Westward Expansion

The towering, 2,500-year-old “Mother of the Forest” (second from left) died after its bark was stripped for display in New York in 1855.

How California's Giant Sequoias Tell the Story of Americans' Conflicted Relationship With Nature

In the mid-19th century, "Big Tree mania" spread across the country and our love for the trees has never abated

'Cattle Kate' and Postmaster Averill, lynched. Stockmen a Sweetwater, Wyo., July 21, end the career of a lawless pair of depredators - swung from a cottonwood at the rope's end. Undated illustration.

The Tragedy of Cattle Kate

Newspapers reported that cowgirl Ella Watson was a no-good thief who deserved the vigilante killing that befell her, when in reality she was anything but

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500-Year-Old Pistol Part Could Shed Light on Colorado’s Spanish Colonial Past

The pistol part was found during an excavation several years ago by the Museums of Western Colorado’s Western Investigations Team

Dodge City in 1878

Gun Control Is as Old as the Old West

Contrary to the popular imagination, bearing arms on the frontier was a heavily regulated business

The “Dodge City Peace Commission,” June, 1883. Wyatt Earp is seated, second from left.

How Dodge City Became a Symbol of Frontier Lawlessness

Fake news and smoking guns gave the Kansas town its reputation as the ultimate Wild West

Bears Ears National Monument

Five Things to Know About the Redrawn National Monuments

The president is reducing two massive National Monuments by millions of acres. Read the context behind the decision and what to expect going forward

"Black Bart" robbed at least 28 stagecoaches in his lifetime. He left poems at two of them.

The Poetic Tale of Literary Outlaw Black Bart

Stagecoach robber Charles Bole took the inspiration for his pseudonym from pulp fiction

U.S. government officials met with multiple tribes of the Great Plains to negotiate the Medicine Lodge Treaty in 1867.

How the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty Changed the Plains Indian Tribes Forever

The peace agreement set up reservations for the tribe—only to break that agreement in the following decades

The Fountaingrove Round Barn burned on Monday Oct. 9 in one of the 17 wildfires that erupted across California.

As Wildfires Rage Across California Wine Country, a Historical Structure Turns to Ash

The iconic Round Barn was destroyed at Fountaingrove, once home to a Utopian community and one of America’s first Japanese immigrants

Old West, as seen through 1967 Orange County eyes

The Wild West of Knott's Berry Farm Is More Fantasy Than Reality

A critic of government welfare, the theme park's Walter Knott built the first “Old West” town as a shrine to rugged individualism

A member of the 9th Cavalry circa 1890.

Three Things to Know About the Buffalo Soldiers

These segregated regiments offered black soldiers a chance to fight for their rights

Equus first evolved in North America millions of years ago.

How the Mustang, the Symbol of the Frontier, Became a Nuisance

A mainstay of Western culture, the free-roaming stallions are now a force to be reckoned with

Aaron Burr exhorting his followers at Blennerhassett Island Ohio River 1805

Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr and the American Way of Treason

The U.S. had good reason to be cautious about drawing a line between disloyalty and conduct deserving of prosecution

An African-American cowboy sits saddled on his horse in Pocatello, Idaho in 1903.

The Lesser-Known History of African-American Cowboys

One in four cowboys was black. So why aren’t they more present in popular culture?

This illustration by Helen Sewell graced one of the original editions of Little House on the Prairie, published in the 1930s. That book tells of the period in the Ingalls family's lives in which they settled in Kansas on land that still belonged to Native Americans.

The Little House on the Prairie Was Built on Native American Land

Yesterday was Laura Ingalls Wilder's 150th birthday. It's time to take a critical look at her work

This photograph of Abigail Scott Dunway features the words "Yours for Liberty,"—the phrase she always used when she signed her name.

This Hell-Raising Suffragist’s Name Will Soon Grace an Oregon Hotel

Abigail Scott Duniway staged a lifelong fight for women's rights

Ned Buntline, Bufalo Bill Cody, Giuseppina Morlacchi, Texas Jack Omohundro (1846-1880)

Murder, Marriage and the Pony Express: Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Buffalo Bill

His adventures were sensationalized in print and the Wild West show, but reality was more complicated—and compelling

Deadwood's Racketeer Nickel

A Brief History of the Racketeer Nickel

A fraudulent 5-cent piece dug up in Deadwood may not be very valuable, but its story is worth its weight in gold

Making the Case for the Next American Saint

Sister Blandina Segale showed true grit while caring for orphans and outlaws in New Mexico

How the Reno Gang Launched the Era of American Train Robberies

150 years ago today, the first-ever train robbery took place in Indiana, setting off decades of shoot outs and bloodshed

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