In 1884 the Montana Stockgrowers Association was organized in Miles City, which hosted the event for thirty-four years. Stock thieves plagued open range ranchers, and young Theodore Roosevelt impulsively called for “a war against rustlers.” But pioneer Montana cattleman Granville Stuart already was quietly organizing deadly retaliation, and soon his fourteen “Stuart’s Stranglers” killed nineteen rustlers in the countryside.

Fort Keogh at its height boasted a garrison and civilian employees totaling nearly 1,000 men. Every night the troopers caroused at the saloons and parlor houses of Miles City. There were frequent brawls involving fists and boots, but deadly encounters were rare. There was one fatal shooting, one throat-cutting, and one lynching. Otherwise, troopers and civilians enjoyed hard-drinking fun. Fort Keogh became known as a party post, complete with balls and parties for officers and ladies - including a memorable evening with John Philip Sousa and his US Marine Band. Meanwhile, Miles City became famous as a good time town, with street dances and frequent parades.

Black Wall Street 100 is a window into what distinguishes the Tulsa of today from the Tulsa of a century ago. Before peering through that porthole, we must first reflect on Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District in all its splendor and squalor, from the prodigious entrepreneurial spirit that pervaded it to the carnage that characterized the 1921 massacre to the post-massacre rebound and rebuilding that raised the District to new heights to the mid-twentieth-century decline that proved to be a second near-fatal blow to the current recalibration and rebranding of a resurgent, but differently configured, community.

Tulsa's trajectory may be instructive for other communities similarly seeking to address their own histories of racial trauma. Conversely, Tulsa may benefit from learning more about the paths taken by other communities. Through sharing and synergy, we stand a better chance of doing the work necessary to spur healing and move farther toward the reconciliation of which we so often speak.

Billy Dixon triggered the most celebrated shot in the history of the West at the Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874. A few months later, while serving as an army scout, Billy earned a Medal of Honor during an even more desperate engagement, as one of six men battling for their lives against a band of 125 warriors at the Buffalo Wallow Fight. Both of these actions took place in the Texas Panhandle, where Dixon became an icon of heroism.

Billy ran away to the West during boyhood, eagerly seeking adventure on the frontier. He worked as a woodchopper, a trapper, a bullwhacker and a muleskinner. Dixon became a buffalo hunter, displaying exceptional skills as a sharpshooter. After almost a decade as an army scout, Dixon returned to Adobe Walls to establish a bachelor home on the sparsely-settled plains.

A fellow adventure-seeker, Olive King, came to the Panhandle from back East to visit her cowboy brothers. She became a frontier schoolmarm, and she met her famous neighbor, Billy Dixon. Billy and Olive fell in love, married, and had eight children. Olive persuaded Billy to dictate his memoirs to her, and the result was a classic frontier biography, Life of “Billy” Dixon: Plainsman, Scout, and Pioneer. During a long widowhood, Olive Dixon became a significant force in Panhandle history, helping to establish the Panhandle-Plains Museum, writing and speaking about her own pioneer experiences as well as Billy’s, and erecting impressive monuments at Adobe Walls and at Buffalo Wallow.

Contributing writers include: Joe R. Lansdale, David Bowles, Russell C. Connor, Anna L. Davis, Stephen Patrick, Tom Alexander, Michael H. Price, Joe McKinney, Alan Beauvais, Michael Baldwin • David Robledo • Carmen Gray, Glen Coburn, Ernie Lee, Tom Bont, E. R. Bills, Bret McCormick

He has been called, a savior, a philanthropist, a "good ‘ol boy," and a SOB—but one thing Joe Jamail has never been is boring!