Old West gunfights occasionally inflicted collateral damage. That was the case in October 1873 when rival saloon owners “Rowdy Joe” Lowe (pictured)...
Rowdy Joe vs. William Red Beard
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True West Blog
Honeymoon Trail
There were many trails that crossed Arizona in the early days including the Butterfield Overland Stage, the Gila Trail and the Beale Camel Road and...
Steaming into the Future
Few innovations changed the face of Arizona more than the arrival of the first steam engine in Tucson in March of 1880. Travel time for passengers...
The Tale That Won’t Die
It’s been called the West’s bloodiest gunfight. Hugh Anderson and Arthur McCluskie met in the middle of the main street in Medicine Lodge, Indian...
Arizona Rough Riders
In 1898, Arizona became the first in the nation to sign up for a “cowboy cavalry” for the Spanish-American War. Prescott, which had about 2,000...
Pete Spence
Elliott Larkin Ferguson is best known to history as Pete Spence, one of the Cowboys of Tombstone. Probably his biggest claim to fame—his connection...
A Wannabe Badman
James Bliss was a loser. Time and time again, he tried and failed to be a noted Old West badman. A gunfighter, rustler, robber, and whatever else he...
Powhatan Clarke
The brash, young lieutenant won a Medal of Honor in 1886 when he rescued one of his wounded troopers during a fight in the Pinito Mountains of...
Marshal Harvey Whitehill
Silver City, New Mexico Marshal, Harvey Whitehill was working to solve a train robbery at Gage Station. The November 1883 heist had netted less than...
Del Potter’s Railroad
Del Potter ran a little railroad he proudly named the Clifton and Northern. The line ran from the little town of Clifton to a mine north of town but...
Marion Hedgepath, the Debonair Bandit
Someone asked me the other day why Marion Hedgepath isn’t a better-known outlaw. I have at least a dozen outlaw encyclopedias and he isn’t listed in...
The Jaybird-Woodpecker War
The Jaybird-Woodpecker War has the most colorful name in Texas feuds. It supposedly came from a black man who sang songs about those birds. The...