At one point in the classic movie Shane, the hero (played by Alan Ladd) wins a brutal fistfight with several of the bad guys. One of the baddies is...
Clayton Moore
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True West Blog
Tuffy and Jake Meet Santa Claus
Adapted from a story told by Charles Russell in Trails Plowed Under. Everybody knows Charles M. Russell was one of America’s greatest cowboy artists...
Hayden’s Hallowed Expedition
Tracking back 150 years ago, the Hayden Survey had humble beginnings, starting with the unpromising early life of its leader. Ferdinand Vandeveer...
A Sticky Wicket
Ever since the only known photo of Billy the Kid sold for $2.3 million back in 2011, new purported photos of the Kid have been surfacing almost...
Mack Hughes’ Cowboy Christmas
A few years ago an old friend, the late Stella Hughes, wrote a book, Hashknife Cowboy, about her husband Mack’s days working for the historic...
The Man Who Killed Santa Claus
The Great Depression was in full bloom and hard times had fallen on the rural communities of Tempe and Mesa, Arizona that Christmas of 1932. It was...
Fleming Parker’s Last Request
George Ruffner and Fleming Parker had cowboyed together over on the Agua Fria River in their younger days. As time went by they went their separate...
It’s Hamer Time!
Long vilified as a treacherous lawman, Texas Ranger Frank Hamer survived 52 gunfights, was wounded 23 times in the line of duty and, he was declared...
Gold Fever
A story is told of a farmer in a Midwest American town who heard a circus with an elephant was coming to a nearby town. He wanted to see the...
A Show-Biz Career for Ken Curtis
Actor Ken Curtis is best known for portraying Festus Haggen on Gunsmoke from 1959 to 1975. He also made a mark as a member of director John Ford’s...
The Christmas Mine
In 1880 rich deposits of gold were found in the Dripping Springs Mountains south of Globe by Dr. James Douglas, president of the Phelps Dodge Mining...
Denis Kearney
Denis Kearney was an Irish immigrant/naturalized citizen who became a political organizer in 1870s California. He was a founder of the Workingmen’s...