Page 30 - Mark Boardman News Today

True West Magazine In 1871, Wyatt Earp faced five years in prison for stealing horses in Indian Territory.  In preparation for trial, he and others were held at the jail in Van Buren.  Temporarily.  On May 3, Earp was among 10 men who escaped through a low attic crawl space and lowering themselves out a window. Most of the fugitives were never recaptured.  Wyatt Earp, of course, became a Kansas lawman about four years later—before making his name in Tombstone.  There are some theories th...

True West Magazine Medicine Lodge In 1873, Arthur McCluskie was seeking revenge for the death of his brother two years earlier. He tracked down the killer, Hugh Anderson, in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and challenged him to a fight. The date: July 4. The weapons: pistols. The combatants met in the main street and opened fire; both were wounded before they ran out of bullets. But they weren’t done. McCluskie and Anderson pulled knives and went at it. Both died from their wounds. Post Views: ...

True West Magazine Newton KS August 19, 1871.  Several Texas cowboys were seeking revenge for the death of a friend eight days before.  They tracked the killer, Mike McCluskie, to Tuttle’s Dance Hall in Newton, Kansas.  Cowboy Hugh Anderson opened fire, putting several bullets in McCluskie.  At that, the shooting became general.  A young cowpoke named Jim Riley did much of the firing.  He hit seven men, four of whom died. Riley reportedly was dying of tuberculosis.  He simply walked ou...

True West Magazine Our readers remind us of the variables and vagaries of historic truths, “well-established” facts, headlines and historical photographs. Double-Take on Bass Reeves and the Lone Ranger The cover of your February/March2021 issue, showing Bass Reeves masked as the Lone Ranger is simply brilliant. —Rex Rideout (Conifer, Colorado) Well, I’m glad you did not offer me a vote on this month’s cover (February/March 2021). It’s the first cover of TW in all I have seen that ...

True West Magazine Newton KS 1872   Billy Bailey was a Texas cowhand who made his way up the trail to Newton, Kansas in 1871.  He had a reputation for being handy with a gun and may have been involved in a couple of shooting deaths.  That may have been why he was hired as a special policeman in August. His task: keep order during a tough election season. On August 11, Bailey got into a political argument with Special Policeman Mike McCluskie. The latter man killed Bailey with two shots to th...

True West Magazine George S Patton 1919   May 1916. Lieutenant George Patton led a group of 10 soldiers on a raid of a Mexican ranch, looking for Pancho Villa aide Julio Cardenas. It was the first attack using motorized vehicles—and it was a success. Patton gunned the Mexican leader down with a pearl handled Colt .45 pistol. Two other Villistas were also killed. Patton transported the bodies about 90 miles to the headquarters of General John Pershing. The young lieutenant had actually disobe...

True West Magazine   Six Mile, KS was a hotspot on the stage run from Jefferson City to St. Joseph. The tavern, built a decade before the Civil War, was the center of attraction for the town. It also proved to be a wartime gathering place for Red Legs, Union-supporting guerrillas. Other gangs also spent time there, taking in alcohol and venturing out to commit criminal acts. More than a few people died there. But its time was limited. By 1894, the stages had run their course and railroads didn...

True West Magazine A Cattle Train by any Other Name The namesake of the Chisholm Trail was not a cattleman. Jesse Chisholm   Western pioneer Jesse Chisholm is best known for the Texas to Kansas cattle trail that bears his name.  And that’s ironic: Jesse never drove cattle in his life. He was a trader, starting and working various trading posts in the Indian Territory.  After the Civil War, Chisholm used an old military and Indian trail that was capable of handling heavy wagons full of good...

In the summer of 1892, the federal government sent Buffalo Soldiers to serve as a buffer between the two sides in Wyoming’s Johnson County War.

Charles Young had a distinguished career of service to his country.