William Blake was better known by the handle “Tulsa Jack.” The cowboy went to the dark side in 1892 when he joined Bill Doolin’s gang. Over the...
Tulsa Jack
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true west blog
Jim Parker’s Last Night
This much is known: Jim Parker was hanged in Prescott, AZ on June 3, 1898, for the murder of Assistant District Attorney Lee Norris during a...
The Canoa Land Grant Ranch
The San Ignacio de la Canoa land grant is one of the oldest and most interesting in Arizona. The Canoa, located south of Tucson in the fertile...
Clay O’Brien Cooper
John Wayne thought Clay O’Brien Cooper was too small to play one of The Cowboys—until the pint-sized nine-year-old lassoed and dumped him on the...
The Lost Dutchman Mine
Lost gold mines are among our greatest natural resources; they don’t pollute the sky with columns of acrid smoke, befoul streams, or scar delicate...
The Hateful Eight Collateral Damage
In the 2015 Quentin Tarantino Western The Hateful Eight, the character of Daisy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) plays an authentic, 1870s guitar borrowed...
Tom Horn’s Fatal Mistake?
Tom Horn was hanged for the murder of teenage Willie Nickell. The theory: Horn mistook the boy for his father, Kels. Kels Nickell was a hot-headed...
Frontier Odometers
In a diary from an emigrant crossing to the California gold fields in 1849. "Life on the Plains and at the Diggins," by Alonzo Delano. He is very...
The Jackass Mail
In 1849 it took 166 days to travel coast to coast. By the 1860’s you could do it in 60 days. A decade later a train could make the trip in 11 days....
The Dodge City War
What became known as the “Dodge City War” began when Luke Short returned to Dodge in April, 1881 and went to work at the Long Branch Saloon. Two...
W.H.H. Llewellyn
W.H.H. Llewellyn was a major player in the West. In the late 1870s, he tracked down rustler Doc Middleton and his gang in Nebraska, Wyoming and the...
“Quick Shot” Scott Davis
They nicknamed Scott Davis “Quick Shot” because of his skill with weapons—especially over the 15 years he rode shotgun on stages in the Dakotas and...