Her name was Pauline Wayne. She weighed 1,500 pounds. She was black and white. She produced a remarkable 8 gallons of milk a day—25 percent more...
Presidential Bovine
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Jana Bommersbach
You Tell ’em Jim!
One of the West's bigger than life characters was Jim Bridger—mountain man, trapper, scout, guide, storyteller. Bridger married three times—all...
When A Dollar Meant A Dollar
It's no secret that cattle ranching was a lucrative business—after all, Cheyenne, Wyoming was considered the wealthiest city in the world in the mid...
One Useful Rag
A cowboy in the old west wasn't dressed until he tied on his kerchief. That little piece of cloth had so many uses: A dust mask when herding cattle;...
Beat these Records!
The best time the young Pony Express riders set was in March of 1861, when they delivered the text of President Lincoln's inaugural speech from St....
Oops
Everyone makes mistakes. Some are silly. Some are deadly. Among the deadly mistakes in the wild west—an entire book could be written about this...
Studying Villa’s Raid
March 9, 1916, started out bad for the 13th Cavalry at Camp Furlong. Ignoring the warning that Mexican Revolution Gen. Pancho Villa was in the area,...
The “First Lady” of Phoenix
She was a Mexican woman named Trinidad Escalante Swilling. She married Jack Swilling in Tucson in 1864 and four years later moved north to the town...
The Female Buffalo Soldier
Cathay Williams was born a slave in Missouri in 1842, but was freed by Union soldiers during the Civil War. She worked as a paid servant for the...
Kill the Steer to Prove the Point
Judge Roy Bean, the “Law West of the Pecos,” had some colorful ways to hand out justice in Texas. Like the time someone was stealing cattle from the...
The “Goose Question”
During the days of “bleeding Kansas,” as pro and anti-slavery forces fought over the soul of the place, there was a code when talking about the...
Vinegar Pie
As unappetizing as it sounds, this was the “go to" recipe in the Old West when all other ingredients were scarce. One recipe calls for 2 tablespoons...