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...
The First Woman to “Despise” Polygamy
read more
Uncategorized
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...
Yellowstone’s Early Explorer
Charles W. Cook participated in several important episodes of Montana’s frontier history, but sometimes his accomplishments seem destined to remain...
Lost in the Wilderness
In 1870, descriptions of the natural wonders from the Yellowstone area were often seen as fantasy. Truman C. Everts, age 54, joined the Washburn...
Crossroads of the West
Fort Kearny, the first U.S. Army post on the Oregon Trail, was a busy place after its founding in 1848. During one 18-month period following the...
August, the Dirty Low-Down Month
That's how Wild Bill Hickok would have described it in 1876, if he'd lived to tell the tale. The month actually started out very profitably for the...
A Defiant Outlaw-Hero Ballad
You know you’re in Texas when a pair of ski-masked men rob a crowded bank and nearly every customer pulls a gun and opens fire. The impromptu posse...
T.J. Stiles
Rural Minnesota native and Carleton College alumnus T.J. Stiles moved to New York City to attend graduate school at Columbia University in 1986. New...
Outrunning the Apaches
In the Arizona wilderness of 1881, 20-year-old courier Frederick Russell Burnham knew that the assignment from Neil McLeod, one of Tombstone’s many...
Tales of a Legendary Western Life
J.P.S. Brown writes books about the true life of the cowboy, not the saloon and bodice tales that so enthrall other practitioners of the genre. His...