February 10, 1763: The Treaty of Paris Ends the French & Indian War—And Kicks Off the American Revolution
The Treaty of Paris and The American Revolution This year we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was signed in the midst of the American...
Remembering Red Cloud
We’ve written before about some of the greatest Native-American warriors of the 19th century: Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph, and Quanah Parker, to name a few. Today we write about another of the great...
Remembering Doc Holliday
When thinking about “Old West” characters, many come to mind – Wyatt Earp, Jesse James, Billy the Kid among others. While people tend to categorize these characters as “good” or...
Remembering Benjamin Harrison
Born on August 20, 1833, Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States (served, 1889-1893). He was a descendant of a prominent Virginia family, and was the grandson of William...
Remembering Crazy Horse
The history of the American West is, in many respects, a history of conquest, as American settlers in the 1800’s migrated west into the lands of various Native-American tribes. Following the...
Remembering William Clark
Last month we posted a story about Meriwether Lewis, the famed explorer who co-led the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06. The other leader of that expedition was William Clark, who died on this...
The California Gold Rush: The 175th Anniversary Of The “49’ers,” And California’s First Constitutional Convention, September 1849
The story of the American West is a story of emigration—hundreds of thousands of pioneers heading West, originally to areas west of the Mississippi River, and later to areas west of the Rockies,...
Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Meriwether Lewis
Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Lewis In the history of the American West (by which I mean west of the Mississippi), two events arguably were the starting point for the western...
Remembering Annie Oakley
On this day in 1860, folk heroine Annie Oakley was born in a log cabin in Illinois. By age 8 she was demonstrating her extraordinary sharp-shooting skills, and at age 15 she began a long career as...
Remembering Wild Bill
Yesterday we commemorated the death of Calamity Jane, the colorful “partner” of Wild Bill Hickok, who died on August 1, 1903. Today, we commemorate the death of Wild Bill himself, who died...
