By RICH GRANT “Wild Bill” Hickock was such a romantic figure, it is hard to believe he really existed. Of course, through dime novels, movies, HBO, television shows and merchandising for 155 years, his image has become a caricature of the real thing. But look back at what contemporaries wrote about him, and you can understand why he became so
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By RICH GRANT Everyone knows Charleston, South Caroline, is one of United States’ most historic cities, but there’s a lot more than history occupying the town’s 1,600 pre-Revolutionary War buildings, including new breweries, distilleries and clubs. Charleston has become a Williamsburg with bars. And James Beard award-winning restaurants. And one-of-a-kind shops and galleries. Of course, there’s still plenty of history
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By RICH GRANT The Battle for the Bloody Bozeman Trail In 1866, gold was discovered in Montana, and it was almost a replica of what had happened in Colorado. The main trails west bypassed and went far south of Montana, so a scout named John Bozeman laid out a new diagonal trail northwest across Wyoming for the dozens of wagon
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By RICH GRANT Captain Tenedor Ten Eyck surveyed the frozen Wyoming landscape and was worried. Where was Fetterman? Captain Ten Eyck, on this very biting and cold day of Dec. 21, 1866, was in command of a relief force sent out from Fort Philip Kearney. He had 75 infantry troops and civilian volunteers and their mission was to find Captain
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. The year 2020 marks the fifth Father’s Day since my dad passed away in late 2015. It’s my day to remember a great man who taught me about life and where we came from. He also taught me how treat women and behave properly at work, at home or the baseball field. My father was quiet, a
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By RICH GRANT On the afternoon of June 25, 1876, on high bluffs above the Little Big Horn River, Coronel George Armstrong Custer halted the 7th Cavalry and dictated an order: “Benteen. Come On. Big Village. Be Quick. Bring Packs. P.S. Bring Packs.” The order was scribbled and handed to trumpeter John Martin, who grabbed it and galloped off in
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By RICH GRANT On Sept. 7, 1876, six of the most notorious outlaws in the United States rode their horses over an iron bridge and entered the quiet little country town of Northfield, Minnesota. At the same time, two more bandits rode into town from the south. All of them wore long, white linen coats to hide the fact they
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By RICARDO CASTILLO This is yet another article about the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but to make sense of the matter, let me start somewhere else. Once the U.S. star spangled banner was flying over the National Palace in Mexico City — back on Sept 13, 1847, to be exact – then-U.S. President James Polk was asked, with the new conquest
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By RICH GRANT More than 100 years before the U.S. Civil War, the first underground railroad to freedom for escaped slaves didn’t go from the South to the North – it went the other way, from Georgia and the Carolinas to Florida. And ironically, the escape route often ended in the one place blacks could be free from recapture
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By RICH GRANT Branson, Missouri, and the Ozark mountains are the biggest tourist attraction in the midwestern United States, and an area of outstanding natural beauty, history and art. While Branson attracts millions of visitors a year for its 120 shows, making it sort of the family-style “Las Vegas of the Midwest,” the area around Branson is filled with lakes,
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