wild west

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...

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...

Say the name Annie Oakley and the image of a young woman who could shoot targets out of the sky without a miss and rode across the frontier with Wild West showman Buffalo Bill Cody comes to mind. Annie Oakley was a champion rifle shot and did perform alongside well-known riders, ropers, and Indian chiefs...

In 1897, twenty-year-old Mabel Sloan of Florence, Kansas, responded to an ad in the local paper.  Looking for work, she was intrigued by the notice:  “Wanted:  Young women, 18 to 30 years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent, as waitress in Harvey Eating Houses in the West.  Good wages, with room and means...

For both the bag and the film, luxury brand Hermés uses western and equestrian elements … interestingly. Their new “When Kelly Comes To Town” film (and Kelly Bag) are “equestrian inspired”. “When Kelly Came To Town” “When Kelly Came To Town” is the short film story of a mysterious woman on the trail of reward. She...

Sarah Louisa Dutcher was the first woman to make her way to the top of Half Dome. Historians believe the intrepid young woman accomplished the feat in 1875.

Roadside flyers posted around major cities from Amarillo, Texas, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1929 invited rodeo fans to come and see trick roper and bronc rider Bea Kirnan and “gasp with amazement and wonder at her daredevil talent.”  Audiences were promised to be “thrilled and mesmerized” by Bea’s work in the saddle. Born on October...

In many of the films actress Anne Jeffreys made for Republic Pictures she played a damsel in perilous situations.  Neither the studio nor the performer could imagine how much those movies would affect the lives of young, ticket buyers.  A letter from a fan written to the motion picture studio in the summer of 1945...