American Heritage Center

Virginia Kirkus was a groundbreaking pioneer in the publishing industry. Her Kirkus’ Bookshop Service which provided pre-release reviews of books to libraries and booksellers lives on today in the Kirkus Review, now available online.

Author and photographer Teresa Jordan wrote Cowgirls: Women of the American West. The book, published in 1992, captured stories of authentic cowgirls, past and present.

When President Warren G. Harding died in office in 1923, the nation turned out in mourning.

Lieutenant Colonel R.S. Hartz and a crew of five Army aviators flew “Around the Rim” of the U.S. in 1919 to promote commercial aviation.

The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872 occurred when two prospectors salted an area of northwestern Colorado with coarse diamonds and then persuaded wealthy investors to pay them for rights to their claim.

Captain Ralph S. Johnson was an aviation pioneer who developed plane de-icing systems and the “stabilized approach” landing technique, which standardized how pilots make their descents.

In Vietnam in 1968, Bonnie and Clyde, two elephants trained to haul logs, were moved 170 miles by air in a Green Beret coordinated effort known as “Operation Bahroom”. Villagers in Tra Bong used the elephants to transport timber to their community sawmill.

Henry Sinclair Drago’s book Notorious Ladies of the Frontier chronicled the life and times of more than a dozen women who were famous and infamous across the West.

George C. Frison left his ranch at the age of thirty-seven to become a professor at the University of Wyoming where he was the head of the Department of Anthropology.

W. Dillard “Pic” Walker was named an “Elder Statesman of Aviation” by the National Aeronautic Association in 1992. The award capped a 40-year career as a pilot and aviation pioneer.