It was July 15, 1862, and Union Captain Thomas Roberts led a column of volunteers into Apache Pass in southeast Arizona.…
Marshal Tom “Bear River” Preferred Fists to Guns
Abilene, Kansas Marshal Tom “Bear River” Smith gained a reputation for using fists instead of guns. According to one st…
The Serendipitous Birth of Blue Jeans
Just after the Civil War, merchant Levi Strauss had an overstock of canvas and didn’t know exactly what to do with the m…
Chunk Colbert’s Deadly Grudge
Chunk Colbert tried to take on the wrong man in Clay Allison. On January 7, 1874 the two men sat down for a friendly mea…
No One Steals from Barton’s Joint
Jerry Barton was associated with the Cow-boy faction in southeast Arizona. He ran a bar in the town of Charleston—a Cow…
Bud Ballew: Lawman Gone Bad
Bud Ballew was a lawman around Ardmore, Oklahoma after the turn of the century. He had a string of killings to his cred…
The Teacher and the Badmen Educator Charlie Connelly bravely took on the Dalton Gang.
Charlie Connelly seemed like the last person in the world to get into a gunfight with outlaws. He’d spent most of his ad…
Stuart’s Stranglers
Stuart’s Stranglers had a brief but deadly life in 1884. Civic and political leader Granville Stuart formed the group a…
Osceola’s Imprisonment
Osceola is probably the best known leader of the Seminoles. He was not born a chief in 1804 (his father was an Englishm…
American Horse’s Embarrassing Mistake
The story is told of how the great Sioux leader American Horse made a painful mistake in battle. It was sometime in the…