Frontier Partisans — The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

The Long Hunt

March 7, 2012

Few figures in history are more romanticized than the hunter-explorer. Whether its Long Hunters infiltrating the Appalchian barrier to explore the verdant bluegrass of Kaintuckee or the Mountain Men pushing into the Rocky Mountains in a restless quest for beaver pelts or the African hunter leading a safari into the interior after ivory, there’s [...]

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Khyber Patrol

February 29, 2012

I’ve been buried in writing for work the past couple of weeks; hence these brief shots. I’ll be back in the saddle in mid-March with some more in-depth Frontier Partisans action. This morning I was searching Netflix for something to have on while I worked out. Some undemanding derring-do. I found it in “Khyber Patrol” [...]

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NBC sets out for ‘The Frontier’

February 24, 2012

From DigitalSpy.com: Three actors have joined the cast of NBC Western pilot The Frontier. The project, from Blue Bloods producer Shaun Cassidy, will follow a group of travelers who embark on a dangerous cross-country journey in the early 1800s. Legend of the Seeker actress Bridget Regan, Brotherhood’s Ethan Embry and Warrior Jake McLaughlin have all [...]

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Dave Alvin is the coolest man in the universe

February 22, 2012

Just had to be said. It’s a fact. I already kinda thought so after spending several hours hanging out with Dave at the Sisters Folk Festival last September. Now the proof has been established beyond any doubt. Last night, Dave’s song “Beautiful City Across the River” played over the final scene of “Justified” as a [...]

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The Art of John Seerey-Lester

February 11, 2012

It’s unlikely that I’ll ever take that African safari of my dreams. Gotta send the kid to college and all that, after all. And besides, as my wife wisely notes, I’d need a time machine as well as a fat bankroll to get the experience I really want, which is to taste the glory [...]

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Pancho Villa sat here

February 2, 2012

Pancho Villa’s last saddle, made shortly before his assassination in 1923 went at auction for a cool $718,000. That exceeded presale estimates of $150,000 to $250,000 by just a bit. Read the story here. Went to a South Texas-based collector who plans to put it in a museum. I’ve never been a fan of highly [...]

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A Forgotten Frontier Partisan

January 30, 2012

History is capricious. For every frontier partisan who became legend, there are probably a dozen who slipped into obscurity — though their exploits are no less vivid or significant. Such is the case of Kentucky frontiersman Bland Ballard. Everyone has heard the name of Daniel Boone and most folks with a passing interest in early [...]

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Character is Fate — The Sanguinary Fiction of James Carlos Blake

January 23, 2012

I was working in a bookstore when I discovered Blake’s debut novel, “The Pistoleer.” I was knocked out. Blake recounted the life of Texas gunman John Wesley Hardin through the eyes of people who knew him (actual and imagined). His command of an array of voices — a judge, a whore, a gambler, a lawman [...]

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The Elephant Poachers of the Lado Enclave

January 22, 2012

“…When we were all assembled in my tent and champagne had been served out to everyone except Roosevelt — who insisted on drinking non-intoxicants, though his son Kermit joined us — he raised his glass and gave the toast ‘To the Elephant Poachers of the Lado Enclave.’ As we drank with him one or [...]

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