When former Sen. Fred Thompson took the floor of Congress in October 2002 and declared Sheb Wooley to be an official “American treasure,” Wooley was...
Screamin’ Sheb
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True Westerners
Harvey Girls
They’ve been dismissed as “just waitresses,” suggesting they weren’t at all important in the history of the Old West. But that ignores what the...
The Most Dangerous Girl in Mexico
They called her the “Saint of Cabora” and “Queen of the Yaquis.” Some saw her as the Mexican Joan of Arc. A dictator thought her “the most dangerous...
Matriarch of the “Nudie Suit”
She was the original Rhinestone Cowgirl—a lady who believed “it is always better to be looked over, than to be overlooked.” And she held onto that...
Dude! Where’s My Ranch?
Teddy Roosevelt knew what he was talking about. To appreciate properly his fine, manly qualities, the wild rough-rider of the plains should be seen...
From Homesteaders to Wolfers
For 50 years, almost nobody remembered Evelyn Cameron or what she'd done in the territorial days of early Montana. Her name wasn’t in history books...
Phileas Fogg, Eat My Dust!
Female journalists were a novelty in the late 1800s. The noisy, smoky newsroom was hardly the place for a gentle sex whose “sphere” was the home and...
Mail-Order Brides
One emotion permeated the United States in the second half of the 19th century. It wasn’t greed for gold or lust for land—it was loneliness. The...
The First Ronstadt Superstar
She grew up in Tucson, Arizona, was the first Ronstadt superstar and is remembered for her album, My Father’s Songs. But this isn’t a story about...
Voice for Freedom
She was one of the guiding lights of Arizona literature, the territory’s first female office holder and she helped cinch Arizona’s statehood. But...
Uncrowned Heroine, Among Great Men
America’s first female explorer was a teenager and new mother who carried her infant on her back as she walked across half the country. She was a...
Picked to “Carry A. Nation”
She so believed the Lord picked her to “Carry A. Nation” into Prohibition, this ax-wielding, saloon-destroyer changed the spelling of her first...