While the six-gun may have reigned as king of the silver screen West, in the real Old West, it was a different story. True, the handy six-shooter...
Rifle Packin’ in the Old West
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Features & Gunfights
Jerkwater Towns
One of our readers, Raymond Hill, asked me how railroaders got water up the water towers for trains traveling in the Old West, especially in the...
Jerkwater Towns
One of our readers, Raymond Hill, asked me how railroaders got water up the water towers for trains traveling in the Old West, especially in the...
The Rookie Rancher
Doc Holliday. Sam Bass. “Bear River” Tom Smith. And countless others. They found a haven in the West. A chance to change their lives. The...
Cowboy Mounted Shooting
The thunderous sound of pounding hooves and the staccato bursts of gunfire breaks the silence of the still air as the lone horseman smoothly guides...
The Rookie Rancher
Doc Holliday. Sam Bass. “Bear River” Tom Smith. And countless others. They found a haven in the West. A chance to change their lives. The...
Cowboy Mounted Shooting
The thunderous sound of pounding hooves and the staccato bursts of gunfire breaks the silence of the still air as the lone horseman smoothly guides...
Con Man’s Curse
Standing over six feet tall, the broad shouldered Josias M. “Si” Tanner stepped up to Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith on the night of July 8, 1898,...
Tombstone’s Flying Monster
One of the West’s most fascinating cold cases involves a flying monster, a dying town and a disappearing photograph. For decades, people have been...
Ship ’em Out
It was a situation that just asked for trouble. In late June 1917, several locals of the International Workers of the World (“Wobblies”)—led by Big...
The Many Faces of Billy the Kid
Some 126 years ago, a traveling photographer snapped a picture in the remote frontier community of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, that would become one of...
A Case for Murder
It's been called the Haywood Trial, after one of the defendants. Others have named it the Steunenberg Case in reference to the victim. Media...