Free Civil War and Reconstruction Lectures from Yale

The other day I stumbled upon a website called Academic Earth. The purpose of the website is to provide free lectures on various subjects from the leading universities in the US. I very eagerly browsed through their history section and ran across a series of lectures by Professor David W. Blight from Yale University about … more »

September 12, 2009

George Custer on the Origins of the Indians

It is really quite amazing to read through some of the theories produced during the 19th century about the origin of the Native Americans. As I talked about in my last post, I am currently reading the memoirs of George Custer about his life on the plains and his personal experiences with the Indians. The … more »

August 18, 2009

My Life on the Plains

Last night I finished Ghost Stories of the Old West by Dan Asfar. Other than several editing mistakes (spelling, grammar, etc), the book was actually quite good. You always hear about legends and myths from Europe about haunted castles and so on, but to read the legends of some of America’s own haunted places is … more »

August 10, 2009

Ghost Stories of the Old West

So I decided to take a break from reading non-fiction and treat myself to a book full of short ghost stories of the old west. The book I found is appropriately titled Ghost Stories of the Old West and is by Dan Asfar. I really haven’t gotten very far into it at all; only a … more »

August 4, 2009

Wilson’s Creek Battlefield

As you’ve already read from the last post, I recently returned from a trip to Missouri. I saw the houses of the James brothers and I also took a day trip down to Springfield, MO and visited the Wilson’s Creek battlefield where one of the first large battles of the Civil War took place. The … more »

July 24, 2009

Pictures of Jesse and Frank James’ Houses

I recently returned from a trip to Missouri to visit the family farm. It is always incredibly interesting going back there because my grandmother is really interested in our family history and the history of the area in general. As part of this most recent visit, we visited the houses of the James brothers near … more »

July 23, 2009

Large Buffalo Bill Poster Found

I read an interesting article on 9news.com yesterday that I thought I would share here. For those of you who don’t know what 9news is, it’s one of Denver’s news channels (NBC). The article is about a new poster that was found dating back to 1887 promoting Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. The poster was … more »

July 18, 2009

The History of Elkton Mine

I don’t think I’ve really said a whole lot about my fiction writing, but as a hobby, I enjoy writing fiction. I have mainly written short horror stories, but I’ve decided to try something different this time. I am going to try my hand at writing a short western. The story of course needs a … more »

June 19, 2009

New Featured Book

I realized today that I haven’t changed the featured book for quite a long time. So, I’ve changed it to another book about Native Americans called The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America by James Wilson. It is a fascinating history of the Native Americans that gives each region of the United States … more »

June 18, 2009

The Mine Shop

So I found an interesting shop on eBay. The shop is called The Mine Shop and contains all sorts of mining artifacts from the late 19th and early 20th century. I haven’t bought anything as most items are out of my budget as a college student, but it is really interesting to see some of … more »

June 18, 2009