On Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, George Washington woke early. Assisted by his enslaved valets — William “Billy” Lee and the young Christopher Sheels — he powdered his hair, put on his favorite black velvet suit, tied his white neckwear, and donned his ...
Americana
Giving Back: BRCC Fund is Changing Lives and Saving Lives
Sometimes, it’s a large charitable gesture of kindness that forever changes the course of a life — or many lives. Other times, it’s a single small act of compassion that burns the brightest. For the leadership behind Black Rifle Coffee Company’s ...
Creepy Things Hunters Have Seen in the Woods
Hunters spend a lot of time in the woods. Most of us can move through the outdoors with a sense of confidence built through an intimate familiarity with nature. The fact that we’re often toting weapons also helps mitigate the fear factor nonhunters ...
Headless Horseman: The Origins of an American Ghost Story
As the weather cools, the days shorten, and copious amounts of disgusting candy corn hit the grocery store shelves, it’s time to pull out the creepiest stories we can muster. One that makes the rounds every spooky season is the tale of everyone’s ...
American Monsters: 5 Terrifying, US-Made Original Horrors
You’re alone on a country road covered in fog with no phone and no gun. The piercing cry of something — not animal, not human — sounds in the distant darkness. A chill runs through your veins as your mind conjures up images of cursed forest-dwelling ...
Roosevelt’s Legendary Double Rifle, the ‘Big Stick,’ Up Close
Theodore Roosevelt, Holland & Holland, and Africa: a hunter, a gun, and a location that should send a little shiver of excitement and yearning up the back of every hunter. It’s a trifecta that speaks of a bygone era that many hunters aspire to ...
Birth Control for Wild Horses: Drama in the American West
The drama of wild horses and burros in the American West is playing out like a Shakespeare tragedy. As drought continues to plague the region, the animals, whose populations are growing, must roam farther and farther in search of water while ...
How John B. Stetson Gave America the ‘Cowboy Hat’
If there is one item of clothing that carries the full weight of American culture, it has to be the cowboy hat. Instantly recognizable the whole world over, this iconic piece of headgear has become a long-standing symbol of adventure, hard work, ...
Billionaire in Taiwan Tells China to F*ck Off, Starts Civilian Marksmanship Program
A retired Taiwanese tech billionaire is personally funding a civilian marksmanship program called the Black Bear Academy. Its purpose? Fighting a potential Chinese invasion of the island nation that is striving for sovereignty. Under Robert Tsao’s ...
The Hard Working Americans who Keep our Country Running
The machinery of infrastructure and life that is the United States is massive and complex. It has been kept running for the past two centuries by hard working, blue-collar Americans. These men and women do the most difficult, dangerous, unglamorous, ...
Teddy Roosevelt Ran a Suppressor on Three of His Hunting Rifles
The 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, liked guns, and he liked to shoot. He famously quipped: “I don’t know how to shoot well, but I know how to shoot often.” The architect of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation ...
The True Story Behind ‘Jeremiah Johnson’: What We Know (and Don’t)
Back in the frontier days, it was not uncommon for the lives and deeds of famous gunfighters and personalities of the Wild West to be greatly exaggerated in newspaper stories and dime novels, until an entire alternate, bloviated life history attached ...
Ohio Man Shoots Bald Eagle, Tosses Away Dead Body
An Ohio man has confessed to shooting a bald eagle and then tossing its dead body into the tree line of a neighboring farm. On Tuesday, June 21, David B. Huff, 79, of Dover, pleaded guilty before US Magistrate Judge Carmen E. Henderson in ...
From Factory To Fire: The Journey of Valley Forge Flags
Every step of this story is true. It was an early morning in Smoaks, South Carolina, and humidity hung in the air. A truck pulled into the Valley Forge Flag driveway, a facility whose sole purpose is flag production. Valley Forge has ...
Davy Crockett: The Man Who Showed Us The Way
I think almost every kid on the planet had a coonskin cap growing up. It may have been for a Halloween costume, a brief phase or, at least for me, a precursor to a life as an outdoorsman. The coonskin cap has become an iconic symbol of the ...
The Origins of Memorial Day, from Decoration Day to ‘Flags In’
In front of a grave marked with spring flowers and a small American flag, Gilbert Freer held his bugle at his side. He had just finished playing taps at Mount Hope Cemetery in Boston on May 30, 1868. Freer had stubbly facial hair, but his ...
The Gun That Killed Billy the Kid Sold for $6 Million at Auction
I think we all know the story of Billy the Kid, or at least some version of it. Billy the Kid is one of our country’s most notorious outlaws, creating a legend that has been told countless times. Even though every version of the story is different, ...
The Sad Fate of the Man Behind the Legendary Colt Walker Revolver
Two of the most iconic words in the world of gun collecting are “Colt Walker.” Only 1,000 of the revolvers were ever made for the US military, and only 100 more were made for civilians. Of those, only about 10% survived. That scarcity has propelled ...
The 8 Best Dog Breeds for Veterans with PTS
When heroes come home, sometimes they need a hero of their own. In canine form, that is. Service dogs are invaluable to veterans and civilians alike. These loving, four-legged friends provide emotional support, understanding, and protection, and they ...
‘River Dave’ Skips Court, Potentially Saves Camp From Another Fire
David Lidstone, a famous hermit who lives on the Merrimack River in New Hampshire, where he’s better known as River Dave, was arrested in December 2021 for trespassing in an ongoing dispute with the owner of the land where he’s been living for ...
Lincoln Shot a Spencer Rifle With the Gun’s Designer on the National Mall
When Christopher Miner Spencer died in January 1922 after 88 years of life, he’d accomplished quite a lot. The inventor had filed multiple patents over his long career for a number of firearms, among other things. He even produced some of the ...
The Unceremonious Death of Samuel Colt
On Jan. 10, 1862, Samuel Colt passed away at his home in Hartford, Connecticut. He was one of the wealthiest men in America, with an estimated worth of $15 million ($413 million today). Death cares little about money, though. Colt died at the ...
Virtual Reality YouTube Series Puts Viewers in Civil War Trenches
A 2015 survey from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that half of all Americans are unaware of when the Civil War took place. In an innovative effort to educate Americans and promote deeper understanding of that ...
Reader’s Choice: The 10 Biggest Free Range American Stories of 2021
This was a good year for Free Range American. We grew by hundreds of percentage points in every conceivable metric and covered a wide range of topics (and controversies) other outdoor media sites were afraid to touch. We broke the news on an ...
Warts and Beauty Marks: The Homestead Act and the Making of America
The United States is referred to as “The Land of Opportunity,” and while “opportunity” has long been the focal point of that phrase, there was a time when “land” was the opportunity. On May 20, 1862 — smack dab in the midst of the Civil War — a piece ...
How the American Civil War Changed Santa Claus
Ask any kindergartener what Santa looks like, and they’ll probably tell you he has a red suit, a big, round belly and a long, white beard. The classic Christmas song “Must Be Santa,” written in 1960 by Mitch Miller, describes him in even greater ...
Washington Crossing the Delaware in 1776 Was a Last Resort
Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware, is undoubtedly one of the most “America, fuck yeah!” paintings that depict any part of the American Revolution. In recent years, the painting of George Washington crossing the ...
How a Depleted Utah Silver Mine Almost Started a War With England
Local rumor has it that the Emma Silver Mine in Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon almost started a war with England in the 1870s. Located near the Alta Ski Area (of 2002 Winter Olympics fame), the Emma Mine consists of a large tunnel bored ...
Everything You Know About the Boston Tea Party is Probably Wrong
Everyone knows about the Boston Tea Party, right? King George III of England levied yet another tax on the American colonists, this time on the most basic and necessary commodity of tea. It was the last act before the kettle of revolution began to ...
Anne LaBastille Was A Badass Woman of the Woods
As far as writers go, you don't find many routinely perched in a canoe floating in the middle of a lake with a typewriter balanced on their knees and a German Shepherd perched at the other end of the boat, but that's how you were likely to find Anne ...
