Dave Tutt walked onto the town square in Springfield, Missouri, at 6 p.m. on a Friday. He was about to face off with a known adversary, “Wild Bill”...
A Watch to Die For
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Features & Gunfights
The Truth about Wild Bill
Like most Old West icons, gunfighter “Wild Bill” Hickok is shrouded in myths. He likely started many of them. A teller of tall windies, he was...
Custer and Hostages
In December 1868, George Armstrong Custer peered down at a beautiful, freckle- faced white woman frozen in the snow. Clara Blinn had been shot in...
Highways to History
From the earliest days of conquistadors, explorers, fur trappers and pioneer settlers, the vast grandeur of the American West—and its equally...
Crazy Facts You Never Knew About Custer’s Last Stand
Tragically dying on June 25, 1876, with his men at his last battle, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer has lived on as an integral part of America’s...
From Frontier Soldier to Peacemaking President
On March 4, 1869, a rather unlikely candidate took his oath of office as the eighteenth president of the United States. The image of Ulysses S....
History, Heritage and Hospitality
Saloons, pubs and hotels played a major role in shaping the West. While saloons generally weren’t the largest buildings in a town, they were the...
In Wine There Is Truth
The most celebrated duel in recent Western films wasn’t fought with guns or bowie knives, but words: in 1993’s Tombstone, Val Kilmer’s “Doc”...
Studio Props?
Our February issue sharing how history should view Chatto, in John Sandifer’s “Apache Traitor or Hero?” article, has sparked an interesting...
Clash of the Mad Madams
April 18, 1886 The beautiful Bessie Colvin is fed up. After a year of arguing over “extracurricular activities” and bad accounting, the star...
A Belle of Old Fort Sumner
Walter Noble Burns was onto something. A 56-year-old Chicago journalist, Burns had become intrigued by a long-dead and largely forgotten outlaw...
The Cup Spinning Sequence
When then-Director Kevin Jarre first spoke to Val Kilmer about the gun-twirling, cup-spinning scene in 1993’s Tombstone, the actor who played John...