The revolutions in Mexico and the California Gold Rush had depleted much of the male population in northern Sonora. In some villages the ratio of...
The Bawdy House Brawl
Tom Logan was a respected lawman in Tonopah, NV (photo, seated left). But on April 7, 1906 he was a customer at a bawdy house in Manhattan, NV....
A Little Help From His Friend?
The end of Texas robber Brack Cornett is shrouded in mystery. In September 1888, after his gang was broken up, Cornett headed to the town of Frio....
A Violent 18 Months
Texas outlaw Brack Cornett had a short but violent run on the outlaw trail. Starting in May 1887, Cornett and gang leader Bill Whitley nabbed tens...
Crimes on Emigrant Wagon Trains
Emigrants heading west in covered wagons usually had a wagon master who knew the trails and had experience getting through the trials and travails...
Rascals of Tombstone: Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne
After running away from the gunfight in the vacant lot near the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ike Clanton made a desperate attempt to get the Earp’s and...
Tumbleweed Wagons
They called them “tumbleweed wagons” because like their namesake, the Russian thistle, they seemed to wander aimlessly across the territory picking...
Father and Son—Not So Close
The relationship between John Wesley Hardin killer John Selman and his son, John Marion Selman (photo), was not very close. Old John abandoned the...
A Stormy Affair
On August 6, 1895, gunman John Wesley Hardin nearly got into a strange shootout. He and his lover Helen Beulah Mrose were in an El Paso (photo)...
Losing Control
By the time he died in August 1895, John Wesley Hardin had finished about 200 pages of his autobiography, up to the year 1889. Researchers Chuck...
Free Trappers
Basically there were only two types of trappers, the engage, or lowly company employee who worked for wages and the enterprising aristocrat of the...
The Rendezvous
Like gold dust on the mining frontier, beaver pelts acted as the medium of exchange in the mountains. Unique to the American experience was the...