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.
Kid Russell’s painting of Long Henry, seen at left
LONG HENRY – Henry Thompson aka Henry Pell was born in 1866 in the Texas Panhandle. His mother was Cherokee, and his father was a white soldier or, by some accounts, a freight driver. Long Henry referred to his mother having to use a bread board for his cradle because of how poor their family was.
Of his father, the gunslinger stated that the man fought Native Americans and outlaws, but no details have come down to us. In his teens, Long Henry joined up with the Henry Starr Gang, taking part in rustling and armed robberies of banks, trains, post offices, and general stores. Continue reading
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. 
COMANCHE JACK – Balladeer’s Blog presents another seasonal post for the upcoming Frontierado Holiday, observed Friday August 4th this year. Frontierado celebrates the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. 
During that four-year period, he developed his marksmanship, as well as his scouting, Indian fighting and wilderness survival skills. In the snowy months, Comanche Jack rode with hunting parties along the Beaver, Canadian and Wolf Rivers. 
ROSEBUD ROB, BALTIMORE BESS AND CINNAMON CHIP – Here’s another seasonal post for the upcoming Frontierado holiday on Friday August 4th. As always, Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. 
ROSEBUD ROB … the KNIGHT OF THE GULCH (February 1879) – Rosebud Rob was a Wild West detective, like the real-life Charley Siringo (covered 
Here at Frontierado international headquarters things are as hectic as you would imagine with the Frontierado holiday coming up on Friday, August 4th. As always, Frontierado celebrates the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. Balladeer’s Blog is not affiliated with any of the following brands.
LARCENY BOURBON – Making its debut on the Bourbon Breakdown for Frontierado is this Kentucky Bourbon which meets my usual standard of letting you blow flies out of the air after a swig. 
IRON SMOKE BOURBON – Hunker down with some Iron Smoke Bourbon to help you and yours celebrate Frontierado. 
CALIFORNIA JIM – The Frontierado Holiday is coming up on Friday, August 4th, so here is another blog post in honor of the season. California Jim was also known as Six-Shooter Jim Smith and Six-Shooter Bill, but on his deathbed, he claimed that his real name was John Henry Hankins (some sources say Jankins or Hawkins). 
Jim lingered in Dodge City, Kansas for a time, committing various crimes. On August 17th, 1878 Deputy Marshal Bat Masterson himself arrested California Jim for stealing a horse. 
HURRICANE NELL, THE GIRL DEAD-SHOT (1877) – Written by Edward L. Wheeler. This blog post is dedicated to the prolific author and fellow blogger 
That brings us back to Hurricane Nell, the Girl Dead-Shot, also known as Hurricane Nell, the Queen of the Saddle and Lasso, and, in a misleading re-titling, as Bob Woolf, the Border Ruffian. (NOT three separate books.) Though published in May of 1877, Nell’s adventures were set earlier in the 1800s than most of the other big-name heroines of Dime Novels, so I am starting with her and will move on to the others in the next few weeks. 
FERD THE DANDY (1821-1866) – The Frontierado holiday is coming up on Friday, August 4th this year, so here is another seasonal post from Balladeer’s Blog. This one covers a ruthless, yet often forgotten, gambler-gunslinger. 
Come 1859 Ferd the Dandy had acquired too big a reputation as a professional gambler to even get in a game anymore, so he gravitated to the Sailors’ Diggings Gold Rush near Waldo, Oregon. The mining town had already known the murderous rampage of the Triskett Gang by the time Patterson arrived to stain Waldo with his own activities. 
Balladeer's Blog 