Several movies were made in the 1950s, about the Alamo and Jim Bowie. The lyrics of a popular song were, “What a Man was six feet six Jim Bowie, Big...
Bowie Knives
read more
True West Blog
Pioneer Women Menstrual and Yeast Infections
Recently I received a letter from a grad student who was having trouble finding the answers to questions she had about how pioneer women coped with...
The Truth About Geronimo
Get ready for an in depth look at the most famous Indian in the world and how he got there. Bob Boze Bell’s controversial book on “The Illustrated...
Massacre of the Wiyots The California tribe ran afoul of white settlers.
On February 26, 1860 a large group of white settlers attacked Wiyot Indian camps in Humboldt County, California. Hundreds of the Indians were...
The Legends of Dirty Dave Rudabaugh received a lot of myth-making over time.
There are a lot of legends surrounding bad man Dave Rudabaugh. First, there’s no evidence that he was called “Dirty Dave” during his lifetime—or...
A Panhandle Pioneer Mooar found success and more in Texas.
J. Wright Mooar was something of a pioneer in the 1870s. He started the decade working as a woodcutter in Kansas, but soon switched to buffalo...
The Notorious Crédit Mobilier
The notorious Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1872-1873 damaged the careers of several Gilded Age politicians. Major stockholders in the Union Pacific...
The Last Train Robbery in Arizona
The men involved in Arizona's last train robbery obviously watched too many of those old-time Western pictures. The robbery in occurred on May 15th,...
The Salt Lake Cutoff
Most are familiar with the story of the ill-fated Donner Party in the winter of 1846 and 1847. Twenty wagons of emigrants bound for California chose...
The Brutal End of Mangas Coloradas Tortured, killed—and worst of all, decapitated.
January 18, 1863--US troops torture and murder Apache war chief Mangas Coloradas in southwest New Mexico. He had come to them under a flag of truce,...
She Followed Her Heart And it proved to be a deadly mistake for Mollie Brennan.
Mollie Brennan is best know for being shot to death by Melvin King in Sweetwater, Texas. Bat Masterson, wounded by the same bullet that ended...
Enemies Become Partners The strange story of Dave Rudabaugh and J.J. Webb.
In the spring of 1878, Deputy J.J. Webb helped Sheriff Bat Masterson arrest Dave Rudabaugh for an attempted train/depot robbery at Kinsley, Kansas....