Chapter Five Missing Elizabeth “Daughter, marrying into the army, you will be poor always; but I count it infinitely preferable to riches with inferior society.” Judge Bacon to Elizabeth Custer – 1866 George Custer raced his stallion, Jack, at full speed over the limitless Alkali grass covered plateau miles away from the main entrance of read more…

Cowboy True worked at the Rocking R Ranch. He was tall and thin and always wore a big smile. His hair was messy and his cowboy boots were always dusty. He spent his days rounding up cattle and taming wild stallions. Cowboy True was a friendly fellow. He liked to make up games and play read more…

Introduction “If he isn’t a pet with the women he ought to be.” Female newspaper reporter, J.M.W. observation in an article entitled “Colonel Cody Talks” – 1894 A sea of elegantly dressed, excited guests lined the hallway of a refined hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. The buzz of conversation was deafening as they clustered into an read more…

FOREWORD Dodge City, Kansas, founded in 1872 when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad reached a point located five miles west of Fort Dodge, was a wide open, raucous, frontier town that catered first to the Buffalo hunters from 1872 through 1875. Following the demise of the Buffalo trade, the City Fathers went South read more…

Bethenia Owens-Adair The Student Teacher “Nothing was permitted to come between me and this, (getting an education) the greatest opportunity of my life.” Bethenia Owens-Adair – 1906 Tears streamed down twelve year old Bethenia Owens face as she watched her teacher pack his belongings into a faded, leather saddlebag and slip his coat on over read more…

Frances Allen Noyes Miner on Candle Creek “If I can’t be in the hills, I would sooner be dead.” France Noyes – 1928 A cluster of tents dotted a strip of frozen earth at the base of a massive glacier in Skagway, Alaska. Beyond the solid layer of ice was a thick forest that followed read more…

Four teams of tired, uninspired horses pulled a line of buckboards filled with coffins over the dry, dusty terrain twelve miles outside of the village of San Juan Capistrano. The wagon drivers and a dozen other men riding with them stared soberly out at the land. Ahead in the near distance they could see a read more…

Shy, thoughtful, overly generous, modest and compassionate – this doesn’t describe the John Wayne most people remember from the very public person he projected in the 1960s and 70s, when his body of work was filled with tough-talking, aggressive, out-for-justice characters. But articles and interviews done with him early in his career suggest John Wayne read more…

Hundreds of excited children, with hard-earned nickels and dimes clutched tightly in their fists, exchanged their money for a ticket at Saturday matinees across the country in the 1940s. The chance to see singing cowboy Roy Rogers, his horse, Trigger, and leading lady Dale Evans come up against the West’s most notorious criminals brought young read more…

Kitty LeRoy The Unfortunate Gambler “Spirits of the good, the fair and beautiful, guard us through the dreamy hours. Kinder ones, but, perhaps less dutiful, keep the places that once were ours.” Poetic editorial in memory of the slain Kitty LeRoy from the Black Hills Daily Times – 1883A grim-faced bartender led a pair of read more…