On the Trail of Bigfoot

On the Trail of Bigfoot

True West asked me to track down Bigfoot. Huh? You mean the giant, hairy beast that they do the television documentaries about? What’s next—ancient aliens? (Oops. That’s the History Channel’s area of expertise). But no, my editor is talking about a different kind of...
Dead Is Better

Dead Is Better

Dead horses and dead men can be a hard sell in 2014, but not when it comes to a Charlie Russell painting. So says eminent Russell scholar Brian Dippie, who received the C.M. Russell Heritage Award from the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana, during its...
Treasures  of the Old West

Treasures of the Old West

When the Spanish explored the West, they discovered numerous ruins clinging to cliff sides and mountain tops. Today, many of these ancient Puebloan communities have been lost to the vagaries of time, human depredation and looting. Yet, many of these architectural and...
A Wild Western Zine

A Wild Western Zine

In the 1960s, James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland was such a runaway success, covering old and new Horror movies, the demand for another magazine was immediate. Drugstore racks were heavy with monsters for kids, but Warren wanted an...
The “Shoot Today, Kill Tomorrow” Gun

The “Shoot Today, Kill Tomorrow” Gun

During the June 1874 battle of Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle, where an estimated 700 Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne warriors attacked nearly 30 hide hunters, young hunter Billy Dixon made a remarkable 1,538-yard shot at a mounted Indian, from his borrowed Model...