It was the most famous stroll in American history. Neither fast nor slow. Purposeful, with a sense of intimidation. It has been memorialized on film...
The Walk Down
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The ‘Perfesser’
True West’s staff recently received news from Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D., that his father, Richard H. Dillon, renowned, award-winning Western...
Roses So Sweet They Remember
Arizona has found a particularly sweet way to commemorate its pioneer women—the Territorial Women's Rose Garden at the Sharlot Hall Museum in...
Raining Bricks and Shooting Citizens
In 1906, San Francisco, was one of the jewels of the American West. The California boomtown of the 1850s had grown into the ninth largest city in...
Mountain Charley
Ever wondered how hard it was to be a woman in the Old West? Just ask Mountain Charley. Or should we say, Elsa Jane, a teenaged widow with two...
A Photo has Always Been Worth a Thousand Words
A photo has always been worth a thousand words and that is perhaps no where more pertinent than in the Old West. We have but a few images of some...
Preserving Polygamy
Preserving Polygamy became a women's campaign in the late 1800s—a point that will surprise many, who assumed women hated the plural-wife dictate of...
Their Name Lives On
It started with one Pima basket, bought in the late 1890s somewhere around Phoenix, Arizona. Newcomers to the Southwest—health seekers—found the...
The First Woman to “Despise” Polygamy
The first woman to “despise” polygamy was Emma Smith—the first wife of Mormon founder Joseph Smith. Historians note she never believed it was a...
John Bozeman’s Legacy
John Bozeman did a lot in his short life—and left a legacy that carries his name today. He was just 25 when he hit the Montana gold fields in 1862....
Gambling with Men’s Lives
By 1848, John C. Frémont was a national hero. He had led three expeditions into the Great American Desert, and his maps opened the frontier West to...
A River of Life
In Patrick Dearen’s Bitter Waters: The Struggles of the Pecos River (University of Oklahoma Press, $29.95), the author documents the many challenges...