A founder of Phoenix also started a territorial militia. Arizona’s first Rangers may have been led one of the founders of Phoenix, Jack Swilling. In...
Swilling and the Rangers
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True West Blog
It Took an Apache to Find an Apache
The wiley Indians posed a great challenge on the frontier. One of the smartest strategic moves by the Frontier Army during the Indian Wars was to...
Change of Name, Change of Reputation
Frank Canton hid his earlier, sordid life. Frank Canton held a number of honorable positions in his life—lawman, detective, adjutant of the Oklahoma...
The Head and the Hand
Lawmen took two grisly souvenirs from dead bandits. July 25, 1853. A group of California Rangers led by Captain Harry Love guns down two bandits in...
Doc Holliday and the Con Man
Perry Mallon nearly ended Doc’s career. July 30, 1882. Flim-flam man Perry Mallon is arrested in Toledo, Ohio on charges of being a "suspicious...
The Bungling Bandit
Al Jennings’ outlaw career was the stuff of legend. During his long and colorful life, Al Jennings was a cowboy, lawyer, gunslinger, train robber,...
Nogales, Oklahoma?
Hollywood brought the Sooner State to Arizona. When Hollywood decided to make a movie of the Broadway play “Oklahoma” they couldn’t find a location...
The Governor/Doctor of Arizona
Ben Moeur was a colorful character. Arizona’s “Depression Governor” Ben Moeur was raised in San Antonio, Texas and liked to say, “I punched cows...
A Wyoming Tragedy
The murders of two innocent ranchers. July 20, 1889. A group of ranchers lynches Ella Watson and Jim Averell in Wyoming. The cattlemen claim the...
Wild Bill’s Shining Moment
The gunfight with Davis Tutt brings fame. July 21, 1865. Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt face off in the Springfield, Missouri town square. The...
The Missing Mules
The first confrontation between the Earps and McLaurys. July 25, 1880. A contingent including several soldiers, a Wells Fargo agent, and Deputy US...
The Birth of the Dime Novel
The genre helped define the myth of the Old West. In 1860, the publishers Erastus and Irwin Beadle released a new series of cheap...