A picture hanging in a restaurant in Prescott, Arizona, is labeled, “Wyatt Earp.” Is this a photo of him?

The Myth of WhiskeyForget what you have seen in Hollywood Westerns.

Author J.P.S. Brown’s lifetime of ranching and cowboying on both sides of the Arizona-Sonora border was the inspiration for his latest collection of short stories, Cowboys Fly.

Tales of a Legendary Western Life

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On the Hunt for GeronimoRevealing the truth behind the role of the legendary single-shot Trapdoor Springfield rifle in the Apache Wars.

Five thousand against 140! With Geronimo’s breakout from the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona on May 17, 1885, the U.S.…

Asa Mercer

Asa Mercer left quite the legacy. As a young man, he was one of the early settlers of Seattle—where he helped found and …

A picture hanging in a restaurant in Prescott, Arizona, is labeled, “Wyatt Earp.” Is this a photo of him?

Tom Isler Madera, California I have never seen this photo published in any of the Wyatt Earp biographies; somebody would have published it if the phot…

The Myth of WhiskeyForget what you have seen in Hollywood Westerns.

Not all American West pioneers walked up to bars, like Hollywood Westerns often portray, and ordered shots of whiskey. I…

Wyatt the Farmer?

In June 1880, Philip M. Thurmond walked around the newly formed mining camp of Tombstone and asked for the vital statistics of every person he could f…

The Henry Rifle

The legendary Model 1873 Winchester, has been called the favorite “Fighting rifle of the Old Civilian West.”…

Tales of a Legendary Western Life

J.P.S. Brown writes books about the true life of the cowboy, not the saloon and bodice tales that so enthrall other prac…

In a drunken stupor, Billy Thompson (pictured) aimed his firearm at a deputy and accidentally shot a man he respected, Sheriff Chauncey Whitney, on the streets of Ellsworth, Kansas. Billy’s older brother, Ben, returned to Texas and, in 1881, became a lawman himself—city marshal, in Austin.
– True West Archives –

Happy’s Not-So-Happy BlunderThe actions of a Kansas lowlife got a respected lawman killed.

Somebody with a sense of humor, with more than a touch of irony, must have nicknamed John Morco “Happy Jack.” Happy? Ac…

Features

By the early 20th century, many black cavalrymen and their comrades in the infantry had earned enviable reputations as crack marksmen and professional, no-nonsense combat troops
– Courtesy Anthony Powell Collection –

Targeting EqualityCommemorating the 150th Year of the Buffalo Soldiers

Jack DeMattos' Article in True West Magazine

A True West Writer’s 40-Year Journey

Did Remington Capture Clanton’s Last Breath?Art unexpectedly imitated life in master artist Frederic Remington’s first sold work.

At the age of 19, Frederic Remington had yet to find a purpose in life when he boarded a train west on August 10, 1881. By August 13, he was in Dakota…