The Gipper’s Boots and Saddles

The Gipper’s Boots and Saddles

Sportscaster Ronald Reagan signed onto a whole new game when the 24 year old joined the 14th Cavalry (stationed in Des Moines, Iowa), which coaxed the future president’s horsemanship skills. Reagan’s cavalry days have inspired the finest display of its kind that this...
Victorio’s Right Hand

Victorio’s Right Hand

“The stories of Geronimo, Crazy Horse, and Custer pale beside the tale of another warrior—one who fought relentlessly, successfully and against all odds almost continuously for forty years…. But you’ve probably never heard of her.” That’s how Arizona author and...
Band of Brothers Broken

Band of Brothers Broken

In the midst of a prisoner exchange negotiation, two men enter William Clarke Quantrill’s camp, four miles northeast of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, about three miles east of Little Blue River, on August 28, 1862. They have come to deliver a recent issue of the Missouri...
Come and Take It

Come and Take It

Crockett … Travis … Houston … Bowie. … The Texas Independence Trail is about icons, so it’s only fitting that the first tombstone I notice at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin belongs to one of the Lone Star State’s biggest legends. Sure, I’m...
Handcarts and Heartaches

Handcarts and Heartaches

“Brethren and sisters, what I have said, I know to be true.” Levi Savage was a lone voice that hot August morning in 1856 as he graphically warned 500 of his fellow Latter-day Saints about the hazards of continuing their journey to the Mormon mecca of Salt Lake...