Luck often played a role in the lives of the early settlers of the Old West. But they say Lady Luck is fickle, often causing reversals of fortune in a very short time. Three men found out the hard way just how fickle a mistress Lady Luck could be. In 1878, Lady Luck smiled on [...]

Cattle drives, open range, cowboys … these are the images we bring to mind when we think of the Old West. It is an image that might have endured into modern times had the winter of 1886 not happened. The winters leading up to 1886 had been relatively warm and mild, so ranchers stopped stocking [...]

Somewhere in the White Cliffs of Utah, sits a cave with a ledge of gold. White Cliffs is part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which is divided into three distinct sections: the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante River. The Grand Staircase is a colorful series of rising cliffs, [...]

The most productive gold mine in the state of Arizona was the Vulture Mine. Its success lured many criminals to try their hand at robbery, but none as famous as Francisco Vega. Vega preyed on miners – he loved the gold the carried as they made their way to an assay office or into town [...]

The Navajo Shoe Game During winter evenings, Navajo families spend the time telling stories of the people — of their emergence into this world and of the trickster, Coyote — and they enjoy playing games. In particular, they play the Shoe Game. According to Navajo legend, long ago, the night creatures and the day creatures [...]

Table of Contents for the Haunted Southwest Series: Haunted Hotel: The Stanley Hotel, Colorado The Vulture Mine, Wickenburg, Arizona Haunted Hotel: The San Carlos, Phoenix, Arizona The Haunted Shores of the Great Salt Lake, Utah Haunted Tombstone, Arizona Haunted Mines: Ghost, Goblins and Tommy Knockers, Southwest Ghost Camels of the Southwest Haunted Dawson Cemetary, New [...]

While it is true that the railroads civilized the West, it was never easy. In fact, you might say it was an uphill battle — especially in Colorado. The Hell Hill Line belonging to the Moffat Railroad made its way across the Continental Divide (what the railroaders referred to as the Devil’s Backbone) over Rollins [...]

There are actually several mines known as the Lost Dutchman in the Southwest. The most famous, of course, if the Lost Dutchman Mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. But there are others, one in South Dakota, one in Colorado, and three in Arizona that all bear the same name. In the early 1860s, a [...]

In 1848, a group of Cherokee on their way to California over the Cherokee Trail discovered gold in a stream bed in the South Platte basin. They reported the information to their tribe in Oklahoma. Eventually a man named William Green Russell (married to a Cherokee woman) heard the news and rushed to the area [...]

In March and April 1909, the Phoenix Gazette published two stories about the discovery of a great underground citadel hidden in a cave in the Grand Canyon. The first article in March only mentions explorer G.E. Kinkaid and his explorations down the Colorado River. The paper also notes that he made some interesting archeological discoveries, [...]