by Sharon Hall | Aug 13, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Wild West Wednesday
Historical accounts vary as to whether today’s Wild West character came by his name via the middle name of “Xavier” or it was a family nickname, or he just adopted “X” as his name after becoming a well-known member of the Montana Vigilantes. Following the big 1863...
by Sharon Hall | Aug 6, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
On May 26, 1863 a group of men (Barney Hughes, Thomas Cover, Henry Rodgers, Henry Edgar, William Fairweather, Bill Sweeney and others) were on their way back to Bannack, Montana, scene of a gold discovery the year before. After being diverted from their route by a...
by Sharon Hall | Jul 16, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Wild West Wednesday
This event which took place on January 24, 1876 might have been just an obscure piece of American Western history if not for the fact that it involved twenty-three year-old William Barclay “Bat” Masterson. He was born on November 26 ,1853 and raised in Kansas. His...
by Sharon Hall | Jul 9, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Wild West Wednesday
July 8, 1898 was an eventful day in Skagway, Alaska. A scoundrel by the name of Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith met his untimely demise. Soapy had been making a name (and not a good one) for himself for years from Texas to Colorado to Alaska. Conduct a search at...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 25, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Wild West Wednesday
Samuel Sixkiller was born circa 1842 in the Going Snake District (now Adair County, Oklahoma) of Indian Territory to parents Redbird and Permelia (Whaley) Sixkiller. Samuel was of mixed blood Cherokee heritage, his father being the son a half-breed Cherokee mother...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 18, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
In 1880 five prospectors, “Skookum Joe” Anderson, c.c. Snow, Eugene Ervin, Pony McPartland, and David Jones, discovered gold in the Judith Mountains near Lewiston, Montana. There are at least two theories as to how the mining town they founded got its...
