A shotgun messenger in Old Montana left a great legacy of service and courage.
John X. Beidler
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Inside History
Battle for the Promised Land
Missourians weren’t exactly welcoming to an influx of Mormons.
Did She or Didn’t She?
The people who knew her, and the historians who love her, consider Madam Dora DuFran one of the most lucrative businesswomen in South Dakota. Her...
Seminole Scouts
These black scouts were descendants of runaways fleeing enslavement by whites. They sought refuge in Florida in the late 18th and early 19th...
The Militancy of the Miners
Mining was vital to the growth of the Old West—perhaps more so than even the cattle industry. It also led to violent class struggles between mine...
The Bullet, Not the Ballot Box
In 1840, it wasn’t politics as usual in Bellevue, Iowa Territory. Two well-armed sides decided that the ballot box wasn’t enough to finalize who...
The Big Fight
It takes something for an Old West shootout to be called “The Big Fight.” That’s the handle they stuck on a free-for-all in Tascosa, Texas, in the...
The Martyrdom of Mangas Coloradas
Mangas Coloradas was a great Apache chief, and he felt betrayed by the U.S. Settlers and miners had been taking over Apache land in the Southwest,...
Hit by a Volcano
E.E. Phelps and F.A. Tipple left Lance Graham for dead, covered in ashes, facedown in the snow. Carrying his 200-pound body down the hill would have...
The Death of the Man Who Killed the Man Who Killed Jesse James
Ed O’Kelley has his claim to fame. On June 8, 1892, he walked into a tent saloon in Creede, Colorado, and emptied two shotgun barrels into the neck...
The Black Father of Fort Worth
A black kid with a shining smile suddenly appeared in Colorado City, Texas, in 1886, hoping to make two bits a pop as a bootblack for blacking a...
A Thirst for Destruction
Carrie Amelia Moore, born in Kentucky on November 25, 1846, grew into a crusader who chopped her way to legend as Carrie Nation. In 1867, Carrie...