Doug has twice been awarded the Danielson Award for best program by Westerners International. He has been selected as a Road Scholar by AZ Humanities.
All talks are planned for 1 hour, 40 minutes of talk and 20 minutes of Q&A. They are supported by PowerPoint slide shows. Doug has his own computer, remote control, screen and projector. Let him know if he needs them or just the thumb drive.
$250 honorarium and travel expenses are negotiable.
Doug has copies of his books to sign and sell. Let him know if this is a problem.
History should be told as the great and wonderful tale of those who went ahead of of us heroic, determined, and sometimes villainous though more often driven by a vision of world alien to us. There were heroes both Native American and white, one defending home and family, the other taming an empty land beset by outlaws and barbarians. It is important to understand Indians as intelligent men and women of integrity every bit the equal of those they faced. Doug tells their stories as pioneer and Indian understood them.
Forget the OK Corral. Here are six of the strangest gunfights ever just the way they really happened without any help from Hollywood. Billy the Kid squared off against John Jeffords, younger brother of Tom, while Buckskin Frank took on Johnny Ringo. Best of all tales, was one of a gunfight involving a love triangle, or maybe octahedron, and an unlikely honeymoon.
Told as Bill Sublette. Sublette was a mountain man who has almost as many things named in his honor as Kit Carson. His brothers, too, were mountain men. Unlike Kit, Bill was educated and a businessman who was among those who bought out General Ashley’s Rocky Mountain Fur Company challenging the Astorians, the Hudson Bay Co., and the Blackfoot for dominance of the beaver trade. It wasn’t just men’s hats at stake. This is a personification. Tools & clothing of the beaver trade are displayed.
In 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail carried the first transcontinental post from St. Louis (& Memphis) to San Francisco in under 25 days. Through most of this period, the Chiricahua Apache offered little resistance. Raiding increased dramatically in 1861 as a nation began to rend itself apart and the people of the region were faced with confusion and difficult choices and the mail often went through despite raids by Confederates, Mexicans and Apaches.
Topographic Engineers were vital to the opening of the West. Here their story is told from the experience of Captain William Emory talking about his part in mapping and opening the Southwest. Lieutenant William H. Emory, topographical engineer, rode with General Kearny in the 1846/47 conquest of New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Bold Emory, as he was known at West Point, fought beside the general at the Battle of San Pascual. Throughout his trek from Missouri to California, he recorded the terrain, its people, ruins, flora and fauna, minerals, agricultural resources and trails. His map opened the Southern Emigrant Road to travel, and his published work introduced the Southwest to the American people and established the need for the Gadsden Purchase. He told the nation what was in the Southwest, why they should come and how to get there. After the war, he returned to survey our southern boundary. He was among the first to command a cavalry regiment.
Grant Wheeler was a top hand, a rodeo hero, a roper, and a gunfighter who decided to earn retirement cash by robbing trains. With his friend, Joe George, he demonstrated how to blow up an express car inspiring Butch and Sundance. They escaped pursued, on foot, by Sheriff C.S. Fly, you know, the famous photographer. They robbed a second train overlooking the most important part of the job and were pursued by Southern Pacific Railroad detective Billy Breakenridge, you know, from the movie Tombstone, “That’s the prettiest man I ever saw.” This is your chance to learn how retirement worked out for Grant and Joe.
In 1896, top billing among Cochise County Cowboys went to the High Five Gang also known as Black Jack’s Gang. They robbed trains, railroad platforms, and even Cookie’s chuckwagon. With complete daring they did the almost unknown and hit the bank in Nogales. Even Sheriff Texas John Slaughter couldn’t catch ‘em. Cochise County Cowboys typically came up from Texas driving cattle to Arizona, where they got paid off and spent their money on wine, women, song, and gambling, totally wasting the rest finding themselves with no way to get back. So, they took to herding other folks’ cattle . . . without permission and then went after stagecoaches. Soon they discovered that three of the largest and wealthiest towns in the West, Tombstone, Bisbee, and Silver City, were prime pickin’s.
Staying alive in 1850s Arizona was a difficult proposition. There were only two towns, Tucson & Tubac, defended by two companies of infantry and two of U.S. dragoons. Apaches and Mexicans raided at will. One braggart told a story of his personal heroism and wisdom upset by a young officer’s willful stubbornness leading to 15 years of war with the Chiricahua Apache. Unfortunately, this fabrication was recorded by early historians, obscuring the true story of bold and courageous leaders of Apache and soldiers thwarted by happenstance and misunderstanding.
As a child, I heard the Jicarillas’ own stories of their past. Finding this difficult to reconcile with history books, I delved into their past and learned that they were the people the closed the Santa Fe Trail three times, who fought and won spectacular victories, who were the last to be placed on a reservation as everyone feared them and refused to have them nearby. Kit Carson was by turns their opponent, friend and neighbor, Indian agent, and finally led their last war party. These are stories of blood and honor, courage and bravery.
