A large rodent determined the destiny of Kit Carson, the Mountain Men and much of the American West. The North American beaver, the second-largest...
Kit Carson and the Mountain Men
read more
Features & Gunfights
A Bozeman Christmas
On Christmas Day in 1867, three years after the founding of this fair Montana Territory city, Bozeman was elected by citizens as the county seat....
Spirit of the West
Historian Dr. Larry Len Peterson’s tenth book, American Trinity: Jefferson, Custer, and the Spirit of the West (Sweetgrass Books, $34.95), is his...
The Other Bowie’s Epic Battle
December 1831, central Texas saw an epic gunfight—with more than 170 combatants! “Epic” and “Bowie” usually come together when describing the 13-day...
The Other Woman
Contemporaneous newspaper accounts of “Wild Bill” Hickok’s marriage to Agnes Lake in 1876 reported a favorable view of their relationship. Accounts...
The Real Frank James
Nobody asks, “Who is Jesse James?” Books, movies, newspapers, dime novels have all shared his story, from the days when the bank and train robbing...
10 Treasured Firearms
I was recently asked which of my personal guns are my favorites. Of course there are many that I enjoy having for different reasons. Some I admire...
Cowboy Hat Etiquette
Before we get to the Boy’s Club Rules, Lynda A. Sánchez, a third-generation rancher, weighs in with her thoughts on how women have made manners...
Who Shot J.W.?
With cold, unblinking eyes, a well-dressed gentleman stared at J.W. Jarrott as he walked with his wife, Mollie, down the main street of Lubbock,...
The Encounter that Dooms Wild Bill
September 1865 George Ward Nichols and Gen. Thomas Church Haskell Smith, the inspector general of the District of Southwest Missouri, arrive in...
Locked And Loaded
Western history and fiction publishers have had an outstanding year across all genres and categories. With the growth in electronic and audio books,...
Vaqueros, Buckaroos & Cowboys
Blame it on Joseph McCoy. The entrepreneur turned Abilene, Kansas, into a cowtown, which made the Chisholm Trail synonymous with cowboys and the...