_scaled_45_30.jpg "June Events 2010")
Investigating History
Sizing Up
- Published April 30, 2012
- Written by True West Editors
There are a lot of tall tales about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. This is not one of them.
Unsinkable Margaret Brown
- Published March 13, 2012
- Written by Mark Boardman
On April 15, 1912, the brand new passenger liner Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg.
Where the Bodies Are Buried
- Published February 22, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
In the hills outside the northeastern Oregon town of Baker City is a cemetery not unlike many that dot the old mining towns of the West.
Butch Cassidy Wannabe
- Published January 10, 2012
- Written by Mark Boardman
Butch Cassidy is dead. William T. Phillips is dead.
A Sweet Search for History
- Published January 11, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
James Coryells’s sweet tooth proved fatal.
Butch & Sundance—and Rolla
- Published November 08, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
The old Bob Seger song claimed that Rock ‘n’ Roll never forgets.
A View of Vasquez
- Published November 09, 2010
- Written by Mark Boardman
If you’d visited San Francisco back in 1967, you might have found a 14-year-old kid doing something a bit unusual for a teenager.
A Grave Matter
- Published October 04, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
The Dalton Gang’s gravesite is not exactly front and center, which is strange when you consider it’s one of the big tourist attractions in Coffeyville, Kansas.
The Tunstalls Return
- Published October 06, 2010
- Written by Mark Boardman
You could call the visit a “belated family reunion.”
Survivors of an Old West Shoot-Out
- Published August 28, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
The Westerns often had it wrong.
Preserving Shakespeare
- Published August 31, 2010
- Written by Mark Boardman
Ross Woods picked a bad morning to order eggs for breakfast.
“Most Interesting Spot”
- Published July 28, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
The sign above the building front is optimistic, to say the least: Most Interesting Spot. Where Real Indians Trade.
Rediscovering the O.K. Corral
- Published July 27, 2010
- Written by Mark Boardman
“You sons of bitches, you have been looking for the coroner’s report, and you can have it!”
Okay, that’s not exactly Cochise County Sheriff John Behan’s testimony at the coroner’s inquest. (He said one of the Earps called out, “you have been looking for a fight.”) But we could envision the gunfighter saying that today if he heard the latest news surrounding this legendary Old West shoot-out.
The Last Train to Boothill
- Published June 27, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
Just after midnight on March 13, 1912, on a lonely stretch of tracks in southwest Texas, a train sat silently in the darkness.
The Digital Frontier
- Published June 29, 2010
- Written by Mark Boardman
On vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a stiff President Calvin Coolidge cut a comical figure, wearing cowboy boots and a 10-gallon hat, as he rode a horse to the base of a mountain.
Mrs. Custer at the Movies
- Published May 24, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
Elizabeth Bacon Custer—keeper of the flame for George Armstrong Custer, her husband who famously died at the Little Big Horn in 1876—was also an actress.
Bent's Fort's 50th Anniversary
- Published May 25, 2010
- Written by Mark Boardman
In 1833, the Bent brothers—Charles and William—along with partner Ceran St. Vrain were building a trading empire in the Southwest. The plan: to operate mercantile stores and trading posts in what is now Colorado and New Mexico.
Texas Kids Revolt
- Published April 26, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
On March 27, 1836, Mexican troops placed a wounded Texian officer in a chair in the courtyard of Fort Defiance.
Tracking a Vendetta Rider
- Published April 27, 2010
- Written by Mark Boardman
Most folks know that the violence in Tombstone, Arizona, didn’t end with the Gunfight behind the O.K. Corral in 1881.
Traywick's Tombstone
- Published March 29, 2011
- Written by Mark Boardman
Twelve or 13 years have passed since this tenderfoot Midwesterner first visited Tombstone, Arizona (relatively late in life, but hey - better late than never).
A Tall Order?
- Published March 30, 2010
- Written by Mark Boardman
I must confess that investigating history (the process, not the column) can be a big undertaking—but sometimes it’s a simple matter of asking a question.
