In September 1878, Chief Dull Knife and his band of Northern Cheyenne left the reservation in the Indian Territory, headed for their ancestral lands...
The Siege of Flagstaff
One of those Post-Indian Wars gunfights, almost lost in history occurred in northern Arizona on November 11th, 1899, eight years after Wounded Knee....
Bragging Rights for a Badman
Andy Blevins—alias Andy Cooper—was a Texas hardcase who specialized in rustling cattle. But things got too hot for Andy, his father and brothers so...
The Folk Bandit
Western outlaws were the product of a lawless and violent era during the post-Civil War days and the lust for land and gold. They their infancy...
Riding the Prescott-Santa Fe Stage
I’ve solved one Old West mystery. You want to know why the Star Line Transportation Company, a k a the Prescott-Santa Fe stage line, only lasted...
Gun Notches for Rawhide Jake
Jonas V. Brighton—aka Rawhide Jake—is best known to history for killing Ike Clanton in 1887 as the outlaw tried to escape arrest. But Brighton had a...
Ike Clanton finally meets his Waterloo
Ike and Fin Clanton, who had survived the Cochise County War against Wyatt Earp and his brothers five years earlier, had moved their operations to...
A Broken Nose, A Broken Life
John Fletcher Fairchild’s lawman career ended because of a punch in the nose. Seriously. Family lore says Wyatt Earp broke Fairchild’s nose in a...
Johnny Ringo or Johann Rheingold
Recently, I received a letter from a gentleman in Germany asking if Johnny Ringo’s name was actually Johann Rheingold, the son of a German settler....
Burt’s Bad Boys
Arizona had its share of zany occurrences but none can top the Burt Alvord Gang from Willcox. Burt was a big, burly good ol’ boy whose major...
No Luck for Comstock
Henry Comstock gave his name to the biggest silver strike in US history, the Comstock Lode of Nevada. In one sense he was lucky. Two brothers...
Fact Vs. Fiction: The Truth about the Calamitous Martha Jane Canary
Recently I was scrolling through my photo files and ran across a photo of Miss Doris Day from her 1953 musical hit, Calamity Jane and thus inspired,...