A Western romance comes to life while I ride on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief. I feel its authenticity—from the close-up scenery speeding past the window...
Run Out of Town On a Rail
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Johnny D. Boggs
Dodge City’s All-Stars
The formation of the Dodge City Peace Commission took place 125 years ago this June, so I’m wondering, “Why all the hoopla?” Okay, so there isn’t a...
Forting Up On the Apache Trail
Ominous clouds threaten rain as I pull off Highway 80 near the Arizona-New Mexico border at the Skeleton Canyon monument. I debate whether or not I...
Surviving the Santa Fe Indian Market
6:12 p.m. Friday: Now I know what it feels like to be a piece of turquoise in the middle of a Charles Favour mosaic bracelet. It’s...
A Feast Along the Alferd Packer Trail
He was a shoemaker, Army veteran, hunter, guide, scout, miner, convict, harness maker, cane carver, horsehair braider, “jack whacker” and, of...
Why Does Everyone Love Louis…
So here I sit, hawking my novels at a book signing, and this old gentleman's stopping by to tell me this story. I know immediately he's not...
On the Trail of Sheriff Pat Garrett
I have to use the bathroom. More information than you need to know, but be warned: Nature’s Call can be troublesome in this part of the country....
Top 10 Things to Do in El Paso
The editors thought I was joking when I pitched this idea. “Ten things to do in El Paso? What’s No. 1? Leave?” Actually, that’s No. 5, but I’m...
Can’t Kick the Boot Addiction
Hello, my name’s Johnny (yes, Johnny; it’s on my birth certificate), and I’m an addict. Not booze, gambling or anything illegal. But it is a serious...
(Not Really) Roughing It on the Mark Twain Trail
By jingo, does everybody in Hannibal, Missouri, think he’s Mark Twain—the driver on the tour bus, the guide at the Mark Twain Cave, even Mark Twain...
The Good, the Bad at the O.K. Corral
The last shot fired at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was the deadliest. Martha Knight pulled the trigger. We boys stood in the playground, pumped...
Remembering Mountain Meadows
“It was very famous in its day. The whole United States rang with its horrors.” But by 1872, when the classic Roughing It was first published, Mark...