Nature & Animals

WELCOME!

Thanks for visiting Notes from the Frontier! This blog is for history lovers fascinated by the American West
and pioneer and Indian life on the frontier. I started this new blog in 2019 and it grew very quickly
to more than 100,000 readers! Today it has nearly 400 posts.
I spent many years of researching my just-released debut historical novel, Blood to Rubies
about Chief Joseph and his heroic struggle to save his people in 1877. (It's already bestselling and award-winning! Press the blue button below for more info.) During my research, I discovered that so much of what we'd been taught in history books and by Hollywood was just plain wrong. So I decided to start a history blog. And it's been a pure joy and a life's passion project for me.
We'll cover many topics: from "soiled doves" to slavery, firearms to freak show, home brew to homosexuality, tough men and tougher women, cowboys and Indians, childbirth and death, dreams and desperation, myths and the truth. And, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction!
It's sure to be a wild ride! So hang on to your hat and let's GIDDYUP!

SPECIAL NOTE: Go to the Directory to view more specific categories .

Here's me, author-to-be, Deborah Hufford, at 16 and the Dayton Rodeo Queen in Iowa (which was the U.S. National Rodeo of the Year that year! My childhood horse was named Sundance, and was a celebrity among all the children in my small farming town. He even carried the Iowa governor in our rodeo parade one year.

When Sundance died at the ripe old age of 30, our town newspaper ran his obituary. I was so lucky to have the best horse in the world 💙

Take a wild ride into America’s past.

7 min read

Rabies on the Frontier

Rabies reached epidemic stages in some cities and territories in the 1800s and early 1900s and Americans were hysterical with fear.

7 min read

Remembering Old Yeller

Baby boomers grew up with wonderful stories of dogs we loved in books and on the screen, but no story resonated more than "Old Yeller".

7 min read

The Wild Turkey

American folklore holds that Ben Franklin rallied for the wild turkey to be our national bird instead of the bald eagle.

6 min read

In Honor of a Magnificent Warhorse

In the history of human warfare, horses have paid nearly as great a price as men on the battlefield.

6 min read

Yellowstone's Keystone Wolves

A century ago, gray wolves were completely exterminated from Yellowstone National Park.

6 min read

America's First Animal Shelter

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of America’s first animal shelter in 1869 in Philadelphia.

7 min read

Prehistoric Giants Unearthed

Once trunked titans 15 feet tall, weighing up to ten tons, with monstrous tusks 20 feet long roamed North America from sea to sea.

5 min read

For the Love of Horses (& Mules!)

For those of us who grew up with horses, who know the touch of horses, who love horses, we understand how much we owe to the horse and mule.

6 min read

Pig-Malia

Pigs have been maligned and misunderstood throughout history. But the fact is they are smart, clean and do not sweat.

5 min read

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed was born John Chapman in 1774 in Massachusetts. His father was a Minuteman under George Washington.

7 min read

The War on Wolves

Throughout human history, the wolf has always been one of Nature’s most magnificent and maligned creatures, both revered and reviled.

7 min read

"Every Dead Buffalo is an Indian Gone"

Once upon a time, before European whites ever set foot on the North American continent, 75-100 million buffalo roamed the land.

7 min read

In Praise of Oxen

If patience is a virtue, oxen are saints.

4 min read

Custer's Dogs

George Armstrong Custer was a great dog lover and he had that to commend him. At one time late in his life he had between 40 and 80 dogs.

3 min read

Prairie Companions

Because the wilderness was their backyard, many other species of animals were sometimes adopted, usually as babies that could be tamed.

3 min read

Indian Dogs

Before whites came to North America and native tribes integrated horses into their culture, dogs were common across the entire continent.

3 min read

Buffalo & Indians

The buffalo was considered sacred to Plains Indians as a main source of their spirit life and sustenance.