Here’s how we got home, home on the range. Free Land!” In 30 states. Offering 270 million acres—one tenth of the entire United States. Over two...
Thank You, President Lincoln
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Art, Guns and Culture
My Stage Partners
Fred Nolan and Robert Utley could riff with the best of them. In April of 2012, I was giving a history talk in a tent on the concourse of Ruidoso...
Western Roundup: July/August 2022
PRESCOTT FRONTIER DAYS’ WORLD’S OLDEST RODEO Prescott, AZ, June 28-July 4: The 135th annual rodeo celebrates the 50th anniversary of the release of...
Idaho Trout
Idaho may be synonymous with potatoes, but trout has been a pioneer staple since it was first settled where cold rivers, streams and creeks were...
Big Irons on the Block
Rock Island and Morphy firearms auctions ring up big profits. Marty Robbins famously sang about a stranger who came out of the West wearing a "big...
If it Moves, If it Spins, You’ll Find it Here
This truly was the “engine” for Albuquerque. The first thing Rabbi Isador Freed did in 1920, as he de-parted the train in a dusty New Mexico town,...
Crazy Hunt
Our team’s quest to capture Crazy Horse’s visage was a bear. There are no known photographs of Crazy Horse. Yes, there are several...
Western Roundup: June 2022
Gold Rush Days Sidney, NE, June 10-12: Experience the Black Hills gold rush of 1876 through skits, re-enactments and cowboy lore about the town’s...
Winchester’s 1876 Mountie Carbine
When it was introduced at Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition of 1876, Winchester’s Centennial Model was the largest and the most powerful...
Making a Good Impression in the West
With the rise of photography in the second half of the 19th century, art no longer needed to be a visual record. One result was the...
A Flood of Fakes
The silverwork is perfect, the turquoise is spectacular, so is the price tag, but after all, this was made by a Native American and will be a...
Texas’s Tangy Thirst Quencher
The origin story of the Lone Star State’s Dr. Pepper is legendary. Texas and beef go together like chips and salsa. And while Texas is known for its...