Brian Downes

Will Rogers had plenty to say about everything, including Chicago. Throughout his 30-year career, he stopped here frequently, first as a vaudevillian, and later as a journalist and after-dinner speaker....

Hailed as "the nation's largest, most comprehensive showcase of Western and Native-American art and entertainment," Michael Martin Murphey's WestFest plays this summer in Deadwood, S.D., Copper Mountain, Colo., and Amarillo,...

Best of the West: The Newberry Library is hosting "The Frontier in American Culture," a free exhibit of books, manuscripts, drawings and poster art. Also offered will be a series...

Nestled among the craft, antique and curio shops of this picturesque Brown County tourist town is the John Dillinger Historical Museum, the most complete collection of Dillinger memorabilia to be...

Lost amid the hoopla surrounding the 200th anniversary of a little-known horseback riding exhibition in Philadelphia (see accompanying story) is the fact that 1993 also marks the 35th season of...

When we arrived at the Jesse James Farm, two hours before opening time, we decided to make the most of it. The early-morning light probably would create softer photos and,...

Since the 1870s, popular fiction has maintained that Jesse and Frank James were driven to outlawry by a series of cruel circumstances not of their making, that they were basically...

A guide to Jesse James-related sites discussed in the accompanying story, plus locations of interest to those retracing his legend: - Jesse James Farm and Museum, Kearney, Mo.; 816-635-6065: Open...

''I saw Buffalo Bill just once,'' said Nebraska writer and historian Nellie Yost, 86 when we met her. She then recalled the day in 1911 when she saw the Wild...