Who would ever think a Russian peasant emigrant of the late 1800s would one day become a beacon for literacy in America? But that is the story of...
Christina Hillius
read more
Articles
Remembering the Alamo Movies
This April, Touchstone Pictures (a subsidiary of Disney) released a $75 million-plus film The Alamo, which reinterpreted this most famous of...
Vera and the Sultan
Vera McGinnis was well aware one of the world’s richest and most exotic men was in the audience that September night in 1926 when she put on her...
Two Fingers, Straight Up
There’s something special about a man who likes to dress the way he drinks, keeping the same brand, no matter where he goes. These days, that’s a...
Sings in Color
With a Union Pacific mileage book in hand, Frank Tenney Johnson realized his dream to travel the West by rail. When Johnson saw Pike’s Peak in the...
The Bull and the Backpacker
Some time back, my father and I herded a small bunch of cows onto the steep side of a mountain behind the small town of Chloride, Arizona. In the...
Iron Outlaws in Oz
Who is Edward “Ned” Kelly? Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones may come to mind, as he portrayed the 25-year-old bushranger (Australian for outlaw) in...
Trading Post Profiles
Buffalo Bill Cody founded the Irma Hotel in 1902, calling it “just the sweetest hotel that ever was.” Located in Cody, Wyoming, the town that the...
Before Manifest Destiny
Before Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp were even born, bolder men put their mark on the American West. Known as fur traders and mountain men, these...
Appaloosa Trading Company
Most folks don’t begin their life’s work at the age of 12. Michael Gibson, owner of Appaloosa Trading Company in Durango, Colorado, isn’t like most...
Bug-Eyed at the Buckhorn
Big game hunters and Western history buffs strike gold at San Antonio’s Buckhorn Saloon and Museum, a delightful curiosity straight out of Ripley’s...
Sarah Winnemucca
“I was a very small child when the first white people came into our country. They came like a lion, yes, like a roaring lion, and have continued so...