| The idea for this book came from an article by Jim Dullenty in the March 1983 issue of True West. The article, "Outlaw Hangouts You Can Visit," started me thinking that no attempt has ever been made to provide a gazetteer's look at western outlaw history. Tour books on the Old West do exist, but they are concerned more with dining and accommodations than with highlighting the West's renegade years. |
Although the heyday of Hollywood westerns may be over, interest in the history of the American West has slackened little. Every summer the highways are crowded with western buffs and vacationers flocking to the land where the sky has no corners. Unfortunately, much of yesterday's frontier is now buried under asphalt and cement, but many sites remain or have been restored and can be visited and relished. I hope this book will lead the reader to some. |
| Many people deserve thanks for helping with this book. In addition to providing me with the idea, Jim Dullenty, formerly with Western Publications as editor of True West, Old West, and Frontier Times,deserves much credit for keeping interest in the frontier alive, Many Western history magazines have come and gone, but those of Western Publications, first produced by the tireless Texan Joe Austell Small and now in the stable of a determined Bob Evans of Perkins, Oklahoma, have always stood above the others. The best writers of popular western nonfiction have appeared in the pages of these magazines, and I have found their accounts valuable in preparing this book. |
| Personal thanks also are due dedicated outlaw researcher Roy O'Dell of Cambridge, England, stalwart member of the English Westerners' Society. And I am particularly indebted to western historians C. L. Sonnichsen, Glenn Shirley, Leon Metz, William A. Settle, Joseph Rosa, Robert K. DeArment, and Bill O'Neal, upon whose works I have greatly depended and which I especially admire. Thanks also to the prolific Carl Breihan and to my fellow members of the Western Writers of America whom I have pestered for information. The same goes for my friends in The National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History. |
| I am also grateful to research librarian Michelle Unrue of the Franklin-Johnson County Public Library, Franklin, Indiana, whose online searches delivered nearly every source I requested. |
| Many local historical societies and museums have assisted me over the past year. Foremost are the Friends of the James Farm, Kearney, Missouri; the Clay County Department of Parks, Recreation and Historical Sites, Kearney, Missouri; The Dalton Museum of Coffeyville, Kansas; the Dodge City Museum, Dodge City, Kansas; the Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona; and the St. Joseph Museum, St. Joseph, Missouri. |
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