Chris Enss Logo

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Author
  • Coming Soon
  • Now Available
  • Excerpt of the Month
  • Books
  • Documentaries
  • Press
  • Events
  • Journal Notes
  • Contact

This Day…

Posted on August 13, 2025 by Chris Enss

1925 – Mount Rushmore Monument is first proposed

This entry was posted in This Day.... Bookmark the permalink.

Enter the Giveaway

Enter to win a copy of An Open Secret

An Open Secret

Enter Giveaway

Stay in Touch

https://www.facebook.com/chrisenssauthor/

Recent Posts

  • On the Shelf at the Will Rogers Museum Gift Shop
  • Stories, Scholarship, and Western Legacy
  • Claremore, Cowboys, and Giant Adventures
  • Women. Outlaws. History. Road trip.
  • Women Who Refuse to Behave Tour — and we’re off.
  • Poker Alice Coming to Bookstores

Search

Browse for Books

Gilded Girls Book Cover Ma Barker Cover Frontier Teachers Book Cover Love Untamed Book Cover Frontier Teachers Cover along came a cowgirl cover The Lady and the Mountain Man Book Cover More Tales Behind the Tombstones Book Cover The Pinks Cover Meet the Kelly's Cover A Beautiful Mind Book Cover Wicked Women Book Cover None Wounded, None Missing, All Dead Book Cover According to Kate Cover Bedside Book of Bad Girls Book Cover

Follow Me

Forty Years, and Knowing When to Leave In Februar Forty Years, and Knowing When to Leave In February, after more than forty years of teaching Bible study, I stepped aside. No one asked me to go. There was no meeting, no formal conclusion, no ceremony to mark the end of something that had quietly shaped most of my adult life. There was simply a moment when it became clear that the room had changed in ways I could no longer ignore. An eleven-year-old came into church one morning carrying a switchblade. He waved it casually in front of the other children, as if it were nothing more than a toy. His grandparents were present. They saw it. They said nothing. The lesson that day was not from scripture. In forty years, I had seen restlessness, distraction, even defiance. Children test boundaries - that is part of growing up. But boundaries require adults willing to hold them. When that willingness disappears, the responsibility does not vanish. It simply shifts, often onto the person least able to carry it alone. I understood, in that moment, something I had likely known for some time: maintaining comfort had become more important than maintaining standards. Difficult conversations are avoided. Behavior is explained away. And those who show up alone, without family ties or built-in standing, are easier to overlook when decisions, spoken or unspoken, are made. So I made one of my own. I stepped aside not because the work no longer mattered, but because the conditions for doing it responsibly had changed. There are limits to what one person can manage, and even more to what one person should be expected to accept. The photo I’m sharing was taken during an Easter play I had the great pleasure putting together years ago with children I will always hold dear to my heart. It was one of the many moments when the time felt full of purpose, energy, and joy, the kind that made all the preparation worthwhile. Forty years is long enough to recognize when presence is no longer enough. What mattered was never perfection. It was consistency, attention, and the quiet understanding that the space was meant to be safe for everyone in it, including the person teaching. That is still what I believe. And it is why I chose to leave.
The posse is riding again. Thunder Over the Prair The posse is riding again. Thunder Over the Prairie has been optioned as a 4-part limited series—written and directed by Emmy winner Walter Hill—and already being called “a cinematic Western event.” Before they were legends, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman, and Charlie Bassett rode out in pursuit of a killer after the murder of saloon singer Dora Hand. One killing. One fugitive. One relentless ride for justice across the frontier. It’s been a long time coming… but the wait is almost over. Want the real story? Read Thunder Over the Prairie Enter to win a copy: www.chrisenss.com #ThunderOverThePrairie #WesternHistory #WyattEarp #BatMasterson #TrueWest #OldWest #WesternSeries #ComingSoon
It may look like a departure… but in many ways, it It may look like a departure… but in many ways, it’s a return. Long before I was writing history books about the women of the American West, I was a stand-up comedian and a comedy writer—drawn to sharp dialogue, impossible situations, and characters who find themselves in over their heads. That spirit never really left. It just took a different form. Now, it’s coming full circle. I’m putting the finishing touches on Jessica of the Jungle, a romantic comedy set to debut in 2027. At the center is a washed-up morning radio host who fakes her way onto a National Geographic expedition in Africa, posing as a photographer she has absolutely no idea how to be. What follows is a full-blown fish-out-of-water disaster—complete with wild animals, professional deception, and a complicated love triangle involving a rugged game warden and a glamorous (and very married) photojournalist. It’s funny, fast-paced, a little chaotic—and very much about reinvention, identity, and what happens when the life you’re pretending to live starts demanding the truth. More to come soon.
Coming This October… According to Kate. History Coming This October… According to Kate. History remembered the gunfighters. She survived them. Step into Cochise, Arizona, 1899—where legend meets truth, and one of the West’s most unforgettable women finally takes center stage. According to Kate, based on the award-winning book According to Kate: The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday, captures a powerful and intimate chapter in the life of Kate Elder—a woman too often overshadowed by the men written into history beside her. In this striking new film, Kate reflects on her life with Doc Holliday—their volatile, passionate, and deeply devoted relationship—while revealing the strength it took to endure the world that tried to define her. Featuring an exceptional cast: Manuela Schneider as the incomparable Kate Elder Craig Hensley as Doc Holliday Curt Lambert as Johnny Ringo Set against the rugged backdrop of Cochise, Arizona, this film brings heart, grit, and authenticity to a story that deserves to be told. Coming October 2026 Because the West wasn’t just won by gunfighters… It was survived by women like Kate. #AccordingToKate #BigNoseKate #DocHolliday #WomenOfTheWest #WesternFilm #ComingSoon
Follow on Instagram
facebook twitter youtube instagram
History of the Old West | Wild West Costume | Great Women in History | Wild West Outlaws | Famous Women Biologists | American Old West | What Was the Role of the Pioneer Women | American History West | American Gold Rush 1800s California | 1800's West | Wyatt Earp Biography

© 2026 Chris Enss | Privacy Policy | Design by Winter Street Design Group | Login