by Chris Enss
During the gold rush, women worked alongside men panning and digging for gold and silver in the mountains of Colorado, California, and all the way up to Alaska. While many books have been written about the frontier women who ran brothels and boarding houses in mining towns, none have told the true stories of ladies […]
by Chris Enss
Doc Holliday’s paramour Big Nose Kate could never get a publisher to give her the big bucks she demanded to tell the story of her life, but that didn’t mean she didn’t collect material she wanted to use in a biography. Over the fifty years Mary Kate Cummings, alias Big Nose Kate, traversed the West […]
by Mrs. Metta V. Victor, with an introduction by Chris Enss
Philip Moore has lost his family fortune–and thus his girl–in New York City. Heading west to find riches and win back the object of his affection, Philip finds himself unexpectedly charmed by the unrefined but beautiful daughter of sawmill owner David Wilde. Can Philip and Alice overcome the obstacles– a raging river, brush fires, a […]
by Chris Enss
In Along Came a Cowgirl: Daring and Iconic Women of the Rodeos and Wild West Shows, New York Times best-selling author Chris Enss introduces readers to the world of the early rodeo – and to the stories of the women whose names resounded in rodeo arenas across the nation in the early twentieth century. These […]
by Chris Enss and Deadwood History, Inc.
The discovery of gold in the southern Black Hills in 1874 set off one of the great gold rushes in America. In 1876, miners moved into the northern Black Hills. That’s where they came across a gulch full of dead trees and a creek full of gold and Deadwood was born. Practically overnight, the tiny […]
by Chris Enss
Award-winning author Chris Enss goes behind the lipstick and petticoats to reveal the real women who outran the law and upended gender stereotypes across America’s Heartland in her latest book Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Outlaw Women of the Midwest. Readers will meet Flora Mundis, expert horse thief and jail breaker; murderess Elizabeth Reed, the […]
by Chris Enss
“What we want to do is give our women even more liberty than they have. Let them do any kind of work that they see fit, and if they do it as well as men, give them the same pay.” William F. Cody-1899 With rough-riding cowboys, sure shots, and fantastic reenactments of battles and train […]
by Chris Enss, Illustrated by Melissa & Jeff Galpin
A kind hearted ranch hand stops to help a family in need and discovers the meaning of Christmas just when he thinks he’s missed the holiday all together.
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
Take one well-oiled effective killing machine, add a familiar hero on the ground, in the air, and on horseback; stir in a ghastly end that’s surely impossible to escape, add action, add passion, made on a shoestring budget at breakneck speed, and you’ve got the recipe for Republic Pictures. Who, after all, cannot forget The […]
by Chris Enss
This collection of short stories of the women who entertained the West in makeshift theaters and palaces built to showcase the divas who were beloved by emigrants to the “uncivilized” West will feature well-known and lesser known dancers, singers, and actresses and their exploits. Author Chris Enss will bring her comedic timing and long experience […]
by Chris Enss
If countless books and movies are to be believed, America’s Wild West was, at heart, a world of cowboys and Indians, sheriffs and gunslingers, scruffy settlers and mountain men―a man’s world. Here, Chris Enss, in the latest of her popular books to take on this stereotype, tells the stories of twelve courageous women who faced […]
by Chris Enss
If countless books and movies are to be believed, America’s Wild West was, at heart, a world of cowboys and Indians, sheriffs and gunslingers, scruffy settlers and mountain men—a man’s world. Here, Chris Enss, in the latest of her popular books to take on this stereotype, tells the stories of twelve courageous women who faced […]
by JoAnn Chartier and Chris Enss
From Catherine Hayes, the “Irish prima donna,” and Maude Adams, “the most popular actress in America,” to the legendary Sarah Bernhardt, Gilded Girls profiles fourteen of the liveliest, wildest, and most talented female entertainers ever to light up the boards of the western frontier. You’ll meet “the Jersey Lily,” who was wildly admired by men […]
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
More than six decades have passed since Roy Rogers and Dale Evans first rode the celluloid range together, yet they continue to be loved and admired in a way few – if any – celebrities can claim. They co-starred in twenty-nine motion pictures and recorded more than 200 albums together, and they brought their talents […]
by Chris Enss
WANTED: A girl who will love, honest, true and not sour;a nice little cooing dove, and willing to work in flour. Desperate to strike it rich during the Gold Rush, thousands of men traveled West to the emerging frontier, where they outnumbered women twelve to one. Only after they arrived did some of them realize […]
