Departments Archives

Butch Cassidy Would Do a Double Take

by Jana Bommersbach | May 2, 2019

Sometimes you have to travel a “road to nowhere” to get somewhere you should be. Like the road to the Little Snake River Museum in a Wyoming...

What Exactly is Locoweed?

by | May 1, 2019

I’ve seen cowboy movies from the 1950s where the actor said he had to shoot his horse because it ate locoweed. What exactly is locoweed? Were they...

How did Settlers and Cowboys Calculate Miles?

by | Apr 24, 2019

How did settlers and cowboys calculate miles? Jason Bledsoe Felton, Delaware Trail riding cowboys had no way to calculate the miles—but the “cookie”...

Lincoln, Nebraska

by Leo W. Banks | Apr 23, 2019

Lincoln’s origin story doesn’t involve an Indian uprising or a whisky-soaked shootout. The town was founded as Lancaster in 1856, and the reason was...

Cowan’s Auction

by John Langellier | Apr 19, 2019

Regular viewers of PBS readily recognize Wes Cowan from Antiques Road Show and History Detectives. Back in the late 1970s, Wes toiled away on his...

How Accurate was the Language in the 2010 Version of True Grit?

by | Apr 17, 2019

How accurate was the language in the 2010 version of True Grit? Scott Bachtold Hudson, Illinois You’re probably referring to the fact that many of...

Shaken, Stirred and Strong

by Sherry Monahan | Apr 16, 2019

Mixologists, or bartenders, of the time were often skilled and jokingly referred to as pharmacists or chemists with a “medicine” chest. Prior to...

What History Has Taught Me: Howard Terpning

by Howard Terpning | Apr 12, 2019

As a kid I enjoyed building model airplanes. The best art training I ever got was being Haddon Sundbloom’s apprentice for a year and a half. The...

Did Ballistics Forensics Ever Come into Play in Solving Crimes in the Old West?

by | Apr 10, 2019

Did ballistics forensics ever come into play in solving crimes in the Old West? David Aufiere Columbia, Louisiana Ballistics science has been around...