddeus Hildreth, his...
Wild Bill’s Disease of Passion?
In his 1986 book Deadwood, Pete Dexter depicted Wild Bill Hickok as suffering from some form of venereal disease (VD) and more so from the remedies...