Our readers remind us of the variables and vagaries of historic truths, “well-established” facts, headlines and historical photographs. At least two...
Shooting Back
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Features & Gunfights
Truth Be Known
Old Vaquero Saying “Fear brings more pain than does the pain it fears.” Quotes “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a...
Black Hills Frontier Spa
Black Hills Frontier Spa In 1889, Hot Springs, Dakota Territory, was a destination for health-seekers and tourists. In 1887, the Dakota Hot...
Wagons Ho!
True West's historians reveal the real history behind Taylor Sheridan’s 1883. Hollywood producers, directors and writers have often attempted...
Wyoming’s Colorful Characters
Hit the road where the famous roamed across the Cowboy State. Butch, Sundance, Wild Bill, Calamity and Buffalo Bill are just a few of the Old...
Texas’s Quanah Parker Trail
Discover the life of the legendary Comanche following the arrows in the Lone Star State. Quanah Parker, war chief of the last band of...
Kansas’s Santa Fe Trail
Traversing the Sunflower State from Leavenworth to Dodge City Timing, as they say, is everything and that certainly proved true for Missouri trader...
Dreaming Nevada
Adventures await across the Silver State for the visitor who loves small towns and history. Growing up in Southern California, I spent a great deal...
On the True Grit Trails
Travel across Arkansas, Oklahoma and Colorado and discover the real and imagined locations of the iconic novel and 1969 film’s locations. All Images...
An Arizona Adventure
The Earp brothers’ trail from Prescott to Tombstone is a treasure trove of historic sites. Wyatt Earp, his lawmen brothers and Doc Holliday are best...
This Land is Your Land
Pack your bags and saddle up. Adventures await across the American West. Twenty years ago True West magazine launched its annual travel issue, and...
The Real Rooster Cogburn
Remembering my great-grandfather’s role in the creation of a classic Western fiction and film character. John Franklin Cogburn, nicknamed “Rooster”...