Two of the best-known bank and train robbers of the 19th century spent time in jail and prison—for horse theft—and not a day behind bars for...
Trailing the Wild Bunch
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Travel & Preservation
Big Horn Getaway: Buffalo, Wyoming
Few towns are more thoroughly Western than Buffalo, Wyoming, and isn’t the name perfect? It conjures images of the great beasts roaming the plains,...
Idaho City: Queen of the Gold Camps
In 1862, the Boise Basin roared to life with a red-hot case of gold fever. Miners poured in and Idaho City and other towns sprouted. By the...
Discover San Angelo – An Oasis in West Texas, Off the Beaten Path
San Angelo's Concho River Walk is designated one of five Great Public Spaces on the American Planning Association’s annual Great Places in...
Steamboats on the Missouri
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark took their Corps of Discovery expedition up the Missouri River using keelboats and pirogues that they poled and...
Mountain Men, Mules and Miners
No one could confuse life in this peaceful Southern Colorado town of 8,000 on the Purgatoire River with the razzmatazz of Hollywood. But they do...
Peace on the High Plains
Red Cloud and other Lakota leaders met with Indian Commissioners at Fort Laramie in 1866 intending to negotiate an agreement that would allow safe...
Cattle, Cowboys and Culture
If you’re a vegetarian, stop reading. Unless you like opera. We don’t think of cattle towns as cultural meccas, but many of them were. And still...
Gem City of the Plains
No one knows what happened to Jacques La Ramée, except that he disappeared on what would become the Laramie River in about 1821. Some suspect...
Blood on the Earth
Two months separated the 1868 clashes between the U.S. military and the Indians at Beecher Island and the Washita River. One is known for heroism on...
Top 10 True Western Towns of 2018
Americans are lucky. When life gets tough, we have hope of finding something better, a land of redemption beyond the next horizon. That’s how we...
True West’s Ultimate Historic Travel Guide: Southern Prairie and Plains
The Southern Prairie and Plains states should be considered the gateway states to the West. From the lesser-known trails to Texas and Oklahoma from...