The movies got it wrong. Street fighting in the Old West was about as rare as horseflies in December. It’s more of a Hollywood creation. In towns...
Old West Gunfights
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True West Blog
Father Unto Death
A fill-in cashier derails a James-Younger Gang robbery. Joseph Lee Heywood was treasurer at Carleton College in Northfield, MN—but on September 7,...
The Great Northfield Raid
Citizens defeat some of the toughest outlaws in America. September 7, 1876. The James-Younger Gang tries to rob the First National Bank in...
The Massacre in the Mountains
The Mormons slaughter immigrants headed to California. September 11, 1857. Mormon militia and a few Paiute Indians killed about 120 immigrants in...
The King of the Cowboys
Buck Taylor became a heroic figure—courtesy of Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill Cody decided to upgrade the image of the cowboy (the term was often used...
A Poor Start
The first holdup by the Sundance Kid didn’t go so well. Harry Longabaugh’s (the Sundance Kid) career as a train robber began less than gloriously....
A Woman’s Work
Life on the frontier was hard. Life on the frontier was especially hard on women. The men spent their days working in the fields or hunting and the...
Death of a Legend
Crazy Horse’s tragic end. September 5, 1877. The noted Oglala warrior Crazy Horse is killed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Crazy Horse and his band are...
Listen to Your Elders
A James-Younger Gang holdup has a weird ending. August 30, 1874. Frank and Jesse James and one of the Youngers rob a stage outside North Lexington,...
A Sad Farewell to Jana Bommersbach
Our wonderful historian, columnist, and friend, Jana Bommersbach, who wrote our Old West Saviors column has died at age 78 after battling a long...
The Battle of Ingalls
Bill Doolin and company vs. U.S. marshals. September 1, 1893. Bill Doolin and several members of his gang are in the outlaw hangout of Ingalls (in...
Booze and the Baptist Minister
Bass Reeves makes the collar—of his own pastor. A fascinating story in The Arkansas Van Buren Press of August 24, 1907. “Rev. Wilson Hobson, a Negro...