Al Schieffelin is not nearly as well-known as his older brother Ed—the man who founded Tombstone. But Al made his own mark on “The Town Too Tough...
The Other Schieffelin
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True West Blog
Jack Swilling: Arizona’s Forrest Gump
Jack Swilling might well be called Arizona’s “Forrest Gump” because seems to have had a penchant for being involved in a number of historic events...
Jeff Kidder
The dawning of the 20th century brought little improvement to the notorious reputation Arizona had earned during the tumultuous years of outlawry...
Low Slung Guns: A Hollywood Invention?
A popular misconception among some Old West re-enactors and wardrobe experts is that everyone wore their gunbelts high on their waists and that the...
Was Butch Cassidy a Master Train Robber?
Butch Cassidy’s folk hero image actually exceeded his outlawry. In 1898, a Chicago newspaper referred to him as the “King of the Bandits,” and the...
Brother Vs. Brother
Old Schonchin was head chief of the Modoc, and he was responsible for moving the tribe to a reservation in southern Oregon in the mid-1860s. He...
Boot Camp or Basic Training
Recently, I received a question from a TW reader who wanted to know if during the 1800s the military had some kind of a boot camp for new recruits...
Peaches or Tso-ay
Prior to his stint as an Army scout Peaches rode with Chatto, Bonito and Chihuahua on a raid in March 1883, that killed twenty-six settlers that...
Don’t Mess with the Rangers
Thomas Brooks picked the wrong guy to rob. April 24, 1896, near Dogtown in the Creek Nation. Brooks heard that a retired Texas Ranger had a stash of...
Fort Stanton, New Mexico
Fort Stanton, was named for a captain of dragoons named Henry W. Stanton, who, in 1855 killed by Mescalero Apaches. The post, located on the Rio...
One More Killing
The Early-Hasley War was already over in the fall of 1869, having racked up a number of killings in Central Texas. But there was one more killing to...
Jim Miller’s Killin’ Kin
John Denson was one of the Clements family, cousins to John Wesley Hardin and an in- law of Jim Miller. John built up his own reputation as a tough...