Wild West History

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.

3 min read

Grizzly Adams

Movies, television series, and books have extolled the legendary mountain man-turned-bear-tamer, Grizzly Adams.

1 min read

Who Killed Custer? It might surprise you.

Female Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn-Custer's Last Stand-with distinction.

6 min read

Daniel Boone, Frontier Icon

Baby boomers grew up on the 1964 Daniel Boone tv series and the theme song. Some of you may even be able to sing along.

10 min read

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Today is the 138th anniversary of the gunfight at the OK corral on October 26, 1881. It was only 30 seconds of fury and flying lead.

7 min read

The Stunt King of Hollywood

For a century, American Westerns have captured the blood-and-thunder of the Wild West, cowboys and Indians, outlaws and outlanders.

6 min read

The Grisly Tale of Big Nose George

Frontier justice could be harsh, but few Wild West legends ended as badly for a bad guy as did the life of Big Nose George.

5 min read

Footbinding & Prostitution in the 1800s

The tradition of foot-binding, also called “lotus feet,” was a thousand-year-old tradition in China that was brought to the United States.

6 min read

America's First Indian General

One Native man reached the very highest echelons of white power and, in 1865, penned the final surrender terms of the Civil War.

5 min read

Homo(sexuality) on the Range

The wild, wild west was indeed untamed, unconventional and “under the radar” in many ways, especially regarding intimacy.

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.

6 min read

The Saga of Jackson Sundown

It turns out that Angela Swedberg is one of the leading Tribally Certified Indian Artisans in the country.

4 min read

Frontier Cussing

The obscenity of the West was indeed, 'striking,' but the obscenity of mining camps was unbelievable.”

5 min read

Stagecoach Mary

The legend was a towering, six-foot-plus black woman named “Stagecoach Mary.” And she could drink, smoke, cuss, fistfight and shoot.

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.

4 min read

Wild Bill Hickok

If ever there was an icon that embodied the Wild West, it was Wild Bill Hickok. He lived violently and died violently.

5 min read

Calamity Jane

Calamity Jane, born Martha Jane Canary, is an enigma in Western legend. Much has been written about her, much of it fictional.

4 min read

Who Killed Custer? It May Surprise You: PART 2

The Cheyenne called Custer "Attacker at Dawn" because of the Washita Massacre of 1868.

2 min read

The Wild West Shootout

The truth is that gun fights were rare, not premeditated, and didn't happen at a 75-foot distance.

2 min read

Soiled Doves

The "oldest profession" was one of the first to go West to the frontier, following the first mountain men, loggers and prospectors.

2 min read

Scalping

Contrary to Hollywood, scalping has been practiced by warring people-especially whites- throughout human history.