Wild West History

Lotta Crabtree. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. I love the contrasts in this photo, the sweet innocence of her expression, ribbons on her hat, childish curls in her hair, her head turned shyly from the camera...and she's smoking a cigar!
In spite of her tough-little-girl look in the above photo, "generosity and compassion"  were the words most often used to describe Lotta Crabtree. Along with her mentor, Lola Montez, Crabtree was one of the most famous entertainers in the American Old...

Independence Rock, Wyoming. The birthplace of American graffiti.
Yes folks, it's true. Those silly webpages claiming graffiti started in the 1960s are wrong. Long before it became a popular form of entertainment and vandalism for bored teenagers, America's pioneers were carving their names in a giant rock in Wyoming...

Well, it is official. My entire blog was stolen by someone else who took every post I've written over the past ten years, transferred each post--personal stories, my photos, my travel stories, everything--and posted them on another blog on this platform...

Lola Montez (de:Gouache by Carl Buchner, 1847. Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.
Lola Montez is known as the "first tabloid celebrity." She was born in a time when women had to use whatever they had to survive. Lola's story is similar to that of her own mother, reflecting the harsh life women endured and their reluctant dependence...