Fifty years ago this month, Rio Bravo premiered as director Howard Hawks’s answer to director Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon. Not buying into the theme...
50th Anniversary of Rio Bravo
read more
Boggs Unleashed
Election Report
America swears in her 44th president on January 20. In the spirit of change, scandal, reconciliation, hope, pork-barrel spending, phone solicitors,...
Worst Turkeys of the West
Writing about Western history as a not-by-a-damn-sight Robert Utley, traveling across the West as a not-by-a-damn-sight Candy Moulton, absorbing...
Wyatt & Witches & Pixies, Oh My!
Wyatt Earp was a fairy. Don’t aim your pistols at me. I’m not outing anybody. Neither is Emma Bull. Okay, Wyatt’s not really a fairy. A fairy, in...
Monument Valley’s 50th
It’s quiet. Too quiet. At any moment, I know—I can feel it—that I’m about to be attacked by a tribe of plein air painters! Oops. There goes that...
Run Out of Town On a Rail
A Western romance comes to life while I ride on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief. I feel its authenticity—from the close-up scenery speeding past the window...
Dodge City’s All-Stars
The formation of the Dodge City Peace Commission took place 125 years ago this June, so I’m wondering, “Why all the hoopla?” Okay, so there isn’t a...
Why Does Everyone Love Louis…
So here I sit, hawking my novels at a book signing, and this old gentleman's stopping by to tell me this story. I know immediately he's not...
Top 10 Things to Do in El Paso
The editors thought I was joking when I pitched this idea. “Ten things to do in El Paso? What’s No. 1? Leave?” Actually, that’s No. 5, but I’m...
Can’t Kick the Boot Addiction
Hello, my name’s Johnny (yes, Johnny; it’s on my birth certificate), and I’m an addict. Not booze, gambling or anything illegal. But it is a serious...
The Good, the Bad at the O.K. Corral
The last shot fired at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was the deadliest. Martha Knight pulled the trigger. We boys stood in the playground, pumped...
More Bucks and Other Changes
Peanut shells litter the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo’s “green room.” A minister prays with a young cowboy, preparing him for his bull...