Erin H. Turner – författare

Badasses of the Old West brings together thirty-six tales of the worst (and best) robbers, rustlers, and bandits who shaped the history of the Wild West in one compelling volume. From the famous, such as Billy the Kid and the Wild Bunch, to the lesser-known but still colorful and wicked Charles Brown and Bud Stevens. Here are just some of the fascinating and forbidding faces you’ll meet:-Bud Stevens, whose murder of a cattle king’s son rang a death knell for an entire South Dakota town-William Quantrill, the terror of Civil War–era Missouri-Legendary bandits Frank and Jesse James-Cold-blooded Sam Brown, who sneered while cutting out a man’s heart but screamed in terror when the tables turned-Jack Slade, a composite of gentleman and murderer who was such an enigma across much of the West that he charmed both Mark Twain and Buffalo Bill Dust off your six-shooter and settle into your saddle because this collection compiles the stories of the most notorious black-hat wearers of a notorious age.

From Jo Monaghan, the Southern-belle-debutant turned Idaho cattlewoman, to Fanny Sperry Steele, the Bucking Horse Champion of the World, the Wild West was populated with untamed women who worked and played as men did in the saddles of their favorite bucking broncos. This book brings together their stories, including their own thoughts about being cowgirls, and archival art that celebrates the Western experience.

This book offers an inside look at over 30 interesting and unusual episodes that shaped the history of Yellowstone Park. Read about the making of "Wonderland" over 600,000 years ago. Try to piece together the Great Stagecoach Robbery of 1908. Discover why fishing at Fishing Bridge has been banned since 1973.

How did California become the amazing state that it is today you may wonder? More than Petticoats: Remarkable California Women recognizes the women who shaped the Golden State. The lives of female teachers, writers, entrepreneurs, and artists from across the state are illuminated through short biographies.

This collection of fifty outlaw tales includes well-knowns such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Frank and Jesse James, Belle Starr (and her dad), and Pancho Villa, along with a fair smattering of women, organized crime bosses, smugglers, and of course the usual suspects: highwaymen, bank and train robbers, cattle rustlers, snake-oil salesmen, and horse thieves. Men like Henry Brown and Burt Alvord worked on both sides of the law either at different times of their lives or simultaneously. Clever shyster Soapy Smith and murderer Martin Couk survived by their wits, while the outlaw careers of the dimwitted DeAutremont brothers and bigmouthed Diamondfield Jack were severely limited by their intellect, or lack thereof. Nearly everyone in these pages was motivated by greed, revenge, or a lethal mixture of the two. The most bloodthirsty of the bunch, such as the heartless (and, some might argue, soulless) Annie Cook and trigger-happy Augustine Chacón, surely had evil written into their very DNA.

Wild West Women features the true stories of the pioneering wives, mothers, daughters, teachers, writers, entrepreneurs, and artists who shaped the frontier and helped change the face of American history. These fifty stories cover the Western experience from Kansas City to Sacramento and the Yukon to the Texas Gulf.

It Happened on the Lewis and Clark Expedition features fascinating events from Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's 1803-1805 expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back, including the first democratic vote west of the Mississippi, the remarkable and unexpected reunion of their Indian guide Sacagawea with the clan brother she hadn't seen in years, the day they found a huge whale on the beach, and their discovery of Carolina parakeets—a now extinct species.

These are the stories of what happened in the West as the trickle then flood of Easterners and immigrants first began to flow into the plains, deserts, and mountains between the Pacific Ocean and the Mississippi River and, finally, far north into The Last Frontier. While some events would have happened regardless who was there—earthquakes, storms, droughts, and other natural disasters—it was because of this influx of humanity that those events were recorded and have become part of America’s history.Amid tales of loss and horror are accounts of survival and success. And among the countless adventurers who found the lure of wide open spaces and untapped resources to be as strong as the Sirens’ song to Odysseus, many found the determination to thrive in the West. And thrive they did—even better, for what they lacked in resources they made up in resourcefulness, becoming inventors, entrepreneurs, scientists, activists, explorers and more.

It Happened in Northern California takes readers on a rollicking, behind the scene look at some of the characters and episodes from the state's storied past. Including famous tales, famous names as well as little known heroes, heroines, and happenings. Northern California is well known for its towering redwoods, Spanish missions, and gold mines, but few know about the two-year-long Native American occupation of Alcatraz, efforts by some northern Californians to establish the US's fifty-first state, or that John Sutter never capitalized on the gold rush that began on his land. It Happened in Northern California goes behind the scenes to tell these stories and many more, in short episodes that reveal the intriguing people and events that have shaped the Golden State.

True Tales from Yellowstone’s Past—from the volcanic eruption that formed its landscape to the great fires of 1988Waterfalls, mountains, trees, geysers, and magnificent wildlife form the backdrop for the first national park’s lively history. It Happened in Yellowstone goes behind the scenes to tell its story, in short episodes that reveal the intriguing people and events that have shaped Geyserland. • Experience Truman Everts’s harrowing thirty-seven day struggle to survive alone in the landscape in 1870. • Learn about the historic flight of the Nez Perce and their encounter with early Yellowstone tourists. • Feel the earth shake as it did in 1959 when Quake Lake was formed in a massive earthquake. • Glimpse grizzlies and wolves as these wild creatures find a way to survive in a changing ecosystem.