true west blog
More than a Barkeep

More than a Barkeep

The movies portray Milt Joyce as your basic barkeep, a working owner of Tombstone’s Oriental Saloon.  And that’s just one small slice of this...

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Frontier Women

Frontier Women

“I felt a secret joy to have the power that set things straight.” Anonymous Women performed a labor more valuable than gold by pressing for schools,...

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The Gang Lawyer

The Gang Lawyer

Jason Brevoort Brown was an opportunist, a lawyer and politician in Indiana during the last half of the 19th century.  He represented the Jackson...

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Rattlesnake Bites

Rattlesnake Bites

It’s the time of year when rattlesnakes are more likely to hole up during the daytime and be active at night so I thought it best to share what to...

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Land Grabbers

Land Grabbers

By 1865, the Wilkison Reno family owned more land than anyone else in Jackson County, IN.  They got it the old fashioned way: crime. The acquired...

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Bisbee Queen of the Copper Camps

Bisbee Queen of the Copper Camps

In the spring of 1877 Sergeant Jack Dunn, a government scout from Fort Bowie, was winding his way down what later became known as Tombstone Canyon...

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The Night of Blood

The Night of Blood

The night of December 12, 1868, about 50 men hijacked a train from Seymour to New Albany, IN.  Once there, they took over the county jail (wounding...

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Lieutenant John Anthony Rucker

Lieutenant John Anthony Rucker

On December 2nd, 1876 a group of Bedonkohe Apache, probably led by Geronimo stole some horses near Camp Crittenden on Sonita Creek in southern...

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Doroteo Arango

Doroteo Arango

Doroteo Arango was born in the settlement of Rio Grande, in the Mexican state of Durango on June 5th, 1878. It is said that on the night of his...

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