In the spring of 1892, members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association created a hit list and then imported twenty-two rough and ready Texans to...
Lieutenant Charles Gatewood and the Johnson County War
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true west blog
A Man Alone?
The story goes that Wyatt Earp single-handedly protected Michael O’Rourke—aka Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce—from a Tombstone lynch mob in January 1881....
The Lawman on the Lam
Ben Sippy was Tombstone marshal for only eight months—November 1880 thru June 1881. But he made his mark, and not in a good way. Sippy—who’d...
The Other Schieffelin
Al Schieffelin is not nearly as well-known as his older brother Ed—the man who founded Tombstone. But Al made his own mark on “The Town Too Tough...
Jack Swilling: Arizona’s Forrest Gump
Jack Swilling might well be called Arizona’s “Forrest Gump” because seems to have had a penchant for being involved in a number of historic events...
Jeff Kidder
The dawning of the 20th century brought little improvement to the notorious reputation Arizona had earned during the tumultuous years of outlawry...
Low Slung Guns: A Hollywood Invention?
A popular misconception among some Old West re-enactors and wardrobe experts is that everyone wore their gunbelts high on their waists and that the...
Was Butch Cassidy a Master Train Robber?
Butch Cassidy’s folk hero image actually exceeded his outlawry. In 1898, a Chicago newspaper referred to him as the “King of the Bandits,” and the...
Brother Vs. Brother
Old Schonchin was head chief of the Modoc, and he was responsible for moving the tribe to a reservation in southern Oregon in the mid-1860s. He...
Boot Camp or Basic Training
Recently, I received a question from a TW reader who wanted to know if during the 1800s the military had some kind of a boot camp for new recruits...
Peaches or Tso-ay
Prior to his stint as an Army scout Peaches rode with Chatto, Bonito and Chihuahua on a raid in March 1883, that killed twenty-six settlers that...
Don’t Mess with the Rangers
Thomas Brooks picked the wrong guy to rob. April 24, 1896, near Dogtown in the Creek Nation. Brooks heard that a retired Texas Ranger had a stash of...