Official Site of True West Magazine, Since 1953

Great to find an old interest still vital

Just joined yesterday. It's been many years since I got away from my obsession with "things western". As a young man I was almost fanatical about reading and even researching the old time badmen, the somewhat better men, G.A. Custer and the Indian Wars, Mountain men, and of course the cowboys and the settlers. My interest was generally focused on the badmen of the era and things Custer.

I did a lot of research on Harvey Logan and used to communicate with other researchers/writers, some are now gone. I even wrote a short article for "The National Association for Outlaw and Lawmen History Journal", on the killing of Pike Landusky. I was really into LBHA, also. Then I moved into scouting books from Howes' famous bibliography and more so from Ramon Adams' "Six-Guns and Saddle Leather". But later just got away from it. Never lost interest, though.

Just went back to college and finished that as an adult and got into weighlifting and spent all my time and money for more than a decade traveling and competing; got married, children, you get the picture. . .

A few years back I got interested in guns and over the last month I have been writing sketches on a gun forum about the old characters, with an eye toward showing these folks that the gunmen/outlaws/lawmen that inhabited our western expanses from 1800-~1920 were indeed rough customers. It seems backlash among the purveyors of "history" titles the playing a bit too far when they set out to demonstrate to us all how it was very rare to have men facing each other in street. It was an oddity in the American West but certainly not the American East/South. Numerous "duels" were fought. I never really got the whole crusade thing that went on in with historians trying to set the record straight. Oh well. . . I just wanted to let them know that the events like "The Newton General Massacre" and "The Tascosa Gunfight", among others most definitely occurred. The fellows seem to enjoy it. I never really go into the sketches deeply as it would be out of my purview but just glean a few facts or well formed opinions and type it up.

Wow, a "howdy" turned into a stream of consciousness! Sorry.

Howdy glad to have reignited asn old interest and found a place to hang out a bit.

God bless y'all from Kentucky.

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