Arkansas native Max Aronson was in New Jersey in 1903, trying to angle his way into movie stardom. Director Edwin S. Porter asked the 23 year old...
The First Westerns Star
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Mark Boardman
A Deadly Vision
On January 1, 1889, the Northern Paiute medicine man Wovoka was recovering after nearly dying from scarlet fever. As a total solar eclipse darkened...
Robbers of the Rails
Face it—nothing says “Old West” quite like a good, old-fashioned, American train robbery. The image is burned in our brains: a gang of masked men...
On the Trail of Bigfoot
True West asked me to track down Bigfoot. Huh? You mean the giant, hairy beast that they do the television documentaries about? What’s next—ancient...
A Sporting Gunfight
A shoot-out for the ages, a bloody battle that left four gamblers dead and another severely wounded, was trumpeted in newspapers around the U.S. and...
The Killing of Bill Tilghman
A sterling reputation won’t block a lead bullet. Famed Old West lawman Bill Tilghman learned that lesson firsthand, in an ugly, smelly, Oklahoma oil...
The Myths of a Border Warrior
Reportedly born around 1886, Rafael “Red” López was a bad man. He killed six men—including five law officers—in late 1913 near Bingham, Utah. Then...
The Curious Murder of Manny Clements
The 1908 Christmas holidays weren’t good for Manny Clements. In fact, the year’s end brought about his end as well. That Manny would have a violent...
The First Lincoln County War
To track the Horrell boys of Lampasas, Texas, you can follow the trail of dead—including their own. During their nearly six years raising hell in...
Beginning of the End
On May 10, 1875, a new judge came to the bench in Fort Smith, Arkansas. His territory covered about 74,000 square miles in parts of Arkansas and the...
The Assassination of Pat Garrett
For the 57-year-old lawman, his was an undignified death. Pat Garrett was urinating on the side of the road to Las Cruces, New Mexico, about four...
The Lawman & the Land Rush
In the spring of 1889, the U.S. government faced a monumental task—opening the Unassigned Lands, nearly two million acres in modern-day central...