'Rollicking, adventurous, touching. Whether the reader invests only a few minutes at a time or finishes the book at one sitting, he is in for a lot of fun.' - American West'Fascinating tales set down succinctly and excitingly. There are stories of lost treasure and sudden riches, of outlaws and sheriffs, of massacres and heroics.' - Kansas City Times'A fun book. Where else but in the frontier West were such stories really lived?' - Richard Bartlett, author of Great Surveys of the American West and The New Country: A Social History of the American Frontier

'Swift-moving tales, always readable, often captivating. Dary is ever the master of narrative. This is a contribution to the literary heritage of the state.' -Thomas Isern, coauthor of Plainsfolk

Do you know how Oklahoma came to have a panhandle? Did you know that Washington Irving once visited what is now Oklahoma? Can you name the official state rock, or list the courses in the official state meal? The answers to these questions, and others you may not have thought to ask, can be found in this engaging collection of tales by renowned journalist-historian David Dary. Most of the stories gathered here first appeared as newspaper articles during the state centennial in 2007. For this volume Dary has revised and expanded them—and added new ones. He begins with an overview of Oklahoma’s rich and varied history and geography, describing the origins of its trails, rails, and waterways and recounting the many tales of buried treasure that are part of Oklahoma lore. But the heart of any state is its people, and Dary introduces us to Oklahomans ranging from Indian leaders Quanah Parker and Satanta, to lawmen Bass Reeves and Bill Tilghman, to twentieth-century performing artists Woody Guthrie, Will Rogers, and Gene Autry. Dary also writes about forts and stagecoaches, cattle ranching and oil, outlaws and lawmen, inventors and politicians, and the names and pronunciation of Oklahoma towns. And he salutes such intellectual and artistic heroes as distinguished teacher and writer Angie Debo and artist and educator Oscar Jacobson, one of the first to focus world attention on Indian art. Reading this book is like listening to a knowledgeable old-timer regale his audience with historical anecdotes, “so it was said” tall tales, and musings on what it all means. Whether you’re a native of the Sooner State or a newcomer, you are sure to learn much from these accounts of the people, places, history, and folklore of Oklahoma.

The historic tales of the Sunflower State and its people are as interesting as the days are long. A pair of brothers went from making airplanes to tractors and soon became part of John Deere. Kansan Captain Donald K. Ross won the first Congressional Medal of Honor through his actions at Pearl Harbor. The first telephone exchange in the area was invented by a Mr. Strowger because a rival funeral director had a girlfriend who was an operator for the local telephone company and kept sending his business to her friend. Nannie Jones, who stood up to Jim Crow racism and won her case in court, is memorialized by a headstone at Highland Cemetery. Author Roger Ringer details these stories and more.

This is a collection of stories set on the prairies and plains of middle America that stretch from Rio Grande northward into Canada.

Meet the mayor of Kansas City as he's called upon to remove the spell of an evil hypnotist. Meet Bottles, the beer guzzling canine, as he makes his way around town on the streetcars. See a tiny Russian prince fall in love, celebrate the birth of the Gypsy King's son, and relive the days of vaudeville and ragtime with these true, whimsical, Vintage Kansas City Stories, taken from the pages of The Kansas City Journal during the years 1907-1909. More than 75 illustrated stories go beyond the history of an American metropolis to tell what it was like to live in an age where old-world people were meeting new technologies, embracing modern thought, and facing a century that promised a world of possibility. Includes a bonus, The Story of Kansas City, the town's early years as seen through the eyes of John Henderson Miller, who moved to Kansas City in 1857 as a small child and grew up as the town was growing, through the Civil War and the birth of the railroads.