Frontier Partisans

“There are many, so many, hungry wolves. Can you find the wolves in this picture?”  Lordy. The trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon just dropped. Wow. This tale exposes one of the darkest corners of American history. A lot of blood has been spilled for that Black Gold. In the 1920s the richest people per capita in the world … [Read more...] about Blood And Black Gold

For a dozen years now, I’ve been stoking this electronic campfire, which has brought together folk from literally around the world who have an interest in frontier history and culture. Quite a few of us shape our day-to-day lives around a modern version of a frontier mindset. Andrew Scott Wills is one of us. As Hawken Horse, he’s a balladeer … [Read more...] about Hawken Horse — Balladeer Of The Frontier

The Legends of the Old West Podcast is a good ’un. Host Chris Wimmer went and committed a book, whose conceit is a solid one: Exploring the pivotal Summer of 1876. That centennial year saw a lot of action on the North American frontier, most notably with the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the James-Younger Gang’s debacle in the Northfield Raid, and … [Read more...] about Remembering The Summer Of ’76

Well, THIS makes my day. The trailer for Outlander Season 7, which just dropped, looks... Revolutionary. I am greatly looking forward to the June 16 premier of the season that finds the Frasers overtaken by the War of Independence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxurD9SYbog There is not more important or dramatic story in our history... yet … [Read more...] about The Revolution Starts… Now

Our friend Hawken Horse — Andrew Scott Wills — has an article in the current edition of Guns of the Old West Magazine on Frontier Music. I’ll need to grab a newsstand copy. Guns has absorbed some of the content from the recently defunct publication American Frontiersman. Andrew is the man to write such a piece — he is, after all, an … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — The Bounty Of May

David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon, has turned his narrative history skills to the maritime frontier of the 18th Century with The Wager. An unfamiliar story to me, and it looks most compelling. On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — A Wager, A War Club & Frontier Highlanders

INSP’s Into the Wild Frontier Season 3 premiered last weekend with an episode focusing on Mad Anne Bailey: Horseback Heroine.  After Anne Bailey’s husband is killed by Native Americans, she defies the social norms of the frontier and volunteers as a mounted messenger, risking her life to deliver vital messages and intelligence to isolated forts … [Read more...] about A Tip Of The Hat To Mad Anne

Ol’ Mahan crawled out from behind a couch and said:“Jack, as far as I can seeMistakes are only horses in disguiseAin’t no need to ride ’em over’cause we could not ride them different if we tried — Guy Clark, Ramblin’ Jack and Mahan One of the great ones has gone up the trail. ProRodeo Hall of Famer Larry Mahan, arguably the biggest … [Read more...] about Cowboy’d All To Hell

Our friends at Rock Island have another auction coming up and Gray’s Sporting Journal highlights one particular entry in a feature by legendary gun writer Terry Wieland. When I hear “Jeffery Double Rifle” I think of the great Boer hunter and World War I operator PJ Pretorius. This is slightly later and lighter than his, but what a fine specimen of … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — Rangers, Rifles & Sharp Edges