A popular misconception among some Old West re-enactors and wardrobe experts is that everyone wore their gunbelts high on their waists and that the...
Low Slung Guns: A Hollywood Invention?
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A Badman Gone Good
Fred Waite is notorious to history as a member of the Regulators, the group featuring Billy the Kid involved in the Lincoln County (NM) War. Waite...
Brother Vs. Brother
Old Schonchin was head chief of the Modoc, and he was responsible for moving the tribe to a reservation in southern Oregon in the mid-1860s. He...
Don’t Mess with the Rangers
Thomas Brooks picked the wrong guy to rob. April 24, 1896, near Dogtown in the Creek Nation. Brooks heard that a retired Texas Ranger had a stash of...
One More Killing
The Early-Hasley War was already over in the fall of 1869, having racked up a number of killings in Central Texas. But there was one more killing to...
Jim Miller’s Killin’ Kin
John Denson was one of the Clements family, cousins to John Wesley Hardin and an in- law of Jim Miller. John built up his own reputation as a tough...
The Father of Montana
Granville Stuart, who died 100 years ago this October, is one of the most remarkable men in the history of the West. Born in what’s now West...
The Man Called Teddy Blue
Edward Charles Abbott was born in England—but he became the prototypical American cowboy. His family moved to Texas when he was a boy; he later...
Fire in the Hole!
It was the worst mining disaster in Colorado’s history. April 22, 1917, at the town of Hastings, where the Victor American Fuel Company had been...
Don’t Look Back
It’s part of Wild Bill Hickok’s legend. The acting Ellis County (KS) sheriff was trying to corral Bill Mulvey, who was shooting up Hays City....
Don’t Take a Beer Mug to a Gunfight
Sam Strawhun and his pals had been wreaking havoc on John Bitter’s Saloon in Hays City, KS, early in the morning of September 27, 1869. Ellis...
A Not So Heroic End
John Kile was a hero who came to a bad end. As a corporal in the 5th Cavalry, Kile won the Congressional Medal of Honor. In July 1869, he and two...