Dallas County (TX) Deputy Sheriff Charles Nichols was the first Dallas area lawman to die in the line of duty. And his killer was famed then and...
Dallas Lawman Down
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true west blog
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...
Two Wyatts from Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda is one of the few actors to portray Wyatt Earp in two films—more or less. The first: My Darling Clementine in 1946. The second is...
Wyatt Earp Really Did Drag Johnny Tyler Out of the Oriental Saloon
Remember a scene in Tombstone where Wyatt Earp leads gambler Johnny Tyler out of the Oriental and into the street? Something like that really...
Hangtown Residents Demand a More Civilized Name
The town, about 45 miles northwest of Sacramento, CA, was originally called Dry Diggins when it was started in 1848—because there was no gold to be...
The Youngest Younger Kills a Dallas Lawman
Deputy Sheriff Charles Nichols has a dubious distinction—the first Dallas County (TX) lawman to die in the line of duty, back in January 1871. The...
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...
A Bond Sealed with a Shot in the Behind
Actors John Wayne and Ward Bond were compatriots for more than 30 years. Both played football at the University of Southern California. Both got...
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....
Drop ‘Em! Belts or No Belts?
In the movie Open Range, Boss (Robert Duval) and Charlie (Kevin Costner) rough up some bad guys. And just to humiliate them, Boss orders them to...