May 27, 1837: A son, James Butler, the fifth child was born to William Alonzo and Polly Butler Hickok of Homer (later Troy Grove), Illinois. 1856:...
On the Trail of Wild Bill Hickok
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Renegade Roads
On the Trail of Wild Bill Hickok
May 27, 1837: A son, James Butler, the fifth child was born to William Alonzo and Polly Butler Hickok of Homer (later Troy Grove), Illinois. 1856:...
Forging a Road to Zion
In 1847, Brigham Young, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized a pioneer party and struck out west from the...
Gettin’ Along on the Texas/Chisholm Trail
Jesse Chisholm was no cattleman, and the trail he blazed didn’t enter Texas but stretched from the Red River in present-day Oklahoma to Wichita,...
Ancient Pueblo Culture Comes Alive
A tourist at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado isn’t impressed. Isn’t impressed by the torched scenery. Isn’t impressed by the history. “I was...
A River Runs Through History
What was Juan de Oñate thinking when he named the Rio Grande in 1598? Great River? Criminy, at some places it’s not even a mediocre ditch. Explorers...
Following Cherokee Tracks
I first saw the Cherokee Trail when I was a little girl. One branch of it crossed my family’s ranch near Encampment, Wyoming, and when we were at...
Where’s the Beef?
The cowboys, longhorns and chuck wagon on the bluff two miles south of Caldwell, Kansas, aren’t making any progress. Since 1995, this trail herd has...
Moving Along the Santa Fe Trail
"Far away from my wife and child, and six hundred miles of constant danger in an uninhabited region was not a pleasant prospect for contemplation,”...
Arizona’s Cowboy and Indian Trail
If you had journeyed through Southern Arizona back in the 1880s, you wouldn’t have found the place nearly as hospitable as it is today. Restless...
Oregon Trail: Independence, Missouri, to Scotts Bluff, Nebraska
Hopeful faces turned westward more than 150 years ago as the greatest pioneer movement in history began along the Oregon Trail. Although the people...
The Oregon Trail
Day after day, week after week, we went through the same weary routine of breaking camp at daybreak, yoking the oxen, cooking our meagre rations...