THE COWBOY SALOON OF STILWELL AND STWART

Oklahoma historian reveals the real story of the ownership of the famous Charleston, Arizona, watering hole.

- TRUE WEST'S EDITORS AND ROY YOUNG

For many years, True West’s editors have published a much-debated 1889 photograph of Stwart’s Saloon from Charleston, Arizona Territory. The town supported local mining mills and local ranchers and quickly became a hotbed of an anti-Earp contingent of cowboys, outlaws and rustlers including Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, Pete Spence, Frank Stilwell, John Ringo and Curly Bill Brocius. True West ran a photo in the May 2020 issue, after some detective work by the editor on the photo. Now, Western historian extraordinaire Roy Young has provided us the final word on the photo in question:

“There is an error on page 11 about which I’ve written to you twice before, once getting a published reply showing the correction. But, here it is again. As this is such a famous Arizona photograph, please note the following: