Episode 6 of 6 in a series on The Transcontinental Railroad  I wrote for Legends of the Old West. The dream of uniting a nation by rail...

Episode 5 of 6 in a series on The Transcontinental Railroad  I wrote for Legends of the Old West. Episode 5, “ Last Mountain, Last Battle...

Episode 4 of 6 in a series on The Transcontinental Railroad  I wrote for Legends of the Old West. In episode 4, “ Across the Desert ” ...

Episode 3 of 6 in a series on The Transcontinental Railroad  I wrote for Legends of the Old West. In episode 3, “Desperadoes of Every...

June 3rd, 1876 – Wilmington, Delaware The lights dimmed. The curtain fell. And just like that, one of the most legendary partnerships in...

“I’m Your Huckleberry”—The Truth Behind Doc Holliday’s Famous Line A popular internet myth insists that when Val Kilmer, as Doc Holliday...

At an elevation of 7,042 feet, just three miles west of Donner Lake, the Central Pacific Railroad faced its most formidable challenge:...

Readers of my work will already be familiar with legendary cowboy Texas Jack Omohundro and his wife, the renowned ballerina Giuseppina...

Today, May 28, is National Brisket Day—what better reason to celebrate at Texas Jack's Barbecue in Arlington, Virginia? When you're...

Episode 2 of 6 in a series on The Transcontinental Railroad  I wrote for Legends of the Old West. In Episode 2, "Mountains to Conquer,"...

James Butler Hickok was born 188 years ago today, May 27, 1837. Most folks don’t remember him by that name. They know him as Wild...

Why So Many Facebook Pages Are Copying My Work Without Credit On the morning of May 15, I published a post about Daniel Webster "80 John"...

LEGENDS OF THE OLD WEST | Hell on Wheels Ep1 — “The Great Race” Episode 1 of 6 in a series on the construction of the Transcontinental...

I was fifteen years old on Christmas morning, 1994. That year, my dad was forty-four. Among the gifts he gave me were two books:...

On August 11, 1873, the Daily Local News of West Chester, Pennsylvania published a glowing feature titled "A Drive with Buffalo Bill and...

Born into slavery, by the time of his death on March 28, 1939, Daniel "80 John" Wallace had amassed a net worth of over one million dollars, a staggering achievement for a man who began life as property.

I started typing this blog post and was a good paragraph in before it hit me—today is National Biographer’s Day , and somehow I almost...

AI Nonsense This post from the “90’s History” Facebook group might look convincing at first glance, but let’s call it what it is: a...

Left to right: Me holding my granddaughter Celene (2025), my grandmother Ruth with my father and me (1979 or 1980), Richard Jeffreys with...

The Cherokee Kid Will Rogers and Texas Jack Junior in South Africa Will Rogers didn’t leave his home on Cherokee land in the Indian...