The genre helped define the myth of the Old West. In 1860, the publishers Erastus and Irwin Beadle released a new series of cheap...
The Birth of the Dime Novel
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old west
The Big Shoes of Bucky O’Neill
A true Old West/Arizona legend. Buckey O’Neill is an Arizona legend. He arrived at age 19 in 1879, becoming a lawman in Phoenix, Prescott and...
Big Boots to Fill
None was bigger than Bob Paul. No lawman in the Old West was taller than Bob Paul. He stood 6'6" and weighed 246, broad shoulders and massive chest....
Doc Holliday, Reward Money and Fast-Draw
After a gunfight or Indian attack, what happened to the weapons of the fallen? Edward Presken - Mobile, Alabama To the victor go the spoils. If...
What’s in a Name?
Some colorful monikers of the Old West. Early Arizona mining towns were graced with a number of colorful characters with whimsical nicknames. There...
The Wild, Wild West
Combining Old West history with an old-fashioned Western road trip guarantees the making of memories of a lifetime. Everyone remembers their...
Best of the West: Western Fare
Come and Get It! Historic Western-style restaurants, saloons and dinner shows keep the Old West alive. Across the West, from small towns to big...
Pioneer Pets
Dogs and cats are as Western as six-guns and Stetsons—and a lot more lovable. In the Old West, dogs were common—and necessary. Cats, not at first,...
Outlawry and Justice
I recently received this question: Who is my favorite or most interesting Old West character? I’ve found the more I read about somebody the more...
A Moving Target
When I was a kid, the Old West was 50 years in the rearview, and today my youth is 50 years in the rearview—and—to be honest, more like 60! Yikes!...
Doc Hits Bottom (but not much else)
Doc Holliday vs Billy Allen “Doc Holliday is ten feet tall and weighs a ton.” —The Arizona Daily Star August 19, 1884 Broke, sick and usually...
In the Lens of History
A century ago, the state of Montana was still one of the youngest states. The Rocky Mountain and Great Plains state received its star on Old...