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...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 11, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
The area around what became known as Valentine, Arizona was established in 1898 when President William McKinley set aside land for an Indian School. By the way, if you missed Monday’s article about “Henry P. Ewing, The Blind Miner,” check it out here. Henry was...
by Sharon Hall | Jun 4, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Wild West Wednesday
This gun battle at Blazer’s Mill, located on the Rio Tularosa, is considered part of the Lincoln County War of 1878. The most famous participant of that war was, of course, William H. Bonney, a.k.a. “Billy the Kid.” Billy and his fellow posse members...
by Sharon Hall | May 28, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
This ghost town in the Coeur d’Alenes of Idaho, although once a thriving gold mining town, might not be worthy of a mention, but for the fact that Wyatt Earp and Josephine “Sadie” Marcus arrived there in early 1884 for the Coeur d’Alene gold rush. Titus Blessing,...
