When Fred Harvey set out to give railroad travelers a decent meal—something long lacking as the west developed—he had a big job on his hands. As...
Watch the Cup, Please
read more
Jana Bommersbach
Townful of Santas
Minden bills itself as “Nebraska’s Christmas City,” stringing 15,000 lights throughout its town square to seal the deal. But to know why this town...
Thank You, Sarah Jane Woodson
Every woman who ever graduated from college can look back and say a special “thank you” to Sarah Jane Woodson—one of the first women and one of the...
Bad News Travels Fast
According to The Old West Quiz and Fact Book by Rod Gragg, “After the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the Seventh Calvary's wounded were placed on...
Lemon Power
Before the growth of the pharmaceutical industry, folks relied on “natural” remedies, and one of the most popular was a simple lemon. Potpourri of...
Cattle is King
Most often, when that phrase is used to describe the Old West, we think of Texas. And while cattle were important to Texas, we find it was just one...
Independence Day at Independence Rock
Known as “The Register of the Desert,” there sits in the south-central part of Wyoming a haystack-looking rock—visible for miles, but with...
The Mother of Women Suffrage in Wyoming
Her son, newspaper editor Ed Slack of Cheyenne, labeled her “the mother of women suffrage in Wyoming,” upon her death in 1902. Stories have long...
Yellowstone Was Only the Beginning
The idea of setting aside land for the public's benefit was revolutionary when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill creating the first...
Giving the Ladies the Vote
On December 10, 1869, fifty-one years before national suffrage, Wyoming became the first government in the nation to give women full voting rights....
Poodles in the West
Image a poodle. How cute. How cuddly. Such a no-no in the old West. According to Anne Seagraves' Soiled Doves, poodles were the preferred pet of...
Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving has been celebrated in America from the earliest days, but it became an official national holiday in 1863 in the midst of the Civil...