“¡No Tire en la Casa!”

“¡No Tire en la Casa!”

May 10, 1871 Tracking a party of rough hombres, Alameda County Sheriff Harry Morse and San Jose Deputy Theodore “Sam” Winchell approach a ranch house in California’s Saucelito Valley, near St. Mary’s Peak. Reining up outside a rock corral, they dismount and ask a...
Jack Swilling’s Arizona Adventures: Part II

Jack Swilling’s Arizona Adventures: Part II

For a brief time in early 1862 Confederate troops occupied what would soon become the Territory of Arizona. This was part of a grand Confederate plan to occupy New Mexico and open a path to California that would make the South an ocean to ocean power. The so-called...
The Wretched Newspaper War

The Wretched Newspaper War

A profit-making enterprise that ended up documenting history may make one’s stomach queasy—especially when a complete picture of how that happened is explored. An album of Wounded Knee photographs was both shocking in its hammer price ($22,000 at Cowan’s Auctions, on...
Pancho Villa Pt. III: The Fall of Pancho Villa

Pancho Villa Pt. III: The Fall of Pancho Villa

At one time Pancho Villa got an American film company from Hollywood to make a war movie from one of his battles.  He even offered to attack at a time of day when the light was best for the cameras.  A movie, called, The Life of General Villa, was made but failed at...
Big Iron On His Hip

Big Iron On His Hip

I met Marty Robbins in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at a National Cowboy Hall of Fame event in 1979. He was there to receive the Golden Trustee Award for his Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs album. I’d seen him perform a number of times in Arizona, but this time, I got...