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Homestake Mill, 1889


Ghost Cowboy is about real tales from the 19th-century American frontier, when the Old West was young. Most of the posts here are actual news items from the 1800s and early 1900s. We'll be adding "new" content every week. Travel with us and sign up for an account, and you'll be able to leave comments and post in our forums. Your trailmasters, Ken in Alabama and Dave in Virginia, don't get to saddle up and vacation out west as often as they'd like, so they started this site. Drop us a note.

frontiersman


Dodge City Peace Commission


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Members of the Dodge City, Kansas, Peace Commission, from left to right: Chas. Bassett, W. H. Harris, Wyatt Earp, Luke Short, L. McLean, Bat Masterson, Neal Brown. The photograph was taken by Camillus S. Fly in 1890.

Related: The Notorious Luke Short Shot

RIOT ENDS IN BLOODSHED


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STRIKERS IN AMBUSH FIRE ON THE SHERIFF’S POSSE.

RIFLES IN THE HANDS OF THE KNIGHTS DEFEAT THE OFFICERS, WHO WERE FORCED TO RETREAT WITH THEIR WOUNDED -- GREAT EXCITEMENT IN THE TOWN.

Newspaper Account / April 3, 1886

FORT WORTH, TEXAS, April 3. -- At 10 o’clock this morning 1,500 persons assembled at the Missouri Pacific Station to see Sheriff Maddox send out a train, which he said last night he would do or die in the attempt.

Roping Gray Wolf, 1887


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Cowboys take in a gray wolf on “Round Up” in Wyoming. 1887 photograph by John Grabill. Larger.

FROM UTAH. THE RED MAN . . .


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NEW-YORK TIMES, June 30, 1865

FROM UTAH. The Red Man -- What Shall be Done With Him?

GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Friday, June 2, 1865.

What to do with the red men is still a problem which, it appears, cannot be satisfactorily solved. For this Spring there seems to be as much chance of difficulties with them, all around, as ever. We hear of Indian troubles from every quarter nearly. They are rampageous, in a limited way, and sometimes not so limited in California, Nevada, Arizona, New-Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon and Utah, and probably will soon be, if

 

Shorpy  The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog!

Juniper Gallery  Fine-art prints of the photos on this site.

Turnpike Cruiser  Photos of the present-day West, with an emphasis on Arizona and Bisbee, and the Canadian Rockies.

PatentRoom  Patent illustrations from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Buy as prints.

Plan59  Retro 1950s illustrations. Cars! Happy wives! Demonic Tots!

Box of Apples  Fruit-crate art from the turn of the century, available as fine-art prints.

AdventureLounge  Aircraft patent drawings and early aviation history. Will it fly?