True Western Towns
Dodge City, Kansas
- Published July 31, 2008
- Written by Russ Wood
A barrel of whiskey kick-started this frontier burg.
Dubois, Wyoming
- Published June 30, 2008
- Written by Russ Wood
The 1880s settlers in Never Sweat, Wyoming, enjoyed the warm, dry winds that flowed across town and the great Wind River. Hunters and trappers, including Kit Carson, Jim Bridger and Butch Cassidy, had their field day scoping out big game species such as bighorn sheep, elk and black bears on bordering mountains like Whiskey Mountain. But when the postal service insisted the name Never Sweat just wouldn’t work, the government changed the name to Dubois (pronounced “Dew-boys”).
Calgary, Alberta
- Published May 01, 2008
- Written by Meghan Saar
At an elevation of 3,500 feet, the air is mountain fresh, and with chinook winds providing spring-like weather any winter month, the climate is friendly in Calgary. First built as a fort in 1875 by the North West Mounted Police to quell the illegal whiskey trade, Calgary became a bustling cowtown. Today, this booming energy-driven cosmopolitan center has a population of more than one million.
Columbia, California
- Published June 01, 2008
- Written by Meghan Saar
Hildreth’s Diggings was a tent and shanty town housing the thousands of miners attracted to today’s Columbia after Dr. Thaddeus Hildreth, his brother George and some other prospectors discovered gold there on March 27, 1850. By 1860, much of the placer gold had been mined. The town’s population soon dipped to 500, but it continued to survive and was finally preserved as a California state park in 1945. In the Sierra Foothills (three miles north of Sonora), Columbia is a well-kept secret and a destination for 400,000 tourists who happen upon her annually.
Durango, Colorado
- Published April 01, 2008
- Written by Meghan Saar
Along the Ute’s River of Lost Souls (today’s Animas River), you’ll find “water town,” first labeled as Urango by the Basque and later named after Durango, Mexico, by Territorial Gov. A.C. Hunt. Rio Grande surveyors founded this rail town in 1880, and its rail heritage still elevates Durango as a noteworthy place to live. This Colorado town will definitely bring out the Durango Kid in you.
