Ignoring the fresh graves that dotted boothill, the Tascosa Pioneer had the nerve to claim on June 27, 1886, “Our society is not so rough as many have been led to believe.”

The residents of the toughest town in Texas surely shook their heads in amused amazement. Either the public-spirited publisher had baked his brains in the noonday sun, or he somehow slept through the Big Shootout.

Trouble had been brewing in the Panhandle for years. The uncompromising conflict pitted the big rancher...