by Chris Enss
Women have played an important—though often hidden— role in shaping the history of Yosemite National Park. High Country Women reveals the contributions made by these strong and independent pioneers, such as: Clare Hodges, who seized her opportunity to be the nation’s first woman park ranger. Jessie Fremont, who campaigned for protecting Yosemite from developers. Florence […]
by Chris Enss
Did you know that pioneer women sewed lead in their hems to keep their dresses from billowing on the trail? Or that hatless men had to wear bonnets to protect their eyes from the scorching sun? From old familiar Levi’s to the short-lived “instant dress elevator,” How the West Was Worn examines the sometimes bizarre, […]
When the last spike was hammered into the steel track of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, Utah, Western Union lines sounded the glorious news of the railroad’s completion from New York to San Francisco. For more than five years an estimated four thousand men mostly Irish working west from Omaha […]
by Chris Enss
Love Lessons Learned by Women of the Old West provides insight into possible motives for why frontier men and women fell in love. Some of the chapters in this new title, due to be released in February 2014, will bring a smile to your heart and other chapters will break it into pieces. As one […]
by JoAnn Chartier and Chris Enss
In these pages you’ll meet a soiled dove who longed for a fairy-tale romance but instead fell for an ailing miner; a quiet schoolmarm who risked life and limb for her adventuresome husband; a spinster who refused to reveal the secrets of her heart despite a proposal from a dashing, prominent rancher; an actress who […]
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
In a time when notorious Depression Era criminals were terrorizing the country, the Barker-Karpis Gang stole more money than mobsters John Dillinger, Vern Miller, and Bonnie and Clyde combined. Five of the most wanted thieves, murderers, and kidnappers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the 1930s were from the same family. Authorities believe the […]
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
Colorado Territory in 1864 wasn’t merely the wild west, it was a land in limbo while the Civil War raged in the east and politics swirled around its potential admission to the union. The territorial governor, John Evans, had ambitions on the national stage should statehood occur–and he was joined in those ambitions by a […]
by Chris Enss
More Tales Behind the Tombstones tells the stories behind the deaths (or supposed deaths) and burials of even more of the Old West’s most nefarious outlaws, notorious women, and celebrated lawmen. Readers will learn the stories behind these legendary characters and visit the sites of tombs long forgotten while legends have lived on.Read about the […]
by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens, with an introduction by Chris Enss
Infant Myra is adopted by a wealthy couple and raised in a loving home, unaware of her true parentage and the deception that tore her biological family apart. But when Myra’s adoptive father is riled by her choice of suitor, he reveals the shocking secret of her birth, setting in motion Myra’s fight to regain […]
by Chris Enss
In 1869, more than twenty years after Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony made their declaration of the rights of women at Seneca Falls, New York, the men of the Wyoming Territorial Legislature granted women over the age of 21 the right to vote in general elections. And on September 6, 1870, a grandmother […]
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
On May 17, 1876, Elizabeth Bacon Custer kissed her husband George goodbye and wished him good fortune in his efforts to fulfill the Army’s orders to drive in the Indians who would not relocate to a reservation. The smartly dressed couple made for a splendid picture. This new biography of Elizabeth Bacon Custer tells the […]
by Chris Enss
Desperate to strike it rich or eager for free land, men went into the frontier West alone and sacrificed many creature comforts. Only after they arrived at their destinations did some of them realize how much they missed female companionship. One way for men living on the frontier to meet women was through subscriptions to […]
by Chris Enss
From the world-famous to the relatively obscure, Outlaw Tales of California features true tales of fifteen bandits, outlaws, and no-good scoundrels. From Sacramento to Los Angeles, San Francisco to Nevada City, the frontier towns of California were populated by some of the toughest and most dangerous characters in the West. Tom Bell, the flat-nosed, felon […]
Massacres, mayhem, and mischief fill the pages of Outlaw Tales of California 2, with compelling legends of the Golden State’s most despicable desperadoes. Ride with horse thieves and cattle rustlers, duck the bullets of murderers, plot strategies with con artists, and hiss at lawmen turned outlaws.
