Grand County (UT) Sheriff Jesse Tyler wasn’t expecting trouble on the morning of May 26, 1900. He and two deputies—on the lookout for members of...
Let Sleeping Outlaws Lie Sheriff Jesse Tyler awoke the wrong men.
read more
True West Blog
Hygiene In The West Saturday night bath?
I was reading 'Good Little Bad Man', the story of Colorado Charley Utter. It was noted that Charley had the habit, thought odd at the time, of...
Cigars, Pipes And Cigarettes Did cowboys prefer to smoke cigarettes, pipes, or cigars, when out on the trail?
Cigarettes and cigars have been around for a long time. Prior to the Civil War cigars ranked next to chewing tobacco in popularity. They were...
Apache Pass In movies the stage tries always to outrun the bad guys or Indians. Did that ever work?
Chasing a stagecoach was mostly the stuff of Hollywood because it added more drama to the event. In reality, the stage robbers tried to find a...
A Plot In Portland Why was Virgil Earp buried in Oregon?
Virgil Earp mostly live in the Southwest into California and Nevada. But he ended up in a grave in Portland, Oregon. Earp was married in 1860 and...
From Stuntman To Star Ben Johnson’s act of courage earned him a fat contract.
Ben Johnson was a cowboy who broke into Hollywood as a stuntman in the 1940s. He was the stunt double for Henry Fonda in 1948’s Fort Apache. ...
Didn’t Have A Prayer George Wilson called out to God, and then…
A Prescott, Arizona Territory posse was after George Wilson and his pal. They’d murdered a man in October 1877. Virgil Earp was deputized—his...
The Gatling Gun How effective were gatling guns against the Indians?
The Gatling Gun was a spring-loaded, multi-barrel, hand-cranked machine gun. Invented in 1861 by Richard Gatling. It fired 350 rounds a minute (if...
Birth Of The Cowboy “He only got off his horse to dance or to die...”
The original cowboys as we know them today, were the Mexican vaqueros. From Texas to California these superbly skilled horsemen could ride and rope...
A Coincidence Of Crime Nimrod Long ran into the James family twice.
March 20, 1868. A group of robbers—which would evolve into the James-Younger Gang—hit the Nimrod Long Bank in Russellville, Kentucky. Bank...
Unworthy Jesse James quit the church as his outlaw career took off.
Jesse James was the son of a Baptist minister, but he obviously took a wrong path. In September 1869, Jesse basically accepted that his faith was...
The Tombstone Reporter Clara Brown told the world about The Town Too Tough To Die.
Clara Spalding Brown is one of the most important chroniclers of Tombstone during its heyday. She and her husband moved to town in 1880, and almost...