The Frontierado Holiday lands on Friday, August 7th this year. Regular Balladeer’s Blog readers may recall that Frontierado Season celebrates the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality. To mark the season, I always review Westerns, look at neglected elements of the 1800s west and examine overlooked gunslingers whose lives were at least as exciting as the big-name figures.
To give newbies the general idea, here’s a look at some of the 2025 Frontierado Season:
NEGLECTED GUNSLINGERS
“WHISKEY JIM” GREATHOUSE – He started out by shooting his way to the top of a bootleg whiskey ring in the early 1870s. From there he moved on to stealing horses and mules with his gang, later switching to Buffalo “Hunting” with Pat Garrett. That got Whiskey Jim caught up in the war between buffalo “hunters” and the Comanches. In New Mexico, Jim took on crime lord “Hoodoo” Brown and ultimately moved on to rustling and rubbing shoulders with Billy the Kid. Click HERE.
“BIG STEVE” LONG – After the Civil War, this ex-soldier headed west and worked as a bounty hunter, paid gunman and finally corrupt lawman as the enforcer for the Moyers crime ring in wild Laramie, Wyoming. Click HERE. Continue reading
WHISKEY JIM – James Greathouse was born in Texas around 1854. Nothing is known about his early life but at age 20 he was living in Fort Griffin and running a successful bootleg whiskey network he had shot his way to the top of. As you could guess that illicit trade earned him his nickname Whiskey Jim. 
HENRY SEYMOUR LOOT – In 1879 Henry Seymour led his outlaw gang in robbing a stagecoach just out of Brigham City, Arizona and outside the Pine Spring Stage Station. The gang had targeted this particular stage because it carried a shipment of newly minted gold coins supposedly worth over $200,000. (If true that would be $6,429,000 here in 2025) 
STAGECOACH WEST (1960-1961) – This Friday, August 1st will mark the Frontierado Holiday this year, so let me slip in a few more seasonal blog posts along with my usual items. Stagecoach West starred Wayne Rogers as Luke Perry and Shannen Doherty as Brenda Walsh! 
HIGH LONESOME – Stagecoach driver Luke Perry meets his latest load of passengers, among them Simon Kane, a man searching for his runaway wife. His son Davey travels with him and Sime told the boy his mother died to keep the more painful truth from him. 
DUSTY DELIA HASKETT – She was the first female stagecoach driver for the United States Mail Service. Delia was born in 1861 and built a reputation for herself during her adventurous career driving stagecoaches throughout California. 
ROYAL GORGE RAILROAD WAR – To this day I’m astonished that comparatively few people are familiar with the 1878-1880 war between William Jackson Palmer’s Denver & Rio Grande Railroad and William B. Strong’s Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Fighting started near Trinidad, CO in February 1878. The initial goal was to lay the first railroad lines through Raton Pass on the border between Colorado and New Mexico. 
That’s more name appeal than many Range Wars of the Old West had, so you’d think there’d be at least as many movies about this situation as there’ve been about the Earps and Doc Holliday vs the Clantons and McLaurys. It’s not like Westerns have ever cared about historical accuracy so they could easily spice up the slow periods of the war involving the outcome of assorted court cases.
Here at Frontierado international headquarters things are as hectic as you would imagine with the Frontierado holiday coming up on Friday, August 1st. These are my best bourbons for your celebrations this year, with a new brand in the top spot. (I’m not affiliated with any of these brands.)
SMOKEYE HILL – Making its debut on the Bourbon Breakdown for Frontierado is this Colorado-aged bourbon which meets my usual standard of letting you blow flies out of the air after taking a swig.
CIMARRON STRIP (1967-1968) – Here’s another seasonal post for Frontierado, which is observed this year on Friday, August 1st. Cimarron Strip was the stretch of land also called the Oklahoma Panhandle. Stuart Whitman starred as U.S. Marshal Jim Crown, assigned to tame the nearly lawless region in the late 1880s. 
THE BATTLE GROUND – A range war breaks out in the Cimarron Strip after the government cancels leases on land owned by cattlemen. Those ranchers clash violently with farmers and settlers with Marshal Jim Crown caught in the middle as he tries to end the war before a massacre occurs. Telly Savalas himself guest stars, along with Warren Oates, L.Q. Jones, Richard Farnsworth and R.G. Armstrong. 
BODIE, CALIFORNIA – Gold was discovered there in 1859 by William (or Waterman) S. Bodey, the man that the subsequent town would be named for despite the spelling error made by a sign painter. For nearly twenty years, Bodie produced less gold than similar sites out west. 
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