• I do love this time of year. Celebrations of gratitude with family and friends — with obligatory feasting — thrum some deep chords in my soul. This Thanksgiving, the bird was earned. The Rullmans raised turkeys, and on the weekend before the holiday, Marilyn and I headed over to the Figure 8 Ranch to help Craig and Wendy do the necessary work. As … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — December 2018

  It’s an interesting time to pursue an obsession with indigenous identity. One of my primary interests in Frontier Partisan studies these days is the “Men of the Middle Ground” — those whose racial and cultural identity was mixed in the great kettle of the borderlands. The North American Fur Trade created thousands of racially mixed … [Read more...] about Who Do You Think You Are? — Identity Crisis In the Cultural Borderlands

This is some Frontier Partisan action right here, boys! From BBC: An Arizona man has survived two days trapped alone in a mineshaft with rattlesnakes. He killed three of the snakes while waiting to be discovered, according to rescue crews. John Waddell, 62, was lowering himself into a 100ft (30m) gold mine shaft, when his equipment broke, … [Read more...] about Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine

A few days of glorious Indian Summer. I’ve stolen one of them. There is much that must be done. There is always much that must be done. I couldna let such a day go to waste. I set out reasonably early to the woods north of Zimmerman Butte (aka The Pit; our shooting range). The songbirds played a lively tune as the fine morning light crowned … [Read more...] about Indian Summer

Lookit here who showed up in Central Oregon last week. Captain Rick Schwertfeger, Frontier Partisans Southern Command, based out of Austin, Texas, trekked west after visiting his sons in Montana to pay a visit to the Frontier Partisans and Running Iron Report outfit here in Sisters, Oregon. Miles were hiked; music was enjoyed; food was et; shots … [Read more...] about A Visit To The Camp Fire

I have this thing about Mexican skeletons. I am not alone in this, fortunately. Marilyn has a sugar skull pop socket on her cell phone and a sugar skull sticker on her Hydroflask. There is a Day of the Dead banner on the wall looking out on our barbecue deck. It is not lost on me that it is a fine thing indeed that we are simpatico in this … [Read more...] about Skeletons Coming Out Of The Closet

When the last rose of summer pricks my finger, And the hot sun chills me to the bone, When I can’t hear the song for the singer, And I can’t tell my pillow from a stone, I will walk alone by the black muddy river, And sing me a song of my own, I will walk alone by the black muddy river, And sing me a song of my own. — Robert Hunter/Jerry … [Read more...] about Black Muddy River, Roll On Forever

Recently stumbled across a couple of True West Magazine pieces on the artist Ron Lesser, who is best known in Western circles for his iconic movie poster for the dark Clint Eastwood movie High Plains Drifter. Lesser is a well-known artist for paperback novels and movie posters, with a flair for Western iconography. He has a series of paintings … [Read more...] about Smokin’ Wimmin Smokin’

By Rick Schwertfeger, Captain, Frontier Partisans Southern Command Austin, Texas, May 2018 The trail begins down a gentle slope. You’re walking easily, strolling. After a quarter mile the footing gets tougher, with looser rock. The trail descends more sharply. You’re picking your way down unstable rocks, stepping very carefully. Steeper, … [Read more...] about Cosmic, Mythic, Mystical Rock Art Of The Lower Pecos Peoples In The Texas-Mexico Borderlands