The story of the formative period of Cheyenne is, to a remarkable degree, the story of America's last West. Founded as a railroad boomtown, Cheyenne was a raucous and violent Hell on Wheels. Rising as if by magic from an empty prairie, Cheyenne was known the "Magic City" of the Plains. The cast of this great Western saga was colorful and imposing. Cattle barons and merchant kings. Cowboys and soldiers. Vigilantes and lawmen. Gamblers and gunfighters. The railroad brought to Cheyenne a parade of celebrities, from President Grant to Teddy Roosevelt, Wild Bill Hickok to Calamity Jane, Sarah...

In the early 1890s Wyoming's northern rangeland was torn by the Johnson County War, a violent western collision that pitted cattle barons and powerful politicians against homesteaders and rustlers. The range war, riddled with lynchings, ambushes, and an invasion by Texas hired gunmen, culminated in a valiant last stand and siege involving hundreds of combatants. These explosive events have captivated novelists, filmmakers, and historians for more than a century, inspiring such classics as "The Virginian" and "Shane." "The Johnson County War" is the first comprehensive historical account of...

The Wild West thrived for more than two decades in Caldwell, Kansas. Throughout the 1870s Caldwell was a lawless, unincorporated village astride the storied Chisholm Trail. Located just north of the Kansas state line, the Border Queen was the first semblance of a town seen by drovers after long weeks of shoving their herds through Indian Territory. The raucous trail town offered whiskey and women to legions of dusty cowboys, while inevitably becoming the site of shootouts and lynchings. In 1880 railroad tracks reached Caldwell, and the Border Queen boomed as the last railhead on the Chisholm...

In the early 1900s, two families in Scurry and Kent counties in West Texas united in a marriage of fourteen-year-old Gladys Johnson to twenty-one-year-old Ed Sims. Billy Johnson, the father, set up Gladys and Ed on a ranch, and the young couple had two daughters. But Gladys was headstrong and willful, and Ed drank too much, and both sought affection outside their marriage. A nasty divorce ensued, and Gladys moved with her girls to her father's luxurious ranch house, where she soon fell in love with famed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. When Ed tried to take his daughters for a prearranged Christmas...

A unique volume of information and colorful anecdotes about historic ranches, located throughout the American West. In all, almost sixty ranches are profiled, covering twelve states. From the King Ranch in Texas, to the Hash Knife in Arizona, Bill O'Neal tells the history, color and lore of these legendary ranches. O'Neal is a noted Western historian who has written seventeen books and more than 400 articles and book reviews. He has always been captivated by the mystique of the vanished ranching frontier and now he has brought that mystique and lore to life.

Captain Harry Wheeler was a Captain of the Arizona Rangers, Sheriff of Cochise County, Cavalry sergeant and World War I army captain. Intensely dedicated to duty and service, Harry Wheeler carved out a notable career as a Western lawman and soldier. His turbulent life was punctuated with fatal shootouts and personal tragedy. After Wheeler's beloved Ranger company was discontinued in 1909, this nemesis of lawbreakers repeatedly won election as sheriff, operating out of historic Tombstone and conduction the controversial Bisbee Deportation. Although in his forties when the United States entered...

In the West during the late 1800s, guns were tools-as good or as bad as the men who used them. Buffalo hunters used guns to earn their living. Many Westerners hunted wild game to feed themselves and their families. Outlaws used their guns for evil reasons-to rob banks and trains, and to murder people. But lawmen used their guns to stop outlaws.

The struggle between lawmen and outlaws was a battle between good and evil. It was a life and death struggle that took place in towns like Tombstone and Dodge City. But the forces of law and order finally won, and the West was tamed. Profiles include...

For nearly a century the worlds most famous law enforcement body has inspired novelists, actors and filmmakers. From "The Lone Ranger" to "Walker, Texas Ranger," from Zane Greys "The Lone Star Ranger" to Larry McMurtrys "Lonesome Dove," Texas Rangers have been portrayed on the silver screen, network radio and television. John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Tom Mix, Clint Eastwood, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and a host of lesser Western stars each took his turn at depicting Texas Rangers. Decade by decade, movie by movies, "Reel Rangers" explores in detail rich popular that has dramatized the heroic...

Although only a cook, Doris Miller fought bravely against Japanese attackers at Pearl Harbor. The young African-American from Texas was one of the first sailors to earn the Navy Cross during World War II, and the first African-American. He became a hero to the country and a proud icon for the African-American community and the war effort in general. Despite his notoriety and accolades, Miller returned to combat and was killed in action. This is the story of his heroic life from one of the top non-fiction writers in the West. From his boyhood in Waco, Texas, to his death in the Pacific, Bill...

From the 1870s until the 1920s cattlemen and sheepmen clashed bitterly for rangeland in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. During five decades of irregular but vicious warfare, scores of attacks were launched by cattlemen, at least twenty-eight sheepmen and sixteen cowboys were killed, and more than 53,000 sheep were shot, clubbed, knifed, poisoned, dynamited and rimrocked. There were 120 raids and skirmishes across the west, including famous events such as the Pleasant Valley War, the murder of Willie Nickell, the Diamondfield Jack trial and the...