There aren’t many jobs in which you’re lucky enough to make friends as you work out of your home office, connected only by a telephone.
But this column makes me lucky enough!
It takes me into the world of imaginative folks who respect and appreciate the people and pioneers of the Old West. I love how they take hold and won’t let go—just like the folks they’re honoring with their preservation efforts.
Looking back on the columns I wrote in 2020—horrible 2020, with its virus and quarantine and changes in all our lives—I find the friends I made through those monthly interviews were all the more precious. They stood for a “normalcy” that we couldn’t find many places. They showed life was moving on when so much said it had stood still. And they reminded me that times were even tougher in the Old West.
Here’s how I started one of those columns:
Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av True West.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av True West.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.
Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist? Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.
COLLECTING AMERICAN OUTLAWS
Wilbur Zink has preserved the Younger Gang's history in more ways than one.
Firearms With a Storied Past
Rock Island gavels off high profits from historic firearms.
She Means Business!
An energetic and ambitious woman has come to Lincoln, New Mexico, to restore the town's legendary Ellis Store.
Saddle Up with a Western
Old West fiction and nonfiction are the perfect genres to fill your summer reading list.
RENEGADES OF THE RAILS
RAILROADS WERE OPEN SEASON FOR OKLAHOMA AND INDIAN TERRITORY OUTLAW GANGS.
WESTERN ART MUSEUMS OF THE YEAR
Visionary museums from coast to coast showcase the West's best artists and artwork.
DISCOVER THE WEST
Museums from coast to coast celebrate our Western heritage for all generations.
SPUR TALK
The day Bill McDonald rode over the hill leading the Appaloosa, Slim and I were repairing the corrals. Slim was running Pete Coleman's little ranch about three miles south of Cow Springs, New Mexico. I was just a snotty-nosed, freckle-faced kid at the time.
YELLOWSTONE COWBOYS
THE REAL STORY OF TEDDY BLUE AND HOW HE BECAME MONTANA'S GREATEST COWBOY
