Discover the wild woman of the West in a circuitous tour of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana.
Over Land and Water with John Wesley Powell
A statue of one-armed John Wesley Powell in front of the Sweetwater County Museum in Green River, Wyoming. He is facing south, toward the Green...
George Catlin Paints the West
In 1830 lawyer George Catlin packed a case with pencils and paper, paint and brushes, and went to St. Louis where he met with William Clark, then...
The Diné Return to the Four Corners
Fort Sumner, New Mexico, has never been an easy place to live. Winters can be brutal. Summers are often blistering. The scenery’s spartan. Few...
Standing Bear’s Trials to Indian Rights
Indian removal doesn’t get the coverage of Indian conflict. To wit, Google searches on “Ponca” netted 5.2 million hits, compared with 239 million...
The Central Pacific’s Chinese Trail
Without the back-breaking labor of Chinese immigrants the pivotal event in the development of the nation—the laying of the last rail and placing of...
Oregon at 160
When wealthy trapper Ewing Young died in 1841 in what is Oregon today, he had no apparent heirs, and there was no way to determine how to handle his...
Cochise, Cowboys and Cavalry
The first thing you notice about Willcox, Arizona, is the wine. Wineries. Wine-tasting rooms. Wine festivals. Wine has practically taken over this...
Following the Bent Brothers
So much of the Western story begins in St. Louis, and the tale of William and Charles Bent is no exception. From a family of eleven children, the...
Hell on Wheels
A century and a half ago the Iron Horse galloped across the prairie and plains of Nebraska then over and around the mountains and across the...
Pursuing Outlaw Sam Bass
There wasn’t much to Big Springs, Nebraska, in 1877. As Al Sorenson noted in his 1877 book, Hands Up! The History of a Crime, Big Springs was “a...
Trailing the Wild Bunch
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...