Western art museums paint a picture of optimism and excitement during a time of changes. “This is an ongoing question for Western art...
Keeping the West Alive!
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Features & Gunfights
So-Called Cattle Kate Rises from Rubbish
Evidence points toward Ella Watson’s innocence. Cattle Kate was the only woman ever hanged in Wyoming for cattle rustling, and history long...
¿Quien es, Pete?
July 14, 1881 Billy the Kid vs. Pat Garrett Bad Moon Rising Rising at dawn, Garrett, Poe and McKinney ride “up into the hills” and scan the...
Cannibal Correspondence
The most celebrated Colorado convict was wooed and loved—despite his life sentence for eating his camping compadres. Why do some women...
Yellowstone Prevails!
In early June, Yellowstone National Park, which is celebrating its sesquicentennial year, was hit with heavy rain and fast snowmelt causing...
The Six-Million-Dollar Gun
The real story behind Pat Garrett’s infamous pistol that killed Billy the Kid In the fall of 1880, Sheriff-elect Pat Garrett was given his marching...
A Fitting Funeral for Billy the Kid
What Really Happened to El Chivato? Billy arrived at the home of Celsa and Saval Gutiérrez, where he sometimes had a siesta, instead of the Maxwell...
Spirit of the West
The founding curator filled the blank canvas of Scottsdale’s Museum of the West. Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is making...
Western Art Museums of the Year
Discover the best of the West at these Western showplaces of American artists. 2021-2022 was another time period many people would like to forget,...
Saving the West – Top Western Museums 2022
Our top Western Museums for 2022 reflect the dedication of communities to their heritage. The icons of the West, like the Duke and the American...
Clash of the Mad Madams
Alice Abbott vs. Etta Clark The War Over Beautiful, Busty Bessie Colvin April 18, 1886 The beautiful Bessie Colvin is fed up. After a year of...
A Bright Particular Star
Ella La Rue and the Performing Variety of Women of the Old West Historian Jill Lepore recently observed that microhistories of unknown people...