Before Texas Jack was a cowboy legend, he was John Baker Omohundro. And before he was synonymous with the Lone Star State, he was a boy from Virginia — born July 26, 1846, in Palmyra, 50 miles as the crow flies northwest of Richmond. He earned the name “Texas Jack” years later, after driving longhorn cattle across the plains and scouting alongside Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok. But no matter how far he roamed, from the open range of Texas to the vast prairies of Neb

Did you know that Hollywood’s greatest leading man, an Academy Award winner and heartthrob of a generation, once served as a pallbearer...

Robert Redford, one of Hollywood’s true icons, has died at 89. For more than half a century he embodied the golden era of American...

Yesterday marked the paperback release of Julia Bricklin’s Red Sapphire: The Woman Who Beat the Blacklist . I read this book when it...

Graham Greene has walked on. The Oneida First Nations actor, who was good in every role he inhabited, died this week at the age of 73....

Azariah Wild. It’s one of the great names of the Wild West. But even most serious students of American history have either never heard of...

This photograph, that I saw for the first time yesterday, is a rare moment in time from my family's history. It was taken around 125...

The other day my dad mentioned a song my grandfather, Lee Jackson Cooper, had written with Dalton Roberts. That sent me digging—and...

I’m working on a couple of podcast episodes about the Buffalo Soldiers, the Black cavalrymen who rode for the U.S. Army after the Civil...

In the decades after Texas Jack Omohundro helped define the image of the cowboy for audiences across America, his namesake and...

If you’re a fan of Wild West history—and especially of the Lincoln County War and the legend of Billy the Kid—do yourself a favor and...

Review: In the Days of Billy the Kid  by James B. Mills A deeper, richer American West—told through the lens of Hispano resistance and...

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...