Kit Carson: Larger-Than-Life American Hero
At the age of sixteen, Carson ran away from his job as an apprentice at a saddlery in Missouri and joined a party of traders heading down the Santa Fe Trail. By 1831, under the tutelage of the famed mountain man, Ewing Young, Carson was a first-class free trapper with...
Miles City, Montana
Miles City was primed for the Fourth of July. The fledgling town in eastern Montana Territory celebrated with music from Fort Keogh’s Fifth Infantry Band. The soldiers and townies enjoyed foot races, fireworks, speeches and a baseball game. The Miles City nine...
Education in Early Arizona
The three R’s, readin’, writin’, and ’rithmetic, like many other cultural conveniences, were late arriving on the Arizona frontier. The first territorial legislature in 1864 provided for a system of public schools but levied no school taxes. Two hundred and fifty...
The 1873 Trapdoor Springfield—One Model, Many Changes
Despite the prominence of repeating rifles of the late 19th century, the U.S. Cavalry largely relied on this single-shot carbine to bring an end to the Indian Wars. The U.S. Army of the 19th-century West faced challenges that made frontier warfare...
True West March/April 2025
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