“When fact becomes legend, print the legend!” So goes the words of the great film director, John Ford, when asked about portraying truth in his...
NRA’s Cowboy Celebration
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Art, Guns and Culture
Dodge City’s All-Stars
The formation of the Dodge City Peace Commission took place 125 years ago this June, so I’m wondering, “Why all the hoopla?” Okay, so there isn’t a...
Charlie Russell’s Newest Painting
Charlie Russell showed off his newest painting at this year's C.M. Russell Art Auction. Impossible, you say? The esteemed cowboy artist did so...
Roadside Culture
“We call these people ‘untutored,’ and yet, to watch a desert dweller spill varicolored sands between his fingers into a magic pattern on the ground...
Not Just Book Larnin’
You know that old adage, “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach”? University of Texas Professor Michael Collins proves that saying wrong. For...
Clean Shots
The most successful gunfighters in the Old West were firm believers in maintaining their firearms. As the story goes, handsome, homicidal John...
Why Does Everyone Love Louis…
So here I sit, hawking my novels at a book signing, and this old gentleman's stopping by to tell me this story. I know immediately he's not...
Trains, Mules and Horses
Chester A. Arthur is the only U.S. president to make an extensive overland march, mostly on horseback, and the first to visit Yellowstone National...
Low Slung Guns
A popular misconception among some Old West re-enactors and wardrobe experts is that everyone wore their gun-belts high on their waists and that the...
Saving Grandma’s Cabin
Anybody looking at the rotten foundation logs, the caved in roof, the shoved in southeast corner of the cabin would mark it for demolition. Unless,...
Preservation: The Little Railroad that Might
Things seem to be looking up for the Mount Hood Railroad, located in the Hood River Valley, some 60 miles east of Portland, Oregon. Permian Basin...
What Have You Heard, Shane?
Jack Palance played a number of roles during his long career, but the characters of Jack Wilson, the sinister gunfighter in Shane (1953), and the...