A Western romance comes to life while I ride on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief. I feel its authenticity—from the close-up scenery speeding past the window...
Run Out of Town On a Rail
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Art, Guns and Culture
Preservation: Let the Water Flow
Let the Water Flow In early March, a torrent of water rushed through the Grand Canyon. It was not an act of God; man was behind the Great Flood of...
Cattle Track Creations
Living and working as an artist in one of the few places in Scottsdale, Arizona, that remains natural and largely undeveloped, Mark McDowell daily...
NRA’s Cowboy Celebration
“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...
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...