January 1888. Apache County (AZ) Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens arrested Ike Clanton Gang member Kid Swingle and was transporting him by train from...
Leaving the Law Behind
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True West Blog
The Outlaw Trail
The so-called Outlaw Trail was a 1,500-mile stretch of untamed country running Canada to New Mexico and Butch Cassidy knew the way like the back of...
Winged Victory
She’s been referred to as the Goddess of Victory, Statue of Justice, and Madame de Vaunte but Arizonans prefer to call her Winged Victory because of...
A Bad Man Goes Down
Bob Dozier was a successful farmer before—for whatever reason—he turned to crime in the Indian Territory. He delved into various and sundry...
The Fairbank Train Robbery
The railroad arrived in what became Fairbank in 1881. It was the closest rail link to the boom town of Tombstone which was at the time one of the...
A San Diego Civic Leader
Ned Bushyhead had a big impact on San Diego. The Cherokee left the reservation in 1850—he was 18—to go to the California gold fields. After moving...
The Cheyenne Go On Trial
In September 1878, Chief Dull Knife and his band of Northern Cheyenne left the reservation in the Indian Territory, headed for their ancestral lands...
The Siege of Flagstaff
One of those Post-Indian Wars gunfights, almost lost in history occurred in northern Arizona on November 11th, 1899, eight years after Wounded Knee....
Bragging Rights for a Badman
Andy Blevins—alias Andy Cooper—was a Texas hardcase who specialized in rustling cattle. But things got too hot for Andy, his father and brothers so...
The Folk Bandit
Western outlaws were the product of a lawless and violent era during the post-Civil War days and the lust for land and gold. They their infancy...
Riding the Prescott-Santa Fe Stage
I’ve solved one Old West mystery. You want to know why the Star Line Transportation Company, a k a the Prescott-Santa Fe stage line, only lasted...
Gun Notches for Rawhide Jake
Jonas V. Brighton—aka Rawhide Jake—is best known to history for killing Ike Clanton in 1887 as the outlaw tried to escape arrest. But Brighton had a...