By the mid 1880’s two transcontinental railroads crossed Arizona. The Santa Fe rolled across the northern part of the territory along the 35th...
The Day the Train Rolled into Phoenix
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Marshall Trimble
The Day the Steel Rails Reached Tucson
The building of the transcontinental railroad along the 32nd Parallel was a major milestone in Arizona history. Up to then the main means of...
Is Tombstone home to two Boothills?
Is Tombstone home to two Boothills? Michael C. Westlund — Clarkdale, Arizona Boothill—originally called the Tombstone Cemetery—was the final resting...
Arizona Charlie
Arizona is the home today of many famous people but its first superstar was a rodeo cowboy and Wild West performer named “Arizona Charlie.” He was...
Roy Daugherty aka Arkansas Tom Jones
Oklahoma and the Indian Territory provided some of the West’s wildest history including one of its deadliest gunfights. The battle occurred on...
Red Jack Almer
On August 10th, 1883 the Florence-Globe Stagecoach was robbed about two miles from the remote Riverside Station on the Gila River by the Red Jack...
The Leg I Left Behind Me Part 2
Santa Anna’s eccentricity was only exceeded by his greed and extravagance. He outfitted his own private army, gave an endless round of celebrations,...
The Leg I Left Behind Me Part I
The Girl I Left Behind Me, a long-standing popular folk tune and song, comes from Dublin, Ireland and is dated by most authorities to the late 18th...
Dutchman’s Gold
Lost gold mines are among our greatest natural resources--they don't pollute the sky with columns of acrid smoke; or collect garbage, befoul...
The Belles of San Francisco
During the early days California’s gold rush, women were a distinct minority, outnumbered about twenty to one. In San Francisco in 1849 it was...
Courtship and Marriage in the Territories
One might say Asa Mercer was a "marriage arranger." In 1861 he became a founding father and first president of the University of Washington. He was...
Pioneer Women in the West
Back in the 1960s I used to perform the old folk song, “Waggoner’s Lad.” The first line went like this: “Hard luck is the fortune of all womankind....