It was the autumn of 1962, and we had just returned from a two-year duty tour in Taiwan. The Old Man had decided to retire from the U.S. Air Force,...
The Gift of Cochise
read more
Features & Gunfights
Rare Images of the West
“For many, the words ‘Wild West’ bring to mind the geography and lore of the trans-Mississippi United States during the late 1800s,” writes Michael...
So, Who was Dan Dedrick?
His real name was Daniel Charles Dietrich. Born of Pennsylvania Dutch stock in Indiana on January 25, 1847, he grew up near Plymouth, Kansas....
Tracking Roosevelt’s River Pirates
Theodore Roosevelt stood fuming at his Elkhorn Ranch on the west bank of the Little Missouri River in the Badlands of Dakota Territory. Thieves had...
The Holy Grail for Sale
The Billy the Kid tintype is on the auction block, and it might just clear half a million. Back in December 1880, New Mexico Territorial Gov. Lew...
Celebrating Buffalo Bill
Johnny Baker founded the Buffalo Bill Museum in 1921 near William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s grave on Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado. It was the...
No Davy? No Dylan
The Great Coonskin Cap craze of 1955 resulted in the Great Raccoon Shortage of 1955. In the absence of fresh pelts, desperate furriers remodeled...
Alamo’s New Defender
James Butler Bonham faced his moment of truth in the pre-dawn of March 6, 1836. He and a handful of Texians reportedly manned an elevated artillery...
Honor in Sacrifice
Death—that one great certainty of life—haunts us all. It terrifies us—like children fearful of the dark—all the while calling to us, fascinating us,...
Black Warriors of the West
In the wake of the Civil War the American West offered perceived opportunities for nearly every element of society. So it came to be that some...
“Old Timer” and “Friend Dixon”
"Yes, I knew Charlie Russell—though not too well. I have always regretted that I did not know him better,” Maynard Dixon told an aspiring biographer...
Custer & the War Between the States
Montana artist Edgar S. Paxson’s painting Custer’s Last Stand is a gripping depiction of the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn. Yet unknown to most...