In 1895, when Vera McGinnis was only three years old, she jumped an irrigation canal on a burro named Croppie, and she was off to the races,...
She Dared to Wear Pants!
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Bob Boze Bell
A Serious Hualapai Insult
In 1903, female members of the Hualapai tribe wore their hair heavily banged, while the rest of their hair framed their face to cover their cheeks...
Virgil’s Arm Flapping in the Breeze
On the night of December 28, 1881, City Marshal Virgil Earp was ambushed and hit with buckshot crossing the intersection of Fifth and Allen Streets...
Val Kilmer As Wyatt Earp?
Almost everyone who reads True West magazine is familiar with Val Kilmer's portrayal of Doc Holliday in 1993's Tombstone. It is a signature role and...
The Gunfight at the O.K. Barn?
After Wyatt Earp’s death in 1929 and the publication of Stuart Lake’s book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal in 1931, moviemakers finally began to nibble...
Museums We Love
Scottsdale’s Museum of the West has been a long time coming. Our friend Abe Hays has been championing the idea of a Western museum in the Arizona...
Museums We Love
Scottsdale’s Museum of the West has been a long time coming. Our friend Abe Hays has been championing the idea of a Western museum in the Arizona...
Why Did Hollywood Take So Long to Discover Wyatt Earp?
From our perspective today it's hard to believe that Hollywood did not film the Wyatt Earp in Tombstone story until the 1930s! There had been movies...
Tombstone vs. Los Angeles
In 1924, legendary actress Lotta Crabtree died, leaving behind an estate of $1.2 million and no known heirs. During a 1926 deposition about one of...
Wyatt Earp’s Arrested Development
Wyatt Earp couldn’t get arrested—at least in show business parlance. In real life, Wyatt had been arrested many times: for prostitution in Illinois,...
Going Behind the Scenes
With all of the articles we have done about Wyatt Earp over the years, you might think we could just slap a few anecdotes and photographs on the...
The Last Outlaw Town
Four outlaws stepped off the train. They were ready for a showdown, but High Noon was decades away. The lazy squeak of a distant windmill a reminder...