by Chris Enss
The picture of the early American West would not be complete without a fashionably dressed madam standing at the top of the saloon stairs surveying the activity below. More than just casual observers, these tough-talking and whip-smart women often had a pistol hidden in the folds of their skirts, ready to take on cowboys, ranchers, […]
by Chris Enss
For Joseph Seng and the other death row inmates in the line-up for the Wyoming State Penitentiary All Stars, baseball was literally a game of life or death. Based on primary source documents, some unearthed at the old prison itself, Playing for Time recreates the compelling story of this team of hardened criminals who excelled […]
by JoAnn Chartier and Chris Enss
From the earliest days of the western frontier, women heeded the call to go west along with their husbands, sweethearts, and parents. While many of these women were attached to the army camps and outposts that dotted the prairies, others were active participants in the skirmishes and battles that took place in the western territories. […]
by Chris Enss and Joann Chartier
From the earliest days of the western frontier, women heeded the call to go west along with their husbands, sweethearts, and parents. Many of these women were attached to the army camps and outposts that dotted the prairies. Some were active participants in the skirmishes and battles that took place in the western territories. Each […]
by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian
On October 20, 1882, future actress Margaret Dumont was born in Brooklyn, New York. A Broadway regular by the 1920s, Dumont found lasting fame once she started appearing with the Marx Brothers. Tall and regal in bearing, her character provided the perfect foil to the wisecracking Groucho Marx in a series of films including A Night […]
by Chris Enss
Tales Behind the Tombstones tells the stories behind the deaths (or supposed deaths) and burials of the Old West’s most nefarious outlaws, notorious women, and celebrated lawmen. Readers will learn the story behind Calamity Jane’s wish to be buried next to Wild Bill Hickok, discover how and where the Earp brothers came to be buried, […]
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
In 1944 Roy Rogers and Dale Evans lit up the silver screen in The Cowboy and the Senorita, making their names – and lives – inseparable. It was the start of a fifty-six-year partnership that included thirty motion pictures, a long-running hit television series, and a family of nine children. The Cowboy and the Senorita […]
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
It was the golden age of baseball and all over the country teams gathered on town fields in front of throngs of fans to compete for local glory. In Rawlins, Wyoming, residents lined up for tickets to see slugger Joseph Seng and the rest of the Wyoming Penitentiary Death Row All Stars as they took […]
by Chris Enss
“No women need apply.” Western towns looking for a local doctor during the frontier era often concluded their advertisements in just that manner. Yet apply they did. And in small towns all over the West, highly trained women from medical colleges in the East took on the post of local doctor to great acclaim. In […]
by Chris Enss
“NO WOMEN NEED APPLY.” These four discouraging words of admonition often greeted female physicians looking for jobs in the frontier-era West. Despite the dire need for medical help, it seemed most trappers, miners, and emigrants would rather suffer and die than be treated by a female doctor. Nevertheless dozens of highly trained women headed West, […]
An Englishwoman born in 1831, Isabella Bird was frequently ill as a child and young woman, and her doctors recommended a life of travel and fresh air as the cure. Ultimately, she took the advice and traveled the world. And traveled. And traveled. Bird connected with the beauty of the Colorado Plains and the valleys […]
by Chris Enss
Amidst mining camps, cow towns, desolate landscapes and filthy boomtowns were a succession of women who survived dangerous gambling games against ruthless rowdy men whose pride was staked on always having the upper hand. In the first book of its kind, author Chris Enss presents an action-filled true portrait of fifteen notorious women gamblers from […]
by Chris Enss
“What we want to do is give our women even more liberty than they have. Let them do any kind of work that they see fit, and if they do it as well as men, give them the same pay.” —William F. Cody, 1899 With rough-riding cowboys, sure shots, and fantastic reenactments of battles and […]
by Chris Enss
Read the Introduction of The Pinks Most students of the Old West and American law enforcement history know the story of the notorious and ruthless Pinkerton Detective Agency and the legends behind their role in establishing the Secret Service and tangling with Old West Outlaws. But the true story of Kate Warne, an operative of […]
by Mrs. Henry J. Thomas, with an introduction by Chris Enss
Tired of her controlling stepparents, headstrong heiress Annie Howard goes west and encounters a series of adventures–including a blazing prairie fire, a sinking riverboat, the kidnapping of her beloved servant, and, of course, romance. When The Prairie Bride, a classic dime novel, was first published in 1869 by the extremely popular publishing house of Beadle […]
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
Long before the screen placed the face of Mary Pickford before the eyes of millions of Americans, Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses—aka “Annie Oakley”—had won the right to the title of the first “America’s Sweetheart.” The world loved Annie Oakley, but the road to fame and affection was filled with trials and tribulation. Authors Howard Kazanjian […]
by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian with Chris Kortlander
There weren’t many women in the late 1800s who had the opportunity to accompany their husbands on adventures that were so exciting they seemed fictitious. Such was the case for the women married to the officers in General George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. There were seven officers’ wives. They were all good friends who traveled […]
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
By the time Stagecoach made John Wayne a silver-screen star in 1939, the thirty-one-year-old was already a veteran of more than sixty films, having twirled six-guns, tossed rope, busted broncos, and foiled cattle rustlers in B westerns for five different studios over the course of a dozen years. By the 1950s he was Hollywood’s most […]
by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss
The year was 1878. Future legends of the Old West–lawmen Charlie Bassett, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Bill Tilghman–patrolled the unruly streets of Dodge City, Kansas, then known as “the wickedest little city in America.” When a cattle baron fled town after allegedly shooting the popular dancehall girl Dora Hand, these four men–all sharpshooters who […]
by Chris Enss
This collection of short, action-filled stories of the Old West’s most egregiously badly behaved female outlaws, gamblers, soiled doves, and other wicked women by award-winning Western history author Chris Enss offers a glimpse into Western Women’s experience that’s less sunbonnets and more six-shooters. During the late nineteenth century, while men were settling the new frontier […]
by JoAnn Chartier and Chris Enss
Luzena Stanley Wilson became a gold rush banker, storing gold dust in bread pans in her camp oven. Mary Graves survived cannibalism in the Sierras. Madame Moustache lost the love of her life, and her fortune, in a silver camp in Nevada. A storyteller wrote about the West to feed her children. With Great Hope […]
