Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Old West Trivia Book
    Old West Trivia Book
    Old West Trivia Book
    Ebook244 pages1 hour

    Old West Trivia Book

    By Don Bullis

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The glamour and fascination of the Old West is brought to life in a new way in this interesting collection of facts and figures. It tell stories of such Old West characters as Geronimo, General Custer and the Unsinkable Molly Brown. This book covers the who, what, where, and how in the often violent settling of the land west of the Mississippi. The scope and history of the Old West is highlighted in a way that is both factual and entertaining in this unique presentation that will appeal to anyone interested in the Old West and the people and places that made it happen. Author Don Bullis has spent his life covering the people and places of New Mexico as a small-town newspaper editor and as a deputy sheriff and town marshal. He has traveled extensively throughout the Western United States to gather the facts that made up this collection.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateJul 1, 2009
    ISBN9781936744879
    Old West Trivia Book

    Read more from Don Bullis

    Related to Old West Trivia Book

    Related ebooks

    United States History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Dead Men For Breakfast

      Jul 28, 2020

      Dead Men For Breakfast
      14 min read

    • Article

      Bridger In Bronze

      Oct 26, 2021

      Bridger In Bronze
      9 min read

    • Article

      Nature’s Master Builders

      Sep 1, 2022

      Nature’s Master Builders
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Parting

      Jul 6, 2021

      The Parting
      10 min read

    • Article

      Following His Nose

      Feb 21, 2023

      Following His Nose
      3 min read

    • Article

      All Those Impostors

      Oct 26, 2021

      All Those Impostors
      4 min read

    • Article

      They Called Him Bilito

      Nov 24, 2020

      They Called Him Bilito
      11 min read

    • Article

      White Bull’s Warpath

      May 23, 2023

      White Bull’s Warpath
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Kid An ‘Outlaw’?

      Aug 9, 2022

      Your informative magazine has lots of stories about incidents that are not well known, but boy, oh boy, you got it wrong with your December 2021 cover that calls Jesse James and Billy the Kid Iconic Outlaws. As far as Billy is concerned, that’s 180 d

      4 min read

    • Article

      Must See, Must Read

      Aug 22, 2023

      Must See, Must Read
      11 min read

    • Article

      Inside Apacheria

      Oct 26, 2021

      Having grown up on the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation in New Mexico, Doug Hocking writes histories and historical fiction rooted in Apache culture. His nonfiction works include Tom Jeffords: Friend of Cochise (2017), The Black Legend: George Bas

      3 min read

    • Article

      White Oaks’ Dark Roots

      Aug 9, 2022

      White Oaks’ Dark Roots
      8 min read

    • Article

      Kings Mountain

      Nov 29, 2018

      Kings Mountain
      9 min read

    • Article

      Searching For Victorio

      May 11, 2021

      Searching For Victorio
      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘Old Brains’ And ‘Granny Lee’

      Mar 9, 2021

      THE RELATIONSHIP between soldiers and their commanders can be indicated by nicknames, which also provide insights into how opponents and civilians on both sides thought about various generals. Nathan Bedford Forrest, lauded by Confederates as the “Wi

      4 min read

    • Article

      Greatest tv Westerns

      Jul 19, 2022

      Greatest tv Westerns
      13 min read

    • Article

      Nana’s Vengeance Ride

      Oct 26, 2021

      Nana’s Vengeance Ride
      12 min read

    • Article

      BILLY & JESSE

      Oct 26, 2021

      BILLY & JESSE
      8 min read

    • Article

      How Deadly Was Kid Curry?

      Nov 8, 2022

      How Deadly Was Kid Curry?
      12 min read

    • Article

      Nellie Oleson, C’est Moi

      Dec 11, 2019

      Nellie Oleson, C’est Moi
      4 min read

    • Article

      Lord Of War

      Sep 1, 2019

      Lord Of War
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Old West Trivia Book

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Old West Trivia Book - Don Bullis

      THE NEW AND

      COMPLETELY REVISED

      OLD WEST TRIVIA BOOK

      By Don Bullis

      Rio Grande Books

      Los Ranchos, NM

      Copyright © 1993, 2009, 2014Don Bullis

      Published by Rio Grande Books

      925 Salamanca NW

      Los Ranchos, NM 87107-5647

      505-344-9382

      www.nmsantos.com

      Printed in the United States of America

      Book Design: Paul Rhetts

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Bullis, Don.

      Old West trivia book / by Don Bullis.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN: 978-1-890689-61-2 (pbk.)

