A strange card game decided the fate of six Apache warriors, captured by U.S. troops in southwest Arizona in 1861. Lt. Isaiah Moore and Asst....
A Fateful Game of Cards
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Mark Boardman
Chief Mangas Coloradas
In early 1861, the great Apache Chief Mangas Coloradas went to a mining camp at Santa Rita in New Mexico. He was going to tell the miners of richer...
Charles Poston
Charles Poston was several years away from being “The Father of Arizona” when he met with Apache leader Mangas Coloradas in southeast New Mexico in...
Laudanum In The Old West
With the modern concern about the possible over-use of opioids, it’s instructive to note that those drugs were in heavy use (and abuse) in the Old...
“Duck You, Sucker!”
1971’s Duck, You Sucker! was the last Western directed by Sergio Leone. He almost didn’t helm it. Initially, Sam Peckinpah was hired to direct while...
“Granite Face of Destiny”
Clint Eastwood was not the first choice to play “The Man With No Name” in the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns. The director tried to hire Charles...
When Lawmen Got It Wrong
A gunfight outside Blackwell, Oklahoma just proved that lawmen didn’t always get the right man. Outlaws Ben Craven and Dick Ainsley had been casing...
Chief Dan George
Chief Dan George is perhaps best known for playing Old Lodge Skins in the 1970 Western Little Big Man. He was not the first choice. Director Arthur...
DeForest Kelley
Believe it or not, DeForest Kelley almost had one more shot—he did four--at appearing in a Tombstone-related movie or TV episode. He’d played Morgan...
Stopping a Death Squad
In April 1892, Benjamin Harrison had almost finished his first term as President of the United States. He couldn’t have foreseen it, but he was...
Roy Barcroft
Roy Barcroft was one of those Western actors you’d recognize immediately—but never knew his name. The Nebraska native and WWI hero (who enlisted at...
Stevens County Seat War Massacre
Kansas’ Stevens County Seat War produced a terrible massacre in July 1885. Citizens of Hugoton and Woodland—both vying for the county seat...