Anyone who can write about mining towns and mountain men with the same passion he puts into tales of the California gold rush or early Oregon must...
The Quiet Montanan
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Western Books & Movies
The Hole-In-The-Wall Nickelodeon
The Hole-in-the-Wall filmography includes the original, the prequels, the sequels and the non sequiturs. •Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969):...
A Writer Who Speaks for the Dead
You have to relish a writer who describes Benjamin Franklin as an 18th-century Groucho Marx. Lucia St. Clair Robson is not only one of America’s...
Frontier House
Could a 21st-century family survive in 1883 Montana? That’s the question PBS tried to answer in its excellent six-hour Frontier House, a WNET...
He’s Hung Up His Gun and Badge but James Arness is Still the Marshal
Since 1955, he has towered above all Western lawmen—at least those on television. That’s not just because James Arness, better known as Marshal...
Mike Blakely
Roping, riding and writing—that’s a typical day for Mike Blakely, one of the fastest rising stars in Western fiction. Lately the fourth “R,”...
King of Texas
In the new TNT Western movie King of Texas, rancher John Lear has an ego about as big as the newly formed Republic of Texas. He tells his three...
The Alamo In the Movies
To say that Alamo movies are historically inaccurate is a bit like saying that Godzilla is a tad green and scaly. Most filmmakers couldn’t care less...
MERLIN FOUGHT THE BATTLE OF ‘JERICHO’ and the distribution walls don’t come tumblin’ down
This year’s American Outlaws turned out to be as big a blunder as the James-Younger gang’s Northfield, Minnesota bank robbery. The film’s wretched...
Real To Reel
It’s possible that Doc Holliday never made a house call, yet there are few Americans who don’t know him. In fact, it’s doubtful that anyone since...
Joseph Rosa
Joseph G. Rosa has spent over 40 years researching the truths, myths and legends of Wild Bill Hickok. He has produced five books on the subject,...