The Last Trail Drive: Empire Ranch to Temecula in 1892, the southwest had been in drought for several years. Cattlemen knew they had to sell their cattle at rock bottom prices or ship them to other range. The Southern Pacific Railroad raised their rates 25% often making even rock bottom sales impossible. The Empire Ranch was the largest outfit in Arizona. Brother Ned had an idea. He’d drive the cattle across the desert to Temecula, California, in the last great cattle drive. This is his story.
n 1858, seven men worked at the Dragoon Springs Station of the Overland Mail, colloquially known as the Butterfield Mail. In the night as the men slept, three Mexican employees attacked the other four. They lay wounded and dying for many days in the Arizona sun until relief came. Only Silas St. John, horribly mutilated, survived. The other three lie buried in two cairns along with Silas's arm. The story was recorded by survivor Silas St. John, Surgeon Irwin who removed his arm, and the rescuers who came to his aid and buried the dead. This is a story of isolation, courage and the will to live and of the U.S. Mail running from coast to coast in only 25 days.
The Mexican-American War doubled the size of the United States and turned the country into a transcontinental power. Many consider it unjustified, and it was without doubt a land grab, but the U.S. had more justification than many realize. Although seldom spoken of, some of the U.S.’s finest and most remarkable battles were fought and won during this war. At the time, Mexico was a large, wealthy country with a large, highly trained army while the U.S. had a few undisciplined volunteers and a handful of frontier regiments.
For more than 300 years New Mexico was a Franciscan mission field and her people, other than Indians, an afterthought. With the Mexican Revolution in 1821 that changed and the Franciscans were expelled leaving the land with only one priest. Padre Martinez performed wonders, trained priests and led the Penitentes only to have much of his work undone by a French bishop who didn’t understand the culture. He owned and operated the first printing press in New Mexico, started the first school and seminary, served the Mexican and then the American legislature. He's rumored to have fathered five children and to have been the head of the Pentitente secret society. He was excommunicated for baptizing his flock without forcing them to tithe first.
Although Hollywood and novels confuse them, prospecting and mining are at opposing ends of the spectrum. Learn how prospectors went about finding mineral deposits, staked, and perfected their claims. See how mining was done from beginning to end, spotting “color” or the right kind of plants to digging, refining, and shipping bullion to the mint. Look at prospecting and mining from an historian’s point of view. Focused on anachronisms that trip us up and on how mining changed. Considers the tools and techniques of prospectors, what they were looking for, and what it took to turn a claim into a mine.
They pursued high wages and many thought of it as a good time while others were held as bond slaves. Many eventually married and apparently made their husbands happy. Many of the jobs of the Wild West left men without a way to raise a proper family turning to ladies of the evening for companionship. Not all women who sold companionship were selling sex.
Rowdy was a Yavapai who served as an Apache Scout under Lieutenant Powhattan Clarke, who received the Medal of Honor and was made famous by Remington’s paintings. Rowdy too received the Medal of Honor for their work together. He went on to die an ignominious death at the hands of a man who wanted to brag he’d shot an Indian.
In the late 19th and early 20thcentury, Tombstone, Bisbee, and Silver City were among the largest and richest towns in the West. The southeast corner of Arizona was border country between the U.S. and Mexico and between U.S. and Mexican states. Drovers brought cattle from Texas and divided the herds leaving their cowboys to become a restless population of outlaws. Unable or unwilling to find honest employment, they rustled cattle and robbed stagecoaches. When payrolls traveled by train, they robbed the trains. The result was seldom successful and often remarkable. Posses were arrested. Outlaws vanished to bury their treasure in caves. Sheriffs pursued departing trains on foot! Outlaws joined the posse in search of themselves.
He pursued Geronimo for robbing trains and stagecoaches and hunted Black Jack’s High Five Gang. Slaughter brought in noted gunman Buckskin Frank Leslie, killer of Johnny Ringo and Billy the Kid, for the murder of Blonde Molly. It’s all true but not everything is what it seems. Five foot four John Slaughter was a big man and a fine sheriff in Arizona’s toughest county feared by outlaws and Pancho Villa.
In 1872, Cochise had been at war with the United States for 11 years. From his Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains, he could see soldiers approaching while they were still two-days' ride away. He didn't trust Americans and wanted a reservation in his own country. Tom Jeffords had captained a ship on the Great Lakes, scouted for the army, and prospected. Asked to ride alone into Cochise's camp, he did and won the Apache leaders respect and friendship. That bond made peace negotiations possible. Jimmy Stewart played Tom in the movie Broken Arrow.
An interactive talk with many questions for young people. Takes the children back to what it was like to live in the first half of the 19thcentury. It addresses the importance of the trail to the United States, the peoples along the trail and their contributions. Looks at the dangers and hardships along the trail. Supported objects to be passed around including Rio Grande blankets, trail food, Indian artifacts, hats, skins. Period weapons – knives, pistols, rifles, tomahawks available when permitted.