Franklin Graves lay dying. On Christmas Day, 1846, he called his 19-year-old daughter, Mary, to his side. “You have to do whatever you can to stay alive,” he told her. “Think of your mother and brothers and sisters …. If you don’t make it to Sutter’s Fort, and send help, everyone at the lake will die…. Use my flesh to stay alive.” Mary and the rest of the Donner Party did what they had to do. Ultimately, 48 of the 87 original members of the most ill-fated emigrant group in Am
May 2014
In This Issue:
More In This Issue
- Brand New Buffalo Bills
- Buffalo Bill Goosed the World’s Fair
- A Bloody Barbed-Wire Battle
- 16 Historical Destinations That Will Make You Weep
- Hideout Hijinks
- Troubled Tom Horn
- The Real Birth of Westerns
- The Curious Murder of Manny Clements
- Victoria Wilcox
- In 1960’s The Alamo, Jim Bowie used a seven-barrel pepperbox rifle. Did such a gun exist? And did the real Bowie have one?
- Do any records indicate Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok met?
- A gambler in a high-stakes poker game runs out of money while holding a winning hand of four aces. He asks the players to pause the game so he can get a loan at the bank. Is this Hollywood or a true story?
- How did “being heeled” come to mean “being armed?”
- Was there a female Texas Ranger during the Old West era?
- Who is the most popular character the Old West ever produced?
- Poverty Croquettes
- SUGARFOOT (SEASON ONE)
- Hunting His Own Kind
- Spirit Warriors Rise Up
- 10 Myths About TOM HORN
- Twain is Born
- Kansas Cattle Towns, Then and Now
- Rough Drafts 5/14
- Ode to the Cowboys
- Robber Baron or Entrepreneur?
- The Duke: A Legendary Life
- Westward Across the Divide
- Gamblers, Gunfighters & Saloon Girls
- Happy Jack
- May 2014 Events
- A True Giant