Lyndon B. Johnson compared going to Vietnam’s aid to coming to the aid of the defenders at the Alamo. Leonid Brezhnev derided Ronald Reagan as a...
The Last Cowboy President?
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Features & Gunfights
Camera in the Cow Camps
At the turn of the 20th century, a young cowboy obsessed over how he could best preserve true cowboy culture. Erwin Evans Smith, born in 1886,...
Was He a Hero?
How did Buffalo Bill Cody survive the ravages of time? He has a prestigious historical center in Cody, Wyoming, named in his honor and is the theme...
True Texas Cowboys
As a teen in the 1880s, my great-grandfather Tolbert Alexander Burford worked as a wrangler and cowboy during the end of the great cattle drives. In...
The 20-Mule Team’s Miracle Mineral
The year was 1883, and muleskinners were earning more than college graduates ($120 per month). It was hard-earned money, fraught with danger both...
Was Pat Garrett Killed Over Illegal Aliens?
A two-year-old boy loses his father in 1908—his very famous father, Pat Garrett, responsible for killing the notorious Billy the Kid. When Jarvis...
Pigskin Warriors
Ben American Horse eyed his white opponents, ranged across the field of battle on a cool day in November 1894. They were better equipped, more...
Charles Lummis’s Coast to Coast Journey
The 26 year old’s decision to walk across the West seemed pure folly to some: “What a picnic those fellows out in the plains will have with the seat...
Will Carver Checks Out
He was supposed to be taking just a little trip to Sonora, Texas, on a cool April night in 1901. He planned to check out the bank, map the best...
A Gambler’s Fifth Ace
"You gonna pull those pistols or whistle ‘Dixie?’” Clint Eastwood’s gunslinger famously brushed off a group of Union soldiers with those sneering...
Saving America’s First True Horse
Don Juan kept his little band of mares in the pine forest at the edge of a pond. He was alert but unconcerned. Life was good for the stallion....
A Race to End All Races
The red dust of the Arabian Desert might have settled and cleared after Hidalgo’s epic cinematic ride in the well-done 2004 movie, but it’s nothing...