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Jean Lafitte was a smuggler and privateer operating in the Gulf of Mexico during the early 19^th century. His base was on an island in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, and he was a very successful smuggler. However, eventually smuggling became less profitable, and he gradually fell into piracy. He became an exceptional pirate – so much so that he became a prime target of the fledgling USN. Ultimately, his base was captured, and both he and his men were imprisoned.

Fortunately for Lafitte, General Andrew Jackson was desperate for fighting men to defend New Orleans, which was threatened by the British invasion during the War of 1812. Consequently, Jackson offered Lafitte and his men a pardon if they would help defend the city in what history calls The Battle of New Orleans. After Jackson’s glorious victory over the British, the future President paid tribute to Lafitte and his men for their bravery during the battle.

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Unfettered, Lafitte moved his operations to Galveston, Texas where he founded a colony, then declared himself president of Texas. Lafitte earned millions from smuggling and plundering the Spanish Main. Curiously, what became of him remains a mystery to this day.

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Anne Bonny and Mary Read were pirates, as renowned for their ruthlessness as for their gender, and during their short careers challenged the sailors’ adage that a woman’s presence on shipboard invites bad luck.

Much of what we know about Bonny and Read comes from a 1724 account titled A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, by Captain Charles Johnson (which may be a nom de plume for author Daniel Defoe).

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I’ve been interested in Wild Bill for a long time. James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876) is one the most iconic folk heroes of Old West. He was a gunfighter, scout, and a lawman. Ironically, Wild Bill headed west as a fugitive from justice, and after a brief stint as a stagecoach driver, he became a sheriff in Kansas and Nebraska. Between his law-enforcement duties and gambling, Hickok was involved in several notable shootouts.

His career and fame ended in Deadwood, SD, and there are reports he had a premonition that Deadwood would be the last place he’d hang his spurs. The premonition turned out to be true.

On August 2, 1876, Hickok was playing poker at Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon in Deadwood. Although Hickok usually sat with his back to a wall, on this occasion the only seat available in the game he joined put his back to a door. Twice he asked another player, Charles Rich, to change seats with him, and on both occasions Rich refused.

An ex-buffalo hunter named Jack McCall (aka “Broken Nose Jack”) walked in unnoticed and positioned himself a few feet behind Hickok. Broken Nose Jack drew his pistol and shouted, “Damn you! Take that!” before firing at Hickok. McCall’s shot to the back of Hickok’s head killed him instantly.

 The Dead-Man’s Hand

When he was shot, Hickok was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights, all black. Ever since, this combination of cards became known as the Dead-Man’s Hand. 

At the time of his death, Hickok had killed 36 men and several more deaths are attributed to him without proof. Hickok was originally buried in the Ingelside Cemetery, Deadwood’s original graveyard. The cemetery filled quickly, and in 1879, on the third anniversary of his original burial, Hickok was moved to the new Mount Moriah cemetery. Oddly, when Hickok’s body was exhumed it was noted that while perfectly preserved, Hickok had been imperfectly embalmed. Consequently, the calcium carbonate in the surrounding soil had replaced the flesh leading to petrifaction. In other words, Wild Bill had essentially become petrified like an ancient tree. One of the workers, Joseph McLintock, wrote a detailed description of the re-interment. McLintock wrote that he used his cane to tap the body, face, and head, noting the sound was similar to tapping a brick wall. Although Mclintock believed Wild Bill’s remains weighed more than 400 lb., William Austin, the cemetery caretaker, estimated the body weighed 500 lbs., which made it difficult to carry Wild Bill to his final resting place.

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This is an early piece of St Michael in bronze I created a long time ago. In many depictions Michael is represented as an angelic warrior, fully armed with helmet, sword, and shield. The shield may bears the Latin inscription Quis ut Deus. He may be standing over a serpent, a dragon, or the defeated figure of Satan, whom he sometimes pierces with a lance. The iconography of Michael slaying a serpent goes back to the early 4th century, when Emperor Constantine defeated Licinius at the Battle of Adrianople in 324 AD, not far from the Michaelion a church dedicated to Archangel Michael.

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Madame, Ma’am, Señorita or Squaw, every woman needed as many guts as their male counterparts to live in the American West. Even the ‘weaker sex’ encountered a world savage and brutal, including fits of Mother Nature like blizzards, droughts and tornadoes. Despite these barriers, the American frontier attracted legions of exceptional women – mavericks, loners, eccentrics and adventurers.

Like their male counterparts on the frontier, the earliest women on the western frontier were rugged individualists who angled west to escape societal pressures and do what they pleased. More often than not, ‘doing what they pleased’ was a polite way of saying they were women of easy virtue. A Forty-Niner’s poem describes some of the first women to arrive in California:

The miners came in ’49,
The whores in ’51,
And when they got together
They produced the native son.

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Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. (c. 1825 – March 16, 1903) was an eccentric U.S. saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, who called himself “The Law West of the Pecos”. According to legend, Judge Roy Bean held court in his saloon along the Rio Grande in a desolate stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert of southwest Texas. After his death, Western films and books cast him as a hanging judge, though he is known to have sentenced only two men to hang, one of whom escaped.

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One of his first acts as a justice of the peace was to “shoot […] up the saloon shack of a Jewish competitor.” Bean then turned his tent saloon into a part-time courtroom and began calling himself the “Law West of the Pecos.” As judge, Bean relied on a single lawbook, the 1879 edition of the Revised Statutes of Texas. When newer law books showed up, Bean used them as kindling.

Bean did not allow hung juries or appeals,[10] and jurors, who were chosen from his best bar customers, were expected to buy a drink during every court recess. Bean was known for his unusual rulings. In one case, an Irishman named Paddy O’Rourke shot a Chinese laborer. A mob of 200 angry Irishmen surrounded the courtroom and saloon and threatened to lynch Bean if O’Rourke was not freed. After looking through his law book, Bean ruled that “homicide was the killing of a human being; however, he could find no law against killing a Chinaman”. Bean dismissed the case.

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“To the North Wall” captures a pivotal moment in the Battle of the Alamo, depicting one of Davy Crockett’s men rallying his comrades to defend the North Wall during the final assault on March 6, 1836. This bronze sculpture, meticulously crafted by Erik Christianson, brings to life the courage and determination of the Alamo defenders.

The figure’s attire and equipment are historically accurate, reflecting the frontier style of the early 19th century. He wears Mexican Bota leggings and moccasins, likely acquired during his journey to Texas, along with a traditional hunting jacket. His arsenal includes a Kentucky long rifle, modeled after one captured at the Alamo, a flintlock pistol, powder horn, paper cartridge box, bowl reamer, and tomahawk.

Davy Crockett, the legendary frontiersman and former Tennessee congressman, arrived at the Alamo on February 8, 1836, with a group of Tennessee volunteers. According to Mexican Captain José Enrique de la Peña’s account, Crockett and his men were among the last defenders to fall, making their final stand at the North Wall.

This sculpture embodies Christianson’s commitment to preserving history through bronze, a medium he chose for its permanence and ability to capture the essence of pivotal moments. By immortalizing this scene, the artist ensures that the valor of the Alamo defenders, including Crockett’s band of volunteers, will be remembered for generations to come.

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“They were men who could not be stampeded.”

That’s the way the late Col. Homer Garrison, Jr., long-time director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, once described the men who have worn the silver or gold star of the Texas Rangers, the oldest state law enforcement agency in North America.

The Rangers have a heritage that began with the earliest settlements in Texas. They have been compared to other world-famous law enforcement agencies, the FBI, Scotland Yard, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Scores of books, from well-researched works of nonfiction to Wild West pulp novels to best-selling works of fiction, have been written about the Rangers. And numerous movies, radio shows and television shows have been inspired by the Rangers over the years.

The Rangers are part of the history of the Old West, and part of its mythology. Over the years, a distinct Ranger tradition has evolved. As former Ranger Capt. Bob Crowder once put it, ”

A Ranger is an officer who is able to handle any given situation without definite instructions from his commanding officer, or higher authority. This ability must be proven before a man becomes a Ranger.”

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In creating the ‘Champions Challenge’, I wanted to create a symbolic definition of the natural warrior spirit. A violent culture of honor, courage, and sacrifice. I wanted a linear composition with a provocative attitude.  The brave is wearing a decorative but functional bone beaded breast and throat protector with a porcupine head dress. His horse has the symbolism of many successful horse raids. The palm print states he has killed a man in ‘hand-to-hand’ combat.  The Native Americans fought as individuals, competing against other tribes for land and horses.  This is why I came up with the title ‘Champions Challenge’.

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Cleopatra VII ruled ancient Egypt as co-regent (first with her two younger brothers and then with her son) for almost three decades. She became the last in a dynasty of Macedonian rulers founded by Ptolemy, who served as general under Alexander the Great during his conquest of Egypt in 332 B.C. Well-educated and clever, Cleopatra could speak various languages and served as the dominant ruler in all three of her co-regencies. Her romantic liaisons and military alliances with the Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, as well as her supposed exotic beauty and powers of seduction, earned her an enduring place in history and popular myth.