Our American West

 

OAWMaster storyteller and national award-winning author Gary McCarthy has compiled a four volume collection of stories about Our American West. Gary has been writing about the American West for over thirty years, and these are some of his favorite topics—written not for the expert or scholar—but for all the armchair admirers of things historically western. They are fast reading and well-researched stories about our early western people, places and events—the explorers and adventurers, the famous, almost famous and infamous—the critters, including coyotes, jackrabbits, mustangs and burros.

The books are thoroughly enjoyable and can be purchased here on this page by following the links at the right of this column, below the menu. Below are lists of the stories contained in each volume. There is a selection of stories available for you to read online from the list below. The viewable stories have a red arrow at their left. Just click on the title and the story will open on your browser in another tab or window, just as it appears in the volume.

 

Volume I of Our American West

 
 
  • Burros—Those Feisty Desert Canaries
  • Tom Mix & Tim McCoy
    —Silent Screen Heroes
  • Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
  • Wells Fargo—They Delivered
  • Annie Oakley—"Little Miss Sure Shot"
  • How About a Little Respect for Coyotes?
  • Barbed Wire
    —and "Bet-A-Million" Gates
  • The Russian and the Senorita
  • Those Boots Weren't Made For Walkin'
  • Charles Russell
    —Cowboy Artist and Storyteller
  • Timberwolves—They Ain't House Dogs
  • Lola Montez
    —The Scandalous "Spider Dancer"
  • Will Rogers
    —He Never Met a Man He Didn't Like
  • Sodbusters
    —Dirt in Their Beans and Beds
  • Cochise—Apache Warrior
  • Jackrabbits
    —Fast, but Darned Poor Eatin'
  • Cameras Helped Capture the West
  • Joaquin Murieta
    —"The Ghost of Sonora"
  • Julia Bulette
    —Comstock Courtesan
  • John B. and the Stetson Story
  • Exploration of the Colorado River
  • George Catlin
    —Early Western Artist
  • Black Bart
    —Poet and Highwayman
  • Mustangs and Mustangers
  • Carrie Nation
    —Frontier Prohibitionist
  • Jim Bridger
    —Our Most Famous Mountain Man

Volume II of Our American West

 
 
  • The Great Chief Sitting Bull
  • The Infamous Bandit Queens
  • Frederick Remington
    —He Knew the Horse
  • Snowshoe Thompson
    —He Packed the Mail
  • The Great Transcontinental
                    Railroad Race
  • Dodge City
    —Wild and Wicked
  • Mark Twain and the West
  • Horseback Fighters of the Plains
  • Helen Hunt Jackson
    —Novelist and Humanitarian
  • The Fast Draw
    —Mostly Myths and Misses
  • Esther Morris
    —Mother of Women's Suffrage
  • The Ghost Dancers
  • The Bloody Saga of
                    Billy the Kid

Volume III of Our American West

 
 
  • Roadrunners
    —Our Sagebrush Clowns
  • Buffalo Bill and his Wild West
  • Calamity Jane
    —A Hard Livin' Woman
  • The Donner Party
    —A Frozen Horror
  • Geronimo—Apache Fighter
  • Reinsmen and Stagecoach Travel
  • "Hanging Judge" Parker
  • John Wesley Hardin
    —The Deadliest Gunfighter
  • Novelists Created Western Myths
  • Utes
    —People of the Shining Mountains
  • Sutter and Marshal
    —Gold Ruined their Lives
  • The Pinkertons
    —"We Never Sleep"
  • The Life and Legend of Davy Crockett
  • The Early Fur Traders
  • Cynthia Ann Parker
    —White Comanche Woman
  • Jim Bowie
    —Deadly Man with a Kinfe
  • Doc Holliday
    —Dentist, Gambler and Gunfighter
  • The Comstock Lode
    —"Big Bonanza"
  • Charles Goodnight
    —Texas Cattleman
  • Sheepmen Basqued
                    in Making Wild West Wooly
  • The Johnson County War
  • Wild Bill Hickock
    —Aces and Eights
  • The Fetterman Massacre
  • Canyon de Chelley
                    is Sacred Navajo Ground
  • Camels
    —A Really Bad Western Experiment

Volume IV of Our American West

 
 
  • Fr. Junipero Serra
    —California Missionary
  • Mountain Men
    —Beaver and Buckskins
  • Mike Fink
    —King of the Keelboatmen
  • Our First Hollywood Cowboys
    —They Went Thataway!
  • Sam Bass
    —Popular but Short-Lived Outlaw
  • Lewis & Clark
      Explored the American Wilderness
  • Outrageous Stories
              Led This Mountain Man to Fame
  • Quanah Parker
    —Wise Comanche Chief
  • Judge Roy Bean
    —The Law West of the Pecos
  • Bill Tilghman
    —A Danged Good Lawman
  • The Custer Battlefield
  • Jesse James
    —He Was No Robin Hood
  • The Modoc Indian War
  • Old Time Snake Oil Peddlers
                    and Con Artists
  • The Notorious Dalton Gang
  • Sam Houston
    —A Man Even Bigger'n Texas
  • Juan Seguin
                    and the "Los Tejanos"
  • Washakie
    —The Great Chief of the Shoshoni
  • The Fighting Texas Rangers
  • Wyatt Earp
                    and His Deadly Brothers
  • Longhorns and the Long Drive North
  • John Muir
    —A Free and Gentle Spirit
 

We hope you've enjoyed reading these stories of
Our American West.