My great nephew Daniel Everett Brady was born last night.  It’s hard to keep my focus and write about the Old West with such news.  I have such a wonderful time with my great niece Elizabeth when I return to Missouri, I look forward to having just as much fun with Daniel.  Elizabeth likes to read more…

The last picture taken of my brother The lawlessness of the 1860’s through the 1890’s, wrote criminologist Cesare Lombroso “is an American phenomenon with no equal in the rest of the world.”  Statistics of the period – if not- entirely reliable – appear to substantiate his claim.  In this period the crime rate rose 445 read more…

On January 30, 1885 the Secretary of the Interior, Henry M Teller, recommended the opening of Indian lands in the Indian Territory to homesteaders.  Since 1880 homesteaders, known as ‘boomers’ and led by David L Payen and William L Couch, had been crossing into Indian Territory from Kansas and Arkansas and settling on what is read more…

This article is about the first play I penned while I was attending the University of Arizona.  The actress that starred in the comedy is now on Broadway.  What a great memory!  Until the folks that really know what they’re doing with this site can fix the sizing of the article – you can view read more…

The driving force behind the journal section of this website was to elaborate on information I learned researching Old West stories for the books I write. For example: Television and motion picture westerns would have viewers believe whisky was the drink of choice for cowhands and miners. The truth is whisky was in short supply read more…

There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are lies that kill. Like the lies the adopted son of a well-known university basketball coach made. He told authorities he had been sexually molested and yesterday admitted to the press that it never really happened. “I don’t know how I could have told such a read more…

1877 – Charlie Reed and Billy Bland shot up a saloon and two deputies in Fort Griffin, Texas.  Bland was killed in the gunplay but Reed stole a horse and left Texas.  On this day in 1891 – tensions continued to mount at Wounded Knee.  General Nelson A. Miles, commander of the US troops at read more…

Among the most compelling want-ads I’ve come across while doing research on the Old West is an advertisement that initially ran in a London newspaper. British Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton placed the ad in preparation for the National Antarctic Expedition (which subsequently failed to reach the South Pole). Shackleton later said of the call read more…

Parked outside the local Kmart yesterday were a couple asking for signatures on a few petitions. I was stopped as I entered the store and asked if I’d like to put my Jane Hancock on the form. They explained that the petitions were to increase the penalty for people accused of sexually abusing a child. read more…

The only human desire more universal than the urge to put on a show is the urge to get paid for it. That’s true today and it was true in the Old West. Actresses such as Lily Langtree and Maude Adams were highly paid for their talent. They played to sell-outs houses in Denver and read more…