Dogbite 1 GUNFIGHT AT DOGBITE Henry Lee said, ‘The only gunfight I ever saw was right here in Halloran’s Saloon, right here in Dogbite in the summer of eighty-one. Do you recall that one, Dan?’’ Dan Crow shook his head, ‘No, I was up on t …
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MULTICULTURALISM AND THE WILD WEST Nowadays we talk about ‘multiculturalism’ as if this is a new thing. In the Hollywood films from away back, cowboys are depicted as being an all-white and fairly homogenous bunch of dudes. The truth is muc …
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FOLLOW THEM BEEVES! The cattle drives in America were carried out for a specific purpose in a specific era. They took place between 1866 and 1886, in a period just after the Civil War and before the development of refrigerated rail t …
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The Rise and Fall of a Legend Although his nickname was ‘Wild Bill’, his birth name was James Butler Hickok, son of William Alonzo and Polly Hickok. He was born in the year 1837, and accounts of his early life suggest that he was a great ma …
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by Alexander Hawksville William H. Bonney was also known as ‘Billy the Kid’. Like many of the anti-heroes of the southwest states he started young; by the end of his career, if that’s what it could be called, he was said to have kill …
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THE OPENING OF THE WEST By Art Isberg The human yearning for adventure to see what lies over a distant mountain range, across wide rivers and beyond misty valleys, drove explorers West to wonder and marvel at what they might find. T …
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By Alexander Hawksville Deadwood, aka Deadeye, Dick was a black cowboy hero. Why this should seem such a bold statement is beyond me. Most cowboy stories are set after the American Civil War (1859–1865) at the end of which the slaves were f …
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By Alexander Hawksville Large areas of the United States have semi-arid desert conditions. The Mojave Desert, also known as ‘Death Valley’, is the hottest and most arid region on earth, and rumours have it that frontiersman Kit Carson was h …
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A Brief History of The American West By Philip McCormack Once America was discovered by the Europeans, it was host to violent activity. The colonists fought the Indians, and also fought amongst themselves. Then, as other nations laid claim …
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WHAT THE BALLAD DOESN’T SAY By Alexander Hawksville ‘John Wesley Harding’ was a ballad conceived, written and executed by Bob Dylan in the latter half of the twentieth century. As a song, it is a ballad extolling a shadowy, mythic half-hero …
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