The 1800s are notable for its fascination with exhibits and strange things. And it didn't lack promoters or hucksters who would take anyone's...
Strange Amusements
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Tom Horn Holds His Head High
The popular image of convicted assassin Tom Horn is of a man who met his fate with courage. Up to and including the time he was hanged on November...
Sheriff With a Deadly Addiction
Francis Joseph Wattron, born February 5, 1861, in Hermann, Missouri, was a small boy when the town’s alarm bells signaled an accident at Stone Hill...
A Bad Call on the Telephone
Sometimes when you're the biggest king on the hill, it's hard to see new kids climbing the slopes, and that's exactly what happened to Western Union...
Lady of the Law
I’m of the opinion that, even in today’s society, the women of the frontier are not given all of the credit that is their just due. Wilting violets,...
Spring is in the Air
What do Tombstone, the Pony Express, an “anti-dude” club and Jesse James have in common? All made history during the month of April. For Tombstone,...
Chicken as Tender as a Maiden’s Heart
If you asked miners what they ate as they dug for the silver and gold and copper of Arizona Territory, they'd shrug and say: “The usual 3-B's:...
Shavetail
Shavetail The 17th century term “Lingo” was rooted in lingua, Latin for “tongue.” One of its definitions—“the vocabulary of a special subject or...
Who Really “Tamed” The West?
History has lots of candidates, from trappers to explorers to miners, military men, ranchers, homesteaders, even gunslingers. But you seldom hear...
The Luckiest Woman in America
THE LUCKIEST WOMAN IN AMERICA: That title has to go to a woman born a slave in a Mississippi plantation on August 15, 1818, and freed “forever” by a...
Guns, Indians and the West
In his scholarly study, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,...
Love The Hair, Sweetie
Just like clothes, hairstyles have their day. Just look at any old picture—even one of yourself—and laugh at how your hair has changed over your...