His real name was Daniel Charles Dietrich. Born of Pennsylvania Dutch stock in Indiana on January 25, 1847, he grew up near Plymouth, Kansas....
So, Who was Dan Dedrick?
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Features & Gunfights
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...
Saving the Wrong Guys
Many classic Westerns feature the timeworn device of the last-minute cavalry rescue. The baddies are Indians, besieging a wagon train or surrounding...
Saving the Wrong Guys
Many classic Westerns feature the timeworn device of the last-minute cavalry rescue. The baddies are Indians, besieging a wagon train or surrounding...