On May 5, 1871, Sgt. John Mott and three others followed Apache footprints, tracking what they thought were the incautious wanderings of an...
Manipulated into His Own Death
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Features & Gunfights
True West’s Ultimate Historic Travel Guide: The Pacific Coast
Travelers to the Pacific Coast will quickly discover the beauty of its mountain ranges, coastal lands, vast deserts and expansive valleys. The...
True West’s Ultimate Historic Travel Guide: Eat, Drink and Sleep Where History Happened
On May 10, 1869, the greatest commercial and transportation innovation of America’s first century was completed—the transcontinental railroad. That...
Battle-Tested in the Rockies
In 1925, Kathryn Downing-Smith, the wife of one of Patrick Gass’s grandsons, wrote a letter to her niece Pearl about Gass. She offered keen insight...
Everything We Know About Sitting Bull’s Crucifix is Wrong
One picture of the famous Hunkpapa Lakota Chief Sitting Bull wearing a crucifix is as iconic as it is enigmatic. History claims missionary...
Out of the Bloodshed
On January 29, 1863, Sagwitch Timbimboo stepped out of his lodge in pre-dawn darkness and sub-zero cold. He stood in the Northwestern Shoshone...
Bold and Lethal
When does a boy become a man? The age-old question regenerates itself when a proud, but tired, young mother places a gentle kiss on the cheek of her...
Our Gang
Meet the staff behind True West Magazine! (Pictured above) Lynda A. Sánchez, Age 6, 1951 Lynda is shown working with her father, Joe Carithers, on a...
65 Years & Counting!
I have dedicated a good part of my life to seeking the truth about all the Old West characters, places and incidents covered in the pages of True...
When the West was True
We live in a time of national discord. Americans find themselves adrift in a cultural malaise highlighted by overheated political rhetoric from all...
Justice Served
Commodore Perry Owens. One of the most unusual names in the Old West; maybe one of the coolest. And that iconic photo of him—the stylish Westerner,...
Ike Bites the Dust
June 1, 1887 Apache County Stock Association detective J.V. Brighton, formerly known as “Rawhide Jack” during his rustling days, and two lawmen have...