Drinking too much alcohol in the Old West was a year-round sporting event and, of course, had its own slang. If someone was drunk they were “in...
Drunk As Skunks
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Bob Boze Bell
Chuckin’ Wagons
In July of 1862, a U.S. Army advance detachment entered Apache Pass where they were attacked by some 500 Apaches led by Mangas Coloradas and...
The Legend of Kissing Jenny
Marshall Trimble told me this story, so it just might be true: In 1889 a Yavapai County legislator had a habit of heading over to Prescott’s Whiskey...
A Murder of Crows
July 27, 1890 Vincent van Gogh finishes his noontime meal at the Ravoux Inn, and heads for the wheatfields northeast of the tiny hamlet of...
Tough Old Bird
Oriental Saloon owner Milt Joyce was one tough old bird. On October 11, 1880, Joyce beat Doc Holliday within an inch of his life after the good...
Branding
Utilizing heated marks to brand property dates back to the ancient Egyptians. By the Middle Ages, most of the European continent, especially Spain,...
Patrolling the Border for Unwanted Immigrants
They provided cheap labor, and they were blamed for white unemployment. Rampant racial sentiment in the U.S. would result in an 1882 exclusion act,...
“You Got Me!”
In Westerns when a bad guy is shot, he invariably dies a clean death, i.e. quickly and neatly. But in real life mortally wounded outlaws could...
The First Drive By Shooting
Four or five times a year, artist Ed Ruscha would drive from LA to his parent’s home in Oklahoma. In 1962, Ruscha photographed a series of gas...
I’m Your Huckleberry, That’s Just my Game
Doc Holliday Im Your Huckleberry In the classic Western movie “Tombstone” (1993) Val Kilmer, as Doc Holliday, says to Johnny Ringo, “I’m your...
A Six Inch Rain
Every summer, in July and August, we get the big dust storms that freak out everybody who isn’t from Arizona. And, by the way, we never called them...
Desperados Waiting for a Train
Escaping Tucson on foot and with a posse soon to be on their trail, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and others hoof it 11 miles east on the railroad...