It wasn’t only the Indians who made life precarious for the travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. The country was literally crawling with rattlesnakes,...
Life on the Santa Fe Trail
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True West Blog
Bringing out the Big Guns
The first time the army used howitzers against Indians In 1862, a Union army force was making its way across Arizona Territory. They had entered...
The Power of the Pardon
A territorial governor let himself go scot-free. Isaac Stevens was a controversial governor of Washington Territory. In the 1850s, he enacted brutal...
In the Palm of his Hand
An outlaw learned the hard way that a palm print was strong evidence. Ben Kuhl was caught red-handed—so to speak. He and two pals pulled the last...
Greenhorns on the Santa Fe Trail
By 1824 the Santa Fe trade was in full swing. Joshua Gregg, in his classic tome, Commerce of the Prairies, described some of the action as he...
Sheriff’s Duties: Other Than Keeping the Peace
As a rule peace officers in the Old West weren’t held to the high standards they are today. It wasn’t unusual to rough up a suspect in order to get...
The Saga of Pakoon Clem
Catching wolves with one’s bare hands isn’t something I recommend for everybody, but it’s not farfetched. Men have been known to snatch a...
Not on my Land!
The strange story of John Wesley Hardin’s kin. Joe Hardin was John Wesley Hardin’s big brother, and he came to his own violent end. A lynch...
An Empty Grave
Gang leader John Heath is not at Boot Hill. John Heath has gone down in infamy for his part in the Bisbee Massacre of 1884. He was the mastermind of...
Another Hardin Dies Hard
Jeff Hardin went down much like his famous brother. Jeff Hardin wasn’t as prolific as his older brother John Wesley. But he also lived a violent...
A Merry Christmas at Ft. Yuma
The workhorse among the Army’s Corps of Topographical Engineers surveying the southern border of the New Mexico Territory during the 1850’s was Lt....
Remember This at Christmas Time
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year. Male reindeer drop...