While many of the American frontier’s most famous arms are well known today, few have had the distinction of becoming a working classic for as long...
The Dalton Death Rifle?
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Art, Guns and Culture
Fine Fruitcakes
"Inmates of various boarding-houses shudder to think of the vast amount of turkey and fruitcake leftover from the feast of yesterday,” wrote San...
Let’s Rodeo
Wild West shows and frontier rodeos are largely responsible for the distinctive styling and flare seen on cowboy shirts today. The arena cowboys...
A Dickens Christmas
Bah, humbug. The high sheriffs of this rag twisted my arm to write about Victorian Christmas celebrations out West. I’m no Scrooge, but I live in...
The Mini “Buffalo Gun”
When most people think of the Sharps rifle, it’s a good bet they probably think “Buffalo Gun.” The “Old Reliable” Sharps single-shot rifle was...
Bill Anton
“They’re all real folks,” says Bill Anton, referring to the cowboys and ranchers he depicts with his oils. Most of his work—if not all—evokes the...
Tailor-Made Re-enactor
As I walk across the grounds of the John Brown Museum in Osawatomie, Kansas, during the annual Freedom Festival, I am surrounded by re-enactors. By...
A Tale of Two Shirts
On June 20, 1905, “one of the greatest affairs of the kind” took place, a potlatch feast-giveaway of the belongings of Nez Perce Chief Joseph, who...
Pizza in the Old West
“My wife has been in the habit for several years of putting up tomatoes for winter use…. She says they must be stewed a long time..,” penned a...
Roger Archibald
“Is that pencil?” mocks Western artist and Arizona native Roger Archibald. When people’s eyes first fall upon his black-and-white depictions of...
Thom Ross
“I had a cowboy who came to one of my shows and exclaimed, ‘This isn’t Western art!’” Thom Ross says. “And every painting was of Billy the Kid, Doc...
Snake River Salmon
“While travelling along the Snake River, father secured a fine, large salmon from an Indian, and we looked forward to a good feast at supper time....