The Old West’s Indian Wars were brutal affairs, with innocent victims on all sides. Depredations were all too frequent. One was the Camp Grant...
The Camp Grant Massacre
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Mark Boardman
Happy Jack Morco
Happy Jack Morco had the wrong nickname. He boasted of killing up to a dozen men—there’s no confirmation of that. He certainly was a boozer and...
Arizona’s Confederate Governor
Col. John Baylor learned that fame and power are fleeting. In 1861, he led Confederate troops to victory at the First Battle of Mesilla (New...
Butch Cassidy’s Castle
What’s the tie between a legendary Scottish castle and an Old West outlaw? Doune Castle, in central Scotland, dates back to the 14th century. It’s...
The Western Legend
Early Western stars Tom Mix and William S. Hart were both fascinated by the Old West—or at least by its myth and legend. Its well established that...
Tom Mix and the West
Early Western star Tom Mix was a rarity in the early days of film: he’d actually been a cowboy. Born in Pennsylvania in 1880, Mix spent time in the...
Before William S. Hart Went West
William S. Hart was one of the first Western stars—one of the biggest movie stars of the nineteen-teens and ‘20s. But his earlier work was a little...
The Death of Pat Garrett
October 6, 1899. Pat Garrett and two men went to the Bill Cox ranch in New Mexico to arrest an alleged killer. The subject fought back and was...
The Three Guardsmen
Chris Madsen is famed as one of the Three Guardsmen, the deputy U.S. marshals (with Bill Tilghman and Heck Thomas) of the Oklahoma Territory. His...
The Western That Never Happened
Two iconic Western stars almost go together for a movie in the mid-1970s. Almost. The story goes that Clint Eastwood wanted to work with John...
Tim Timberlake’s Last Assignment
Texas Ranger Sgt. Tim Timberlake had a bad feeling—that an assignment to stop smuggler Encarnacion Delgado would be his last. There were reasons;...
The Duke’s Last Film
Spoiler alert! John Wayne made sure the ending of his last film, The Shootist, was to his liking. His character, the dying gunfighter J.B. Books,...