April 16, 1881 Bat Masterson has just covered 1,100 miles, mostly by rail, to come to the aid of his estranged brother Jim. As the Dodge City-bound...
Battle of the Plaza
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Features & Gunfights
Remembering Jeb Rosebrook
On August 31, 2018, my father Jeb Rosebrook—author, screenwriter and long-time contributor and friend to True West—died at home in Scottsdale with...
Too Tough to Die!
We get a kick out of those who talk about the Western myth. What myth? The frontier was as real as a sawed-off shotgun and wilder than anyone could...
Overkill!
It is a warm, muggy morning, as Clyde Barrow drives his stolen V-8 Ford towards Methvin’s place, which is a twenty-minute drive from Gibsland,...
Best of the West 2019: Western Movies
Ever since The Virginian, Owen Wister’s genre-defining Western novel, female characters have traditionally been portrayed as the civilizers. Even...
The Best of the Texas Rangers in Fiction
Martin Scorsese once said, “More than 90 percent of directing is the right casting.” Lonesome Dove is the greatest Western miniseries—no, to hell...
Best of the West 2019: Western Wear
Growing up in Southern California, we had two Western wear stores within a few miles of our home: King’s Western Wear in Van Nuys and Nudie’s...
The Best of the Texas Rangers in Photos
There are many, many iconic images of the Texas Rangers, but here are my 12 favorites and why. By: Bob Alexander Best Texas Ranger books by...
Best of the West 2019: Firearms
Throughout the year, our Firearms Editor Phil Spangenberger brings you the latest and most interesting firearm stories and news about Old West gun...
A Long and Twisted Trail
When you tug at the threads of history you will find it connected to some pretty disparate events. For example: If the United States government had...
Best of the West 2019: Western Books
A I write this column from my desk in my office in Iowa City, Iowa, in October 2018, reflecting on the past, present and future state of Western...
The Man Who Redeemed The Hamer Name
The story of The Highwaymen, the new Depression-era Western from Netflix, has been a thirty-year obsession for author John Fusco. “Those old photos...