In 2017, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas towns are celebrating the sesquicentennial of the first cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail—from South Texas,...
Beeves, Barons, and Barbed Wire
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Western Books & Movies
I Killed John Wayne
Who would’ve guessed that, in the last decade of his life, a lung lost to cancer, John “Duke” Wayne would star in a dozen films, three of...
Building Your Western Library with Blaine Lamb
Blaine Lamb has long been fascinated by all forms of transportation, but has a soft spot in his heart for railroads. This may be because his great...
Western Adventure
Lee Martins’ The Last Wild Ride (CreateSpace, $7.35) tells the story of Sam Jefferies, a rugged cowboy carrying a death wish until he is asked to...
In Theaters: The Hero
Lee Hayden (played by Sam Elliott), once a Western movie icon, now uses his golden voice to narrate barbecue-sauce ads. He receives bad news and...
Keeping Movies Alive
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was among the first. Dr. Rennard Strickland found the movie poster for the 1962 John Ford classic, “Together for...
The Screen’s Greatest Horse Stuntman
The most memorable action sequence in Stagecoach comes near the end of the 1939 film. Shortly after the river crossing, the passengers expect a...
‘Never Take No Cutoffs’
Roman slave and poet-playwright Terence famously wrote in his 163 B.C. play Heauton Timorumenos, “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto,” or “I...
Slim Pickens
Show me a magazine cover with a pretty girl, a baby or a dog...and I’ll show you a magazine that sells,” publishing legend William Randolph Hearst...
High Times in the Bitterroots
When the Bitterroot Mountains exploded in wildfires in 1910, Buffalo Soldiers from the 25th Infantry helped evacuate the town of Wallace, Idaho. The...
Building Your Western Library: Preston Lewis
Midland, Texas, native Preston Lewis has spent much of his life working and writing in his beloved West Texas. During his award-winning four-decade...
Kill or Be Killed
Since Owen Wister published The Virginian in 1902 and Zane Grey published The Last of the Plainsman in 1908, Western authors have mined the West’s...