      978-1-936744-87-9

      1. West (U.S.)--History--Miscellanea. 2. Southwest, New--History--Miscellanea. 3. West (U.S.)--Biography. 4. Southwest, New--Biography. I. Title.

      F591.B915 2009

      978’.02076--dc22

      2009014757

      Contents

      LAWMEN AND OTHER WHITE HAT GUYS

      OUTLAWS AND OTHER BLACK HAT GUYS

      THE INDIANS OF THE WEST AND THEIR CHIEFS

      CATTLEMEN AND COWBOYS, SHEEPHERDERS AND FARMERS

      BOOMTOWNS AND BACK TRAILS

      WAGON TRAINS, STAGECOACHES AND THE IRON HORSE

      GOVERNORS, JUDGES AND OTHER POLITICIANS

      WOMEN OF THE OLD WEST

      LITERATURE AND ART OF THE OLD WEST

      MOVIES & TELEVISION OF THE OLD WEST

      BIBLIOGRAPHY

      About the Author

      Dedicated, and rededicated, to Gloria Bullis,

      my partner along the trails of the Old West.

      LAWMEN AND OTHER WHITE HAT GUYS

      Some Were Better Than Others

      CHAPTER 1

      Q: Who was the one-term sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, in 1881-1882? He unsuccessfully ran for Territorial Legislature in 1882.

      A: Patrick Floyd Pat Garrett (1850-1908). It was during his single term in office that he killed William H. Bonney: Billy the Kid.

      Q: Can you name the Texas Ranger who tracked down and arrested famed Texas outlaw and killer John Wesley Hardin on August 23, 1887?

      A: John B. Armstrong (1850-1913), a lieutenant at the time, he caught Hardin on a train and took him by surprise.

      Q: Who was the first marshal of Deadwood, South Dakota, elected by a miner’s court in early August 1876?

      A: Isaac Brown (d. August 20, 1876). He was killed in an ambush and Seth Bullock (1849-1919) was appointed sheriff of Lawrence County in March 1877. Bullock had previously served as sheriff of Lewis and Clark County, Montana.

      Q: What event prompted the miner’s court to elect a town marshal in Deadwood, South Dakota?

      A: The assassination of James Butler Wild Bill Hickok (August 2, 1876) and the subsequent trial of his killer, Jack McCall, August 5, 1876.

      Q: With which president of the United States was Seth Bullock friendly?

      A: Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). Legend holds that they met in 1884 when Roosevelt, then a deputy sheriff in Medora, North Dakota, took a horse thief named Crazy Steve to Deadwood for trial. Roosevelt later said, Seth Bullock is a true Westerner, the finest type of frontiersman. The president appointed Bullock U. S. Marshal for South Dakota in 1905. He held the position until 1914.

      Q: What position of authority did Bat Masterson (1853-1921) hold in and around Dodge City, Kansas, in the late 1870s and early 1880s?

      A: He was sheriff of Ford County from 1877 to 1881. Dodge City was the county seat.

      Q: How did Sheriff Masterson come to be called Bat?

      A: One source indicates that his name was Bartholomew, which was shortened to Bat. Another source reports his real name as Barclay, likewise shortened to Bat(?). Legend also holds that he was called Bat because he was such an excellent shot that he could kill a bat on the wing with a pistol.

      Q: Whatever became of Bat Masterson?

      A: He became a sports writer for the New York City Morning Telegraph. He died at his desk of natural causes in 1921. Legend holds that his last words were as follows: There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours. I suppose these ginks who argue that way hold that because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in the winter things are breaking even for both. Maybe so, but I’ll swear I can’t see it that way. These words were a part of a newspaper column he was working on when he died.

      Q: What lawman was shot and killed on the south side of the railroad tracks in Dodge City by Kansas cowboys Jack Wagner and Alf Walker in April of 1878?

      A: City Marshal Ed Masterson, Bat’s older brother. Wagner was killed in the fight and Walker seriously injured.

      Q: Perfecto Armijo (1845-1913) was sheriff of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, in the late 1870s and early 1880s. He arrested a famous outlaw long before Sheriff Pat Garrett did. Who was the outlaw?

      A: William H. Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid (1859-1881). Sheriff Armijo arrested Billy in the spring of 1880 for an unspecified infraction. Sheriff Garrett didn’t arrest Billy until December of 1880. (Billy escaped from the Bernalillo County jail in May of 1880.)

      Q: Name the Kansas and Arizona lawman who had brothers named James, Morgan, Virgil and Warren.

      A: Wyatt Earp (1848-1929).

      Q: Who was the sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, when Virgil Earp (1843–1905) was town marshal in Tombstone in the late 1870s and early 1880s?

      A: John Behan (1845–1912), was the first sheriff of Cochise County, appointed in 1881. He was sympathetic to the faction which opposed the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday at the O.K. Corral gunfight (October 26, 1881) but he did not participate, though he was nearby.

      Q: By what name was Georgian John Henry Holliday better known?

      A: Doc Holliday. Consumptive and alcoholic, he was a dentist by vocation and a gambler by avocation (a consumptive cough did little to attract dental patients). At 28 years of age he was wounded in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone on October 26, 1881. He died of tuberculosis in Glenwood, Colorado six years later (November 8, 1887).

      Q: A gunfight took place on October 26, 1881, on Fremont Street near the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. How long did it last?

      A: By most accounts, it lasted less than a half minute.

      Q: How many casualties were there in the gunfight at O.K. Corral?

      A: When the smoke cleared, Billy Clanton (1862-1881) and brothers Tom (1853-1881) and Frank McLaury (1848-1881) were dead of multiple gunshot wounds. Doc Holliday and brothers Virgil and Morgan Earp were wounded. Of the eight participants, only Ike Clanton and Wyatt Earp were not injured. It is an interesting historical footnote that while the O.K. Corral fight was a classic Wild West event, the McLaury brothers were both natives of New York State.

      Q: What legal action was taken against the Earp brothers and Holliday after the gunplay on Fremont Street in Tombstone in November 1881?

      A: Not much. Virgil Earp was dismissed as Tombstone town marshal and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were arrested for murder by Sheriff John Behan. A local magistrate judge later ruled that the defendants were guilty of bad judgment but no criminal acts.

      Q: After his days in Tombstone, Wyatt Earp held various jobs in various places. One job was refereeing boxing matches. Can you name the two contestants in a controversial fight billed as a world championship heavyweight boxing match refereed by Earp in San Francisco, California, on December 2, 1896?

      A: Bob Fitzsimmons (1863-1917) and Tom Sharkey (1873-1953). Fitzsimmons knocked Sharkey down in the eighth round and Earp counted him out. Then he picked up Sharkey’s hand and declared him the winner saying that Fitzsimmons had thrown an illegal punch. The word was out that the fix was in, and Earp was a part of it.

      Q: Can you name the sheriff of Dona Ana County, New Mexico, from 1896-1900?

      A: Patrick Floyd Pat Garrett (1850-1908). He was also appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal in 1896 and Collector of Customs at El Paso, Texas, in the early 1900s.

      Q: Pat Garrett always said that he would die with his boots on. Did he?

      A: Yes. He was shot from behind along a trail between Organ and Las Cruces, New Mexico, on February 29, 1908.

      Q: Who assassinated Sheriff Pat Garrett?

      A: Jesse Wayne Brazel (1876-1915?) confessed to shooting Garrett twice, once through the head and once through the back. He pled self-defense and was acquitted of murder when he was tried in April of the following year. In the years since, there has been a great deal of speculation as to who might have actually pulled the trigger. Most agree that Brazel did not.

      Q: How could Brazel claim self-defense when he shot Garrett twice from behind?

      A: He claimed he was so afraid of the former sheriff because of his reputation as a gunman, that he was obliged to shoot him from behind. The jury bought it.

      Q: In what Old West town was Robert M. Ollinger buried?

      A: It is located at the east end of the Lincoln County Courthouse in Old Lincoln, New Mexico. William H. Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid, killed Robert Ollinger (c. 1841-1881) and J. W. Bell (1853-1881), both deputy sheriffs, when he escaped custody for the last time on April 28, 1881. The name is also spelled Olinger and Ollenger.

      Q: How was Bob Ollinger regarded among his peers at the time of his death?

      A: Most considered him a loudmouth and a bully. His own mother said of him, Bob was a murderer from the cradle and if there is a hell, I know he’s in it.

      Q: What was the name of the scout, marshal, gunfighter and gambler who was shot to death in Deadwood, South Dakota, on August 2, 1876?

      A: Wild Bill Hickok (1837-1876).

      Q: What was Wild Bill Hickok’s real name? Where was he from?

      A: James Butler Hickok was born in LaSalle County, Illinois, in 1837.

      Q: What position of authority did J. B. Hickok hold in Abilene, Kansas,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1