Jim Hatzell

Jim Hatzell

The Artist Ride is going stronger than ever after 26 years. It is held once a year at the Shearer Ranch, 20 miles north of Wall, South Dakota. About 150 authentic Old West models provide scrap for the artists. The ride is so popular that we now have to set limits on...
Fort Pierre, South Dakota

Fort Pierre, South Dakota

Bone-chilling cold held Fort Pierre, South Dakota, in its icy grip the evening of January 27, 2010, as six men met in the city’s cozy Log Cabin Information Center. I don’t live in Fort Pierre, but in Pierre, its neighbor across the Missouri River, so I invited experts...
Fifty Years After The Alamo

Fifty Years After The Alamo

Just how or why John Wayne first came upon the idea of making a movie about the Alamo is possibly the only mystery remaining in a movie that has been examined and covered from every imaginable angle during the past 50 years since its premiere. Long before a single...
Top 10 Western Museums of 2010

Top 10 Western Museums of 2010

I hadn’t seen lines like this since I tried to get into a bookstore in Dallas, Texas, where actor Jimmy Stewart was autographing copies of his book of poetry. That was like trying to get into a Dallas Cowboys home playoff game. On May 24-25, 2009, when the New Mexico...
Have Gun, Will Travel: Season 4, Volume 1

Have Gun, Will Travel: Season 4, Volume 1

On a dark and stormy night, sheets of rain pounded the window of Paladin’s suite in San Francisco’s swank Hotel Carlton. Inside, the soldier-of-fortune Paladin (Richard Boone) entertained a beautiful and mysterious blonde, who was stretched out on his Victorian...