Approximately five hundred fire lookouts remain active throughout the United States. The majority of these lookouts are located west of the Mississippi River, but East Coast states continue to staff fire lookouts as well. The states of Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and New Mexico staff the majority of the lookout stations still in service. The earliest fire lookouts were posted in the 1870s overlooking mining camps throughout the West. The states of Idaho and Main...

In 1903 the AT&SF Railroad began laying track on the Belen Cutoff from Belen, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas. The railroad company encouraged settlement of New Mexico’s eastern plains by sponsoring emigrant trains, a quicker method of transport for settlers moving their belongings and livestock across the country. Towns were founded along the route with the arrival of the railroad. Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner. Taiban’s Pink Pony Saloon & Dancehall publici...

Cowboy and drifter Frank Clifford lived a lot of lives—and raised a lot of hell—in the first quarter of his life. The number of times he changed his name—Clifford being just one of them—suggests that he often traveled just steps ahead of the law. During the 1870s and 1880s his restless spirit led him all over the Southwest, crossing the paths of many of the era’s most notorious characters, most notably Clay Allison and Billy the Kid.More than just an entertaining and informative na...

A traveler's guide to ghost towns and historic villages of Arizona and New Mexico, featuring maps, historical background, and color photos.The Southwest is home to an enticing array of ghost towns and historic villages. Once-bustling mining camps, frontier towns, and railroad towns stand today as reminders of the glory days of mining and the Wild West. Historic buildings, abandoned schoolhouses, old mills, and overgrown cemeteries offer fascinating glimpses into the...

The San Antonio edition of Historical Cities explores the multi-national past of this south Texas city. Fifty-one historic sites and landmarks in the city's downtown and surrounding area are explored. A concise history is also provided. Reference maps for the downtown and San Antonio's environs are included, along with GPS coordinates for all listed historic sites.

This seventh book The Bowie Secret is a murder mystery couched as a work of historical fiction. The murder of Baylor County farmer and rancher, Jones Bowie, by an unknown assailant using a bow and arrow as the murder weapon, is an intriguing story which leads Sheriff Bob Elliotts investigation into the distant past to uncover the motive for this crime of retribution. Bob hopes you learn some history as you read this book and enjoy the story.

There are few subjects that fascinate people as much as New Mexico and a good mystery. New Mexico has always been an enigmatic place, filled with rich history. This book explores and examines forty-four of New Mexico’s most baffling mysteries, which lure the curious and beg for investigation even though their solutions have eluded experts, many for decades. Many relate to the death or disappearance of some of the best-known lawmen and outlaws in history — Sheriffs Pat Garrett, Les Dow, and...

The glamour and fascination of the Old West is brought to life in a new way in this interesting collection of facts and figures. It tell stories of such Old West characters as Geronimo, General Custer and the Unsinkable Molly Brown. This book covers the who, what, where, and how in the often violent settling of the land west of the Mississippi. The scope and history of the Old West is highlighted in a way that is both factual and entertaining in this unique presentation that will appeal to...

Revolutions, native conspiracies and subsequent insurrections, filthy mountain men sleeping on the dirt and wrestling with grizzlies, radical priests, belligerent American soldiers, betrayal, violence, early forms of commerce, and other enthralling accounts are part of this small New Mexico town’s history. Complete with illustrations and archived photographs, “Turbulent Taos” is Den Galbraith’s groundbreaking examination of Taos’s wild past in its pre to post territorial days. Informative ...

"[The] text and photos make this . . . more than a pretty coffee-table book, Route 66 aficionados will want to add this descriptive tome to their collections." — Ruidoso News (New Mexico)Much more than a ribbon of crumbling asphalt, Route 66 is a cultural icon revered the world over for its nostalgic value—an east-west artery pointing America toward all the promise that the great West represented. But as stretches of Steinbeck's "Mother Road" were bypassed ...

This history of the Lipan Apaches, from archeological evidence to the present, tells the story of some of the least known, least understood people in the Southwest. These plains buffalo hunters and traders were one of the first groups to acquire horses, and with this advantage they expanded from the Panhandle across Texas and into Coahuila, coming into conflict with the Comanches. With a knack for making friends and forging alliances, they survived against all odds, and were still free lon...

The Panhandle�s first railroad, the Southern Kansas Railway of Texas, was constructed in 1886. Reaching Amarillo in 1889, the railway pulled cars filled with immigrant families and their belongings. The settlers were farmers from the east and south who came west to find water and cheap land. George Tyng, an adventurous fortune seeker, began leasing ranch land in 1887. A rail station was constructed, and Tyng eventually settled on the name �Pampa,� a South American word that means �plains.�...