The Frontierado Holiday is coming up next Friday, August 2nd! Balladeer’s Blog will be squeezing in some more seasonal posts until that grand event kicks off on the three-day weekend. Frontierado focuses on the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality.
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS STARTED IN DODGE CITY – The Las Vegas in this article is Las Vegas, NEW MEXICO, not the more famous Las Vegas in Nevada. This lesser known Las Vegas held a degree of renown from the 1846-1848 war with Mexico onward. Its earliest history dated back to the 1600s.
On the 4th of July in 1879 the first train reached Las Vegas from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. At least half a dozen times a day trains would stop in the city and with all this new activity Las Vegas increased exponentially in size and population almost immediately. Many shady types from Dodge City settled in Vegas.
With business of all kinds soaring, so too did crime. The summer of ’79 saw plenty of infamous gunslingers, gamblers and outlaws from Dodge City and other locales arrive in town on the railroad. Doc Holliday and Kate Elder, Mysterious Dave Mather, Dutch Henry, the Durango Kid, Dirty Dave Rudabaugh, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, California Jim and many others made Las Vegas their temporary home. Continue reading
The Frontierado Holiday is fast approaching and will be marked Friday August 2nd this year. Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. Balladeer’s Blog has covered a lot of 
JAYBIRD VS WOODPECKER WAR (1888-1889) – First off, let’s make sure to distinguish between JayHAWKS and JayBIRDS. Jayhawks were the anti-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas during the 1850s. Jaybirds were in 1880s Texas and were the racist white Democrat forces trying to expel the mixed black and white Woodpeckers who had gained power from Republicans during Reconstruction after the Civil War. 
THE CABALLERO’S WAY (1907) – This was the original short story written by O. Henry in which he introduced the character called the Cisco Kid. The Caballero’s Way was first published in the July issue of Everybody’s Magazine, then was included in the anthology The Heart of the West later that year. 
The communities in the Cisco Kid’s territory between the Frio River and the Rio Grande help hide the kid from his Texas Ranger pursuers out of fear, NOT out of any fondness for the violent killer. Also unlike later portrayals of the Kid as a good guy, Cisco is an American whose surname is Goodall and he loves to shoot Mexican men.
COWBOY G-MEN (1952-1953) – A reader recently mentioned the old Robert Conrad series The Wild Wild West, and that reminded me of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. AND the much earlier television western titled Cowboy G-Men. That last series featured fictional exploits of U.S. Secret Service Agents in the old west. 
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. 
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 
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