In 1835, P.T. Barnum bought a human being. Barnum saw an ad in the Pennsylvania Inquirer. Joice Heth, an elderly African-American, was being promoted as George Washington’s nanny, but the […]
The Harry Yount Enigma: Yellowstone’s First Park Ranger
Buried among the sublime passes of the Sierra Nevada are old men, who, when children, strayed away from our crowded settlements, and, gradually moving farther and farther from civilization, have […]
“There wasn’t any make-believe or made-up stuff:” the Western Work of James Bama
Don Schmalz was riding up Trout Creek. The year was 1973. The wind was coming straight out of the north and it was snowing. He was leading two hunters into […]
Charlie Russell’s Tough Year
1917 was a tough year for Charlie Russell. His good buddy, bullwhacker Johnny Matheson, was dying. Johnny ran the last horse-drawn freight line between Great Falls and Fort Benton. Charlie […]
Ned Buntline and the Discovery of Buffalo Bill; or, how a Miscreant Created the First World Celebrity
One thing I’ve learned since coming to work at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is that every prominent American frontiersman is that way for a reason, and that […]
The Banditti of the Plains, or, the Triumph of the Nesters
On Friday, April 8, 1892, Ben Jones and Bill Walker rode down out of the Bighorn Mountains. They had been trapping for weeks. Ben Jones was a cook in cowboy […]
