I’m driving around Wichita, Kansas, looking for the Arkansas River and I can’t find it. That is probably because I’m pronouncing it like the state...
Right Brain Overload
Cotton Smith is a right-brain guy. He paints. He draws. He develops creative ad and marketing campaigns. He has written poetry, plays, short...
Pike’s Peak or Bust!
On the first day of summer in 1850, John Beck, a Cherokee preacher en route to California’s goldfields, stopped to do a little panning along the...
On the Trail of Wild Bill Hickok
May 27, 1837: A son, James Butler, the fifth child was born to William Alonzo and Polly Butler Hickok of Homer (later Troy Grove), Illinois. 1856:...
On the Trail of Wild Bill Hickok
May 27, 1837: A son, James Butler, the fifth child was born to William Alonzo and Polly Butler Hickok of Homer (later Troy Grove), Illinois. 1856:...
Forging a Road to Zion
In 1847, Brigham Young, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized a pioneer party and struck out west from the...
Celebrating Pioneer Women
Ida May and Edith Eudora Ammon homesteaded in North Dakota in the 1880s, expecting their venture to be a lark. They intended proving up, getting...
Following the Hawks
For years, novelist Win Blevins honed his storytelling skills by creating characters and events in Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park for his youngest son...
Following Cherokee Tracks
I first saw the Cherokee Trail when I was a little girl. One branch of it crossed my family’s ranch near Encampment, Wyoming, and when we were at...
A Pineapple-Coconut Pie Kind of Guy
Since third grade, Johnny Boggs has been making up stories. Of course for True West, he sticks to the facts. And as regular readers already know, he...
No Substitute for a Romping Good Story
With his deep voice and lean hawklike look, Western novelist Matt Braun could be one of the Old West lawmen or cowboys that populate his novels....
The Quiet Montanan
Anyone who can write about mining towns and mountain men with the same passion he puts into tales of the California gold rush or early Oregon must...