The steam from the volcano diffused the dawn as the cattle drive reached the shoreline where the Pacific Ocean rolled into Kawaihae Bay. While some...
Hawaii’s Cowboy Tradition
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Features & Gunfights
Who Is Boley Brown?
Heading east on Highway 380 from Post, Texas, to the ghost town of Clairemont is a 45-minute drive through a wide open and sparsely populated...
A Lot of Work for Two Cents
Early in June 1880, census enumerator Charles M. Cantrell came to dwelling number 14 on his list in Davidson County, Tennessee. Cantrell wrote down...
A Mirror with a Memory
An Indian with his thick, long braids wrapped in otter fur stands beside an oil portrait of a woman and a baby. Who was this man? What had happened...
General Palmer’s Baby Railroad
In 1870, a former Union Army general named William Palmer supervised construction of the Kansas Pacific Railway into Denver, Colorado. The arrival...
Wanted Posters Fonts are Actually Egyptian?
Those “almost square-block serifs hanging for dear life onto needle-thin verticals” on Old West Wanted posters are actually so-called Egyptian fonts...
Trumpeting Elephants & Kicking Asses
On August 27, 1871, an arcing ax handle landed solidly on John Lemon’s head, plummeting him to the ground. The Doña Ana County politician and...
The Apaches Spoke, and Eve Ball Listened
Along Highway 380, in Lincoln County, New Mexico, stands a new historic marker, honoring Eve Ball for “saving oral histories certain to be lost...
Uncle Chick, Me and the Christmas Tree
The aging Chevrolet Carryall van turned off the Old Black Canyon Highway at Poland Junction between Mayer and Humboldt, Arizona, and began to follow...
The Last Link to the Little Bighorn
He is the one living connection to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, or Custer’s Last Stand if you prefer. He’s an old man now, 96 on October 27....
Vaquero in a Vacuum
I've heard it said countless times that if you can punch cows in Yavapai County, Arizona, you can punch cows anywhere. The rough, steep, brushy,...
The Vaquero: A World-Class Horseman
As an Old West fan you may have tried your hand at riding a horse; you might even consider yourself pretty proficient at it. Some of you can only...