A few years ago I was in Tombstone working with a film crew from the United Kingdom. Naturally, one of the sites they wanted to include was the...
True Western Towns: Glasgow, Montana
This town in the wild lonesome of northeast Montana, 60 miles from the Canadian border, earned the attention of the world when the Great Northern...
As Tough as They Come
Lawman Jeff Milton was tough. He was severely wounded in the left arm during an attempted train robbery near Fairbank, Arizona in February 1900. A...
Back and Forth
Billy Stiles couldn’t decide which side of the law to work. In the early 1890s, he served as a tracker for Cochise County (AZ) lawmen John Slaughter...
Over Land and Water with John Wesley Powell
A statue of one-armed John Wesley Powell in front of the Sweetwater County Museum in Green River, Wyoming. He is facing south, toward the Green...
A Lawman for Life
Jeff Milton never could give up the badge, starting as a Texas Ranger in 1878 at age 17. Over the next three decades, He was a deputy U.S. marshal...
Violence in Old West Towns
Folks often ask, "Were townsfolk generally as cowardly and cowered as portrayed in movies like High Noon?" Was it that difficult to get men of the...
What About Old West Waste Disposal?
What did Old West towns do about disposal of animal and human waste? Frank Fantozzi San Jose, California They would haul it to the outskirts of town...
Women at the Yuma Territorial Prison
When the Yuma Territorial Prison opened for business on July 1st, 1876 the planners overlooked an important detail. The builders never envisioned...
Custer, Crows, and Curtis
No American battle (except perhaps Gettysburg) has been the subject of so many books and movies as the 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana...
Father Joseph Machebeaf Shakes Up Tubac
The revolutions in Mexico and the California Gold Rush had depleted much of the male population in northern Sonora. In some villages the ratio of...
Shouldn’t right-handers hold reins in their left hands?
In the January 2019 issue of True West, Pancho Villa is riding with the reins in his right hand and his reata tied on the left. The man behind him...