western history

From Mayor to Homeless: Craig Coyner's Life Tracked the Changes in Bend, Oregon and the West

Deindustrialization, addiction and high housing costs, plus frayed social services and mental health care, have fed a housing crisis on the west coast. One town's mayor experienced this firsthand. 

Scientists: The Unsung Heroes of the American West

by Elliott West

From animal husbandry to epidemiology, the work of scientists was critical to America's conquest of the west, while the region also provided critical evidence in the debate over Darwin's theory of natural selection. 

How 1880s Levi's Sold for $76K

Among the period-correct details establishing the provenance of the pants was an inner tag proclaiming the garments were made with only "white labor" in the era of Chinese exclusion. 

Patty Limerick Speaks on Her Dismissal from CU's Center of the American West

by Colleen Flaherty

All five members of the center's executive committee have resigned in support of Prof. Limerick. She has argued that her dismissal will make other scholars reluctant to commit to public engagement outside the university wall. 

More Information on Removal of Prof. Patricia Limerick from CU Center of the American West

A report alleged that the professor misused the time and work of center staff for personal projects; it remains unclear if the report was the reason for her removal from an academic center she founded. 

The 100-Year Old Miscalculation that Drained the Colorado River

The Colorado River Compact is based in an egregious exaggeration of how much water flows through the river—and how much downstream farms and cities have been entitled to use. 

What Slavery Looked Like in the West

by Kevin Waite

"Historians typically study Black and Native slavery as discrete systems. But America’s wealthiest slaveholders didn’t draw a fixed line."

The Resurrection of Bass Reeves: Was the Real "Lone Ranger" Black?

Only recently has popular culture revived interest in Bass Reeves, one of the first Black men to serve as a US Marshal, and the scourge of Texas fugitives. 

The KKK Ruled Denver a Century Ago. Its Legacy is Still Felt

Historian Robert Goldberg describes how the Klan worked in the 1920s to dominate local goverment in the Colorado city and the state government. 

The Bloody History of Anti-Asian Violence in the West

by Kevin Waite

An 1871 massacre of Chinese residents in Los Angeles was the pinnacle of anti-Asian violence in the late 19th century west. 

How the U.S. Postal Service Forever Changed the West

Cameron Blevins's new book documents the role of the postal service in enabling the westward expansion of the United States and the conquest of Native American peoples. 

Ammon Bundy's Ongoing Religious War

by Betsy Gaines Quammen

Ammon Bundy has been looking for another battle since the takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. With a new administration promising increased regulation of public lands use, he may choose one soon. 

Oregon once Legally Banned Black People. Has the State Reconciled its Racist Past?

Activists in Oregon are working to recover knowledge of the state's forgotten African American history, which is as old as white settlement in the region. 

The Lie at the Heart of the Western

New novels disrupt the stories of white heroism at the heart of the Western genre and grapple with the multiethnic, violent, and exploitative history of the continent. 

The Forgotten History of Wyoming’s Black Miners

African Americans were an important, but largely forgotten, presence in the mining industry of the far west, a story that connects race, national expansion, and labor politics in the Gilded Age. 

Reckoning with Marcus Whitman and the Memorialization of Conquest

by Cassandra Tate

The same period that saw the public affirmation of the Confederate Lost Cause myth saw a proliferation of monuments that portrayed the conquest of the indigenous people of the west as virtuous pioneering. The case of Marcus Whitman shows a national reckoning is in order.

For 100 Years, El Monte Has Celebrated A Blatant Historical Falsehood. Why?

by Romeo Guzmán

The city of El Monte in southern California has embraced a false origin story--that the town was the end of the Santa Fe trail--to focus public history on white/anglo settlers and not the Native, Mexican, and Asian immigrant people who have also built the city. 

From Historical Injustice to Contemporary Police Brutality, and Costs of Monuments to the Unworthy

by Billy J. Stratton

Silas Soule and Joseph Cramer, two Civil War-era heroes who rebelled and refused to join a brutal attack against Native peoples represent the moral courage we would do well to honor.

The Pandemic and Protests Have Exposed the Truth About California

by Miriam Pawel

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the notion of American exceptionalism. The same is true for the golden myth of California, where American inequalities are perhaps most starkly displayed.

Understanding the Origins of American Gun Culture Can Help Reframe Today’s Gun Debate

by Jim Rasenberger

The past is a morally untidy place. As a result, it is also a place, perhaps the last one left, where we can meet and lower our weapons for a while.