Chris Enss

A huge cloud of steam boiled out of the tremendous stack on the locomotive engine hauling a Union Pacific train up a steep grade outside Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1888.  Among the many cars being pulled along was one belonging to the celebrated actress Lillie Langtry.  The seventy-five-foot, blue, private car named the LaLee was...

Just off Fort Point are several rocks that are a terror to mariners and on which many a good ship has laid her bones.  The currents here, right in the jaws of the entrance to the harbor, are very strong and irregular, and in case of fog the rocks are extremely dangerous.” —San Francisco Chronicle,...

We could hear the Mexican officers shouting to the men to jump over, and the men were fighting so close that we could hear them strike each other. –Enrique Esparza, San Antonio Daily Express, 1902 The distant cadence of drums from the nearly deserted town of San Antonio de Bexar sent a shiver of fear...

The moment Madam Alavez arrived at Copano, she began her work of intercession and performed deeds of mercy for the poor[,] suffering Texans who had fallen into the hands of the Mexican enemy. —Pioneer Press, October 1920  A slim shadow darted toward the old church at the ruined fortress of Goliad.  The smell of smoke...

Her name was Annie McIntyre Morrow, and the story of her life and times in the Idaho mining camps of Atlanta and Rocky Bar is one of tragedy, courage, and resourcefulness.  She was born in Van Buren County, Idaho, on September 13, 1858.  Her mother died giving birth to her.  Annie’s father, Steve McIntyre, brought...

“She is heart and soul in the work and has been wonderfully blessed in her efforts.” Comment about Florence Dedrick made by the Superintendent of Midnight Missions, Ernest A. Bell – 1910 As the Wild West became more civilized, tolerance for prostitution and the women who owned and operated houses of ill fame became less...

A cold sunrise greeted the soldiers stationed at Fort Cummings, New Mexico, on the first day of 1868. An eager bugler sounded a call to arms, and members of the Thirty-eighth Infantry hurried out of their barracks to line up in formation, their rifles perched over their shoulders. The enlisted African-American men who made up...

“In good weather you’d see Jenny Murphy bicycling around town on her calls with her little satchel over her shoulder.  In bad weather she’d take her horse and buggy.” Argus Leader – 1951 Dr. Jenny Murphy flipped the collar up on the thick, gray coat she was wearing and tightened the grip she had on...

Eliza Cook: Nevada State Journal, June 9, 1946 An advertisement that appeared in the May 5, 1892, edition of the Reno Gazette Journal caught the attention of many residents in the northern Nevada town.  It read: “Dr. Eliza Cook may be consulted at her office in rooms 25 and 26 at the Golden Eagle Hotel...