What was frontier life like in the 1880s? Rena Miller Titusville, Florida What you see in Westerns is a sanitized version of life in the 19th...
Frontier Hygiene and Pancho Villa’s Missing Head
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Articles
On the History Trail with the Old Bison: A Memoir
I first met Robert M. Utley in May 1977. He came to Bloomington to receive a Distinguished Alumni Service Award from Indiana University. I...
Sitting Bull: The Sioux Leader’s Final Flight For Freedom
The Sioux Leader’s Final Flight to Freedom Sunday, June 25, 1876, was a clear, hot, sunny day in the valley of Montana’s Greasy Grass River, which...
A Tall Tale of Two Bills
Did lawman Bill Tilghman really arrest outlaw Bill Doolin?
Shooting Back
Our readers remind us of the variables and vagaries of HISTORICAL truths, “well-established” facts, headlines and historical photographs.
Seeking Common Ground
The good news first: the end of the 1918 influenza pandemic in 1920 led almost directly to the Roaring Twenties because everyone in the country was so ready to kick out the jams after all the death and depressing times. So let’s hope that history repeats itself this year.
Opening Shot – The Dead of Winter
Indian Infantry Company in winter uniforms pause from their training—possibly as Indian police—to have their photo taken in the winter of 1890.
A Dickens Christmas on the Frontier
Western pioneers brought the yuletide tradition of roast goose to their holiday hearths.
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area
Enchanted Rock is a dome of pink granite that rises about 385 feet above the bed of Sandy Creek. Its name comes from folklore; Indians credited the dome with magical powers.
On the Trail to Texas Statehood
Discover the Lone Star State, from Nacogdoches to Austin , 175 years later .
¿Quien Es? Billy the Kid vs Pat Garrett
For her he took a bullet in the heart.
What History Has Taught Me: Gary Goldstein
Gary Goldstein joined the book publishing biz in 1988. This is his first appearance in True West. He cannot promise it will be his last.