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...

In Savannah, Georgia, in the final days of 1868 and through the long summer of 1869, Ena Palmer’s life looked like something out of a...

In August of 1877, the wilds of Yellowstone were no longer just the domain of curious tourists or European aristocrats in search of...

On the sunbaked prairie of Nebraska in the summer of 1872, cowboy-turned-frontier scout Texas Jack Omohundro rode alongside a group of...

Val Kilmer died yesterday. He was sixty-five years old. The news hit me harder than I expected, even though I’ve followed his health...

ChatGPT 4o and the Rise of AI Imagery: From Cowboy Caricatures to Convincing Counterfeits The newly released ChatGPT 4o (Omni) image...

Tin Jesus on Horseback: Buffalo Bill’s Bitter Business and Personal Feuds Buffalo Bill Cody was a legend, but legends are not built...

The Turbulent Relationship Between Buffalo Bill and Louisa Cody Buffalo Bill Cody and Louisa Cody’s marriage was one marked by triumphs...

On July 4, 1882, in North Platte, Nebraska, Buffalo Bill Cody did what he did best—put on a show. What was supposed to be a simple Fourth...

Little Crow, leader of the Mdewakanton Dakota during the 1862 Dakota War, knew his people had little chance of victory. He had tried to...

Episode 6 of 6 in a series on the 1862 Dakota War I wrote for Legends of the Old West . In this episode, the Dakota War reaches its...

Episode 5 of 6 in a series on the 1862 Dakota War I wrote for Legends of the Old West . The Dakota War of 1862 was a bloody and desperate...

An unauthorized breakfast run may have saved an entire army. Here’s how a group of hungry soldiers accidentally foiled a deadly ambush....

Episode 4 of 6 in a series on the 1862 Dakota War I wrote for Legends of the Old West . After surviving two brutal assaults, the...

Episode 3 of 6 in a series on the 1862 Dakota War I wrote for Legends of the Old West . As the Dakota War raged on, Fort Ridgely stood as...

As the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs face off in the AFC Championship tonight at 6:30 PM EST on CBS, there’s a certain energy in...