The daughter of Irish immigrants in 1867, Margaret Tobin was born in Hannibal, MO. As a waitress she waited on Mark Twain many times. When she was...
The Unsinkable Maggie Brown
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True West Blog
The Dodge City Gang
A gang could mean a gang of outlaws or a group of men who ran together such as gamblers. Some people looked upon gamblers as unsavory characters and...
The Town of Christmas Arizona
In Southwestern Gila County nestled in the remote canyons of the Dripping Springs Mountains, just west of Jerusalem Peak lies what remains of the...
Poker
In so many Wild West movies and stories you see and hear about cowboys playing poker or cards. This raises some questions. What was the most common...
Beer
The water in many areas of the West was so bad it was said the local beer was healthier and safer than the local drinking water. The shelf life of...
Wagons West
The wagon trains first began heading west in the early 1820s with the opening of the Santa Fe Trail from St. Louis. However, the emigrant trains to...
The Harvey Girls
Humorist Will Rogers once quipped, “Fred Harvey supplied the West in food and wives.” It wasn’t just the excellent food that attracted people to his...
Stitching Together a Relationship
Wyatt and Allie Earp bonded over a sewing machine. The legend goes that Allie Earp, Virgil’s wife, didn’t think much of his brother Wyatt. At least...
The Women Behind the Gunfight
The Earp women were frantic when the guns went off. So when the OK Corral fight broke out, what were the Earp women doing? According to Virgil’s...
With a Gun on Her Hip
Allie Earp was armed after the OK Corral. March 20, 1882. A train carrying members of the Earp family was leaving the Tucson train station en route...
The Oregon Trail: Part 3
As traffic on the Oregon Trail increased, a bustling industry of frontier trading posts sprang up to supply food and equipment for the five-month...
The Oregon Trail: Part 2
Most wagons were about six feet wide and twelve feet long. They were usually made of seasoned hardwood and covered with a large, oiled canvas...