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Arizona’s Quirky Diagonal Border
The reason Arizona doesn’t have a seaport on the Sea of Cortez is a persistent legend that just won’t go away. Looking at a map one sees a line heading west from Nogales that by rights should head...
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Did Remington Capture Clanton’s Last Breath?
“Cow-Boys of Arizona—Roused by a Scout” appeared in Harper’s Weekly based on an original drawing by Frederic Remington, in collaboration with William Allen Rogers.– Published in Harper’s Weekly,...
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Cold-Blooded Roommates
In the fall of 1880, Doc Holliday shared a room in Prescott with John J. Gosper, the acting governor of Arizona. Historians want to know how Holliday, the deadly dentist and gambler, could have sunk...
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Ben Thompson Lawman
Not long ago a True West subscriber wrote and asked me if any Englishmen ever became lawmen in the Old West. The Masterson brothers, Bat, Ed and Jim were from Canada but Ben Thompson is the only one...
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Curly Bill Laughs at His Fate
Curly Bill Brocius, the leader of the cow-boys in southeastern Arizona, was reportedly always laughing. In the early 1880s, the outlaw was suspected in several holdups and a massacre in Skeleton...
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Buffalo Bill’s Cowboy Band
Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Cowboy Band” Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show created an image of the Old West that lingers today. One of the forgotten but most important aspects of the show was the cowboy band,...
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A Song for the Good Times
Myles Keogh was a soldier of fortune, an Irishman who fought for the papal army in Italy and later the Union in the Civil War. He’s best known for leading Company I of the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col....
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A Few Quotations We Shouldn’t Forget
Calamity Jane “Leave me alone and let me go to hell by my own route!” Famous almost-last words of Calamity Jane shortly before her death in Deadwood, South Dakota, in 1903. “Here’s one, lady, that’s...
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How do today’s cowboy boots compare to those of the Old West?
How do today’s cowboy boots compare to those of the Old West? Ray Burden Beckenham, Kent, England Cowboy boots today are quite similar to those worn in the 1880s. The main difference is the toes back...
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Western Events for June 2016
ADVENTURE Crazy Horse Volkmarch Black Hills, SD, June 4-5: This Crazy Horse-inspired hike is a 6.2-mile woodlands ramble to the world’s largest (in-progress) mountain carving. 605-673-4681 •...
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Fame is Fleeting
John Robert Baylor was an ambitious man, one who wanted position and power and recognition. He had shown that many times over between his move to Texas around 1835 and the start of the Civil War. The...
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Knowing What Was Important
“He will sigh to lose his friend, groan if his wife dies, but if his dog is lost by death, his grief is overwhelming.” That’s how a 19th Century reporter described a sheepherder of the West and his...
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Yuma’s History Comes Home
Valuable items documenting the history of Arizona’s border city of Yuma are ready for researchers to delve into, including files about pioneer Eugene Francis Sanguinetti, shown here holding his...
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Hume: Master Detective
James B. Hume’s father had plans for the boy—he would farm the family land in northern Indiana. But when Hume became a man, he had other ideas and went West. He became a lawman in his 20’s, racking up...
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Trails to Independence
The American West’s awe-inspiring vistas—the seemingly endless prairies of the Great Plains, the great wall of snowcapped granite peaks of the Rocky Mountains, the shimmering desert mirages that dance...
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Imagine No Cowboys
Branding the American West: Paintings and Film, 1900-1950 (University of Oklahoma Press, $39.95), edited by Marian Wardle and Sarah E. Boehme, is a collectible art book, with seven status-quo...
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Clifton’s Hardrock Jail
Mining town Clifton, Arizona, took advantage of the local’s mining expertise and blasted a jail out of hard rock. Ironically, the man who ramrodded the blasting was the first prisoner (he celebrated...
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The Winchester Haunting
Many have heard the story of the eccentric millionaire of the Victorian Era who spent the last 38 years of her life building, always building, a mansion in San Jose, California. Some have visited the...
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How accurate was 1999’s You Know My Name, about Bill Tilghman?
How accurate was 1999’s You Know My Name, about Bill Tilghman? James Patrick Gaines Orangevale, California Like most Western movies—not that close to the truth. Researchers have proven many of Bill...
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Ambush at Bloody Run
A dozen guns let loose a sharp volley of fire, setting off a commotion among the men and mules of Wham’s party. Shown above is Frankie Campbell, down the road from the boulder, just about to be...
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