Grande Dames of the West

Grande Dames of the West

In May 1888, a host of well-dressed and polished guests crowded into the fashionable lobby of the Windsor Hotel in St. Helena, California, to catch a glimpse of actress Lillie Langtry.  When the stunning thespian arrived on the scene, lodgers and staff rose to their...
The Ordeal of Larcena Pennington

The Ordeal of Larcena Pennington

Southeastern Arizona was contested ground. The few Americans who dared its dangers called the region the “Purchase,” after the 1854 Gadsden Purchase from Mexico that had added the Mesilla Valley and the land south of Arizona’s Gila River down to the 31st degree of...
Sinful Chocolate

Sinful Chocolate

Water and crackers are all that sustained Ignace Wagner for a week when he arrived in San Francisco, California, in 1852. He borrowed some money and then headed to the American River to mine. He struck it rich in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, making more than $5,500....
Cowboys & Millionaires

Cowboys & Millionaires

The Rough Riders were already the most famous outfit in the U.S. Army, but when the first contingents arrived at the “International” fairgrounds in San Antonio, Texas, in May 1898, the regiment’s headquarters and camp, they found they had no uniforms, no weapons, no...
Let ’er Buck

Let ’er Buck

Pendleton, Oregon, got its start in 1862 when Moses Goodwin traded a span of mules for land and built a bridge over the Umatilla River. It became a crossing on the Oregon Trail, a portion of which runs along today’s Main Street. By 1900, the town was the state’s...