July 19, 1878 As a raging fire engulfs another room, Alexander McSween and his men move into the kitchen, the last standing room of his adobe home...
Left for Dead
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Bob Boze Bell
Doc Hits Bottom (But Not Much Else)
August 19, 1884 Broke, sick and usually drunk, Doc Holliday hits rock bottom in Leadville, Colorado. Today, a fellow gambler, Billy Allen, is...
Triangle Canyon Shoot-Out
April 3, 1900 Lawman George Scarborough and Triangle Ranch manager Walter Birchfield are trailing cow thieves in the San Simon, Arizona, area. As...
Billy’s Dirtiest Deed?
November 27, 1880 The cook at the Greathouse Ranch, Joe Steck, steps outside the main ranch house to harness a team of horses and encounters a...
Blast from the Past Road Trips
In the past 60 years, True West has consistently provoked one’s urge to hit the road and see where history happened. From Tombstone to Dodge City,...
The Death Tent
November 27, 1887 Working out of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Dalton, is tracking a horse thief in the Cherokee Nation named Dave...
Tapped Out!
October 15, 1894 A political rally is being held in Tucker’s Saloon in Bruneau, Idaho. After the speeches have finished, words are exchanged between...
Trailing Billy
Last October I made my umpteenth trip to New Mexico from Arizona where I live. Like the preeminent Billy the Kid scholar Fred Nolan and master...
Kid Curry’s Last Gunfight
June 9, 1904 Two days earlier, the westbound San Francisco Express—train no. 5—was robbed near a shipping station in Colorado known as Parachute....
Number One With a Bullet
Date Unknown, 1876 While en route from Arizona back to Texas, cattleman John Slaughter is holding his herd of cattle at John Chisum’s South Spring...
Armed & Courageous
We feel fortunate to have photographs of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Dallas Stoudenmire, but, as far as we know, none of the aforementioned were...
“I Don’t Hold for Anybody!”
March 15, 1881 Two California boys are riding the box on this chilly night along the San Pedro River bottom in Arizona. Eli “Bud” Philpot, a...