Despite the Confederate army's superior numbers, the Union won the battle decisively in two days (March 7-8, 1862). The victory secured Missouri's loyalty to the Union and cleared the way for the Union to swiftly occupy Arkansas and thus control the Trans-Mississippi West.

The antebellum home represents the decadent grandeur of the slave South like nothing else. It's unusually immense and columned like a temple, painted skull white, and built with slave labor.

Seminoles were a band of Creeks who lived up to the meaning of their free-spirited name, meaning runaway, which is perhaps best evidenced by how they lived communally among slaves, free Blacks, and fugitive slaves. This open attitude toward race and intermarriage, which existed prior to their removal from Florida, is the reason Bass Reeves made it his goal to reach their nation.

Brazen outlaws sheltering in Indian Territory nicknamed the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway 'the Dead Line' as a threat to all lawmen that they would not survive if they dared to pursue them across the line. The threat was real: over 65 deputy U.S. marshals died in the line of duty for Isaac Parker's court.

The Western District of Arkansas was a federal court located in the frontier city of Fort Smith, which presided over the largest and most dangerous jurisdiction in American history: consisting of 13 counties in western Arkansas and 74,000 square miles of Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Each tribal nation was well served by its own mounted Lighthorse police, but their authority was limited to their own citizens. As a result, Indian Territory became an attractive refuge for U.S. citizens hoping to escape the law.

Nita's cabin appears in a typical Choctaw village of peaceful maize farmers. The Choctaw were agrarian by tradition prior to their removal from Mississippi and Alabama.

Bass Reeves bought a small farm in Van Buren, Arkansas, no more than a few miles away from the plantation where he was born in 1838 (owned by George Robertson Reeves's father, William Steele Reeves). Bass built the proud eight-room farmhouse himself, which the family would later call a 'showplace.'

Since the sale of alcohol was prohibited in Indian Territory, the barkeep of the hotel's speakeasy seems to fear the loss of his liquor more than being arrested. He says to Bass, 'Sherrill Lynn came by yesterday and drank up all my whiskey. Broke three of my chairs. Don't tell me you're here for my gin, too.'

Travelers leaving or entering Fort Smith, Arkansas, often followed the Butterfield Overland Trail, a historic mail route that coursed through the Choctaw Nation.

Ramsey's ghost story about Mister Sundown is reminiscent of another tall tale. Bass claimed that after arresting Yah-kee, a Native American medicine man who had turned horse thief, he began suffering pains and thirst and believed himself close to dying. Suspecting that Yah-kee had put a voodoo hex on him, Bass searched the medicine man's pockets for his conjure bag. Once Bass found it, he heaved it into a nearby creek, and his suffering subsided.

Van Buren is home to Mount Olive United Methodist Church, founded in 1869 by recently emancipated slaