Duane A. Smith, Colorado’s foremost historian, particularly in the mining history of the state, produces two great gems. In San Juan Legacy: Life in...
Colorado Mining History
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Western Books & Movies
The Outlaw Billy Stiles
In The Outlaw Billy Stiles, John Koblas writes with a good handle on history as well as a sharp sense of humor. In this Western spoof, Koblas...
The Overland Diaries of Washington Peck
When my grandfather gave me Washington Peck’s 1858 wagon trail diary, I felt very honored, but then I realized that it came with a responsibility:...
Overnight Success When Hauling
Overnight Success When Hauling Cross-Country With the shooting horse season heading into full swing, the open road beckons us with cross country...
Fort Laramie: Military Bastion of the High Plains
Douglas McChristian spent more than two decades as a National Park Service historian and administrator, and he has shared his knowledge in a number...
The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army in the West, 1783-1900
Noted researcher/writer Robert Wooster reaches some of those same conclusions in The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army in the...
Class and Race in the Frontier Army: Military Life in the West, 1870-1890
Kent State historian Kevin Adams’s Class and Race in the Frontier Army: Military Life in the West, 1870-1890 is somewhat mistitled. Almost all of...
A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn—the Last Great Battle of the American West
Speaking of standards, James Donovan’s 2008 effort on the most famous Indian fight in U.S. history is one. If you missed his A Terrible Glory:...
How Hollywood Saved the Durango & Silverton
Everyone’s heard the iconic children’s tale about the “little engine that could.” But few realize a real-life version exists. Call it the “movie...
Custer Survivor
CUSTER SURVIVOR: Sergeant August Finckle, Company C, 7th Cavalry, died at the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876—or didn’t, if his real name was Frank...
The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History
Back in 1992, Fred Nolan produced one of the standards of Western history. The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History was the most complete look...
Yahsi Bati
Cem Yilmaz is a major celebrity in Turkey, where he writes and acts in comedies that are apparently similar to Mel Brooks’s. (His Science Fiction...