chris enss

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans made their first movie together in 1944, and so began a dazzling partnership with a devoted public following that lasted 52 years. In this charming photographic biography, readers meet the talented young man and woman who would eventually become the royal couple of B-rated Westerns, a reign that would last...

Bronc busting champion Kitty Wilkes won her first title at the Wild West Celebration Rodeo in Miles City, Montana, in 1916.  The seventeen-year-old, New York native’s straightforwardness and untamed physical daring gave fans the impression she was born and bred into the rugged life of a Wyoming ranch. Few would have guessed she was new to...

(1894-1986) The stylish lobby of the Texas Hotel in Fort Worth was a bustle of activity on Saturday, March 11, 1922.  Well-dressed patrons were arriving and departing.  A string quartet in the corner of the massive entryway serenaded white-haired, prosperous looking gentlemen and their stocky, bejeweled wives being escorted to their rooms by attentive bellboys. ...

1898-1948 Cowboy Bill Pickett is credited with introducing the sport of bulldogging to rodeos in 1907.  In bulldogging the rider dashes after a mad fleeing steer, leans out from the saddle and throws himself onto its horns, bringing the beast to the ground in a swirling scramble of dust and a half a pound of...

On March 1, 1933, four men left Casper, Wyoming, to search for a woman that had been missing since mid-February.  Mrs. Rose Coleman was reported missing by her husband, the reputed cattle rustler Charles W. Coleman.  Charles wrote his brother-in-law Ernest Gale from jail informing him that he’d not heard from his wife for more...

In June 1911, high-spirited Goldie St. Clair, Champion Lady Bucking Horse Rider of the World, rode with several other cowgirls in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, street parade to the rodeo grounds where the 101 Ranch Wild West Show was going to perform.  A year prior, Goldie had captured the bronco riding title at the Frontier Days...

Hundreds of cheering fans flocked to the train depot in Caney, Kansas, on Sunday, October 24, 1920, to welcome the Yankee Robinson Circus to town.  When the coast and crew alighted from the multiple cars, the men, women, and children on hand to greet them applauded excitedly.  Most of the townspeople followed after the performers...

A strong gust of wind blew a pair of tumbleweeds into the path of a team of horses hitched to a wagon.  It spooked the animals, and they reared and bucked and then bolted.  The gray-haired women holding the reins of the team screamed.  The wagon pitched and swayed as the horses jerked it around. ...