Every first Friday in August the Frontierado Holiday is celebrated. Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. Here’s another seasonal post.
SHOTGUN JOHN COLLINS – This overlooked gunslinger was like a talented session musician whose name isn’t better known to laymen mostly because of his time with assorted big-name rock bands. Shotgun John was born Abraham G. Graham in South Carolina on November 22nd, 1851. His great-grandfather had served under General Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, during the Revolutionary War.
In 1859 he and his family moved by wagon to Limestone County, Texas. As a teenager, this figure started getting in and out of trouble with the law and began using aliases like George Graham, John Graham, and John Collins. It was as Shotgun John Collins that our subject became best known.
During his teen years Shotgun John was in and out of jail for assorted offenses, but to that point not fatal ones. This time period saw our man forge casual friendships with future notorious figures like Johnny Ringo and John Wesley Hardin.
Once he started getting involved in cattle rustling, gunfights and horse theft it was a different story, and for a time Collins took it on the run to Mexico to lie low until the heat settled down. By the early 1870s Shotgun John was back in Texas working as a cattleman. Continue reading
THE FRONTIERADO HOLIDAY IS COMING UP ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 2nd! 
MAVERICK (1994) – Richard Donner directed and Mel Gibson starred in this excellent tribute to the 1950s and 1980s Maverick television series. The original series starred James Garner as slick-talking gambler/ gunslinger Bret Maverick AND, in old-age makeup, as “Pappy” Beauregard Maverick, the gambler and con-man patriarch of that family of rogues. (No relation to the real-life Maverick family of Texas, for whom “maverick” cattle were named.)
Mel Gibson portrays Bret Maverick since by 1994 James Garner was too old for the role. Jodie Foster co-stars as rival gambler Annabelle Bransford and the iconic James Garner provides memorable support as a lawman. 
Well before this part-hero, part-villain became renowned as “The Only Law West of the Pecos” he was already experiencing an adventurous life. In 1841, at the age of 16, Bean hitched a ride on a flatboat from his dirt-poor Kentucky community to New Orleans, LA in search of work. 
THE ALASKANS (1959-1960) – The gold rushes in Alaska during the late 1890s and early 1900s provided the usual tableaus of boom towns, claim-jumping, gambling and gunslinging. Unlike such rushes in the Continental United States, the frigid temperatures and monumental snows of Alaska added unique twists to the wild west feel of gold-seeking. 
The series was produced by 
CHARLIE SIRINGO – Like a real-life Harry Flashman of the American West, Charles Angelo Siringo, cowboy, bounty hunter and lawman, fought alongside or against some of the biggest names of his era. Siringo crossed paths with the likes of Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, the Wild Bunch, Tom Horn, Clarence Darrow, Kid Russell, Will Rogers, William Borah and many others. 
Frontierado is celebrated the first Friday of every August, so this year it will be marked on August 2nd. This holiday celebrates the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. Here’s a seasonal post regarding the Pony Express, the much-romanticized messenger service across the west that lasted from April 3rd, 1860 to October 26th, 1861. 
PONY BOB HASLAM – One of the most famous Pony Express riders of them all, after Buffalo Bill Cody. (Wild Bill Hickok did not really work for the Pony Express, but rather as a teamster for its parent company.) Click 
HAPPY FRONTIERADO! The first Friday of every August marks this holiday devoted to the myth of the old west rather than the grinding reality. For some of us the celebration kicks off Thursday night, for others they wait until the actual day of Frontierado to hold their festivities. Enjoy your buffalo steaks, rattlesnake fried rice, corn on the cob, tumbleweed pizza, cactus salad and more today and tonight, and enjoy the leftovers on Saturday and Sunday.
THE DENVER DOLL – The annual Frontierado Holiday will be tomorrow, Friday August 4th. Here is yet another seasonal post while there is still time. 
DENVER DOLL, THE DETECTIVE QUEEN; or YANKEE EISLER’S BIG SURROUND (November 14th, 1882) – In this debut appearance, the Denver Doll’s two fisted, gunslinging, card playing, crimefighting nature is established, along with her mysterious past. The heroine’s secrets aren’t revealed until her fourth and final tale. 
JIM LEAVY/ LEVY – This gunslinger’s last name shows up under both spellings at times. He was definitely from Ireland. Some accounts claim he was Jewish, but those sources may have jumped to conclusions if they were going by the Levy spelling. 
In early 1868, a Silver Rush began to eastern Nevada and our subject moved there with hopes of striking it rich. Trying his luck here and there, Jim was eventually prospecting at Pioche, NV, one of the most underrated of the deadly boom towns of the old west. 
RIVERBOAT (1959-1961) – We are less than a week away from Frontierado 2023, observed on Friday August 4th this year. For a combination Frontierado and Forgotten Television post Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at some of the best episodes of the old western series Riverboat. 
Grey Holden captained the Enterprise, but the more experienced Chief Pilot was Ben Frazer, played by the one and only Burt Reynolds. Riverboat was, for a television western, atypically set during the 1830s and 1840s. Some of my favorite episodes are historical fiction, featuring our heroes aiding Texas rebels during the Texas Revolution, clashing with river pirates, or encountering young Abraham Lincoln and a few other historical figures here and there. 
Balladeer's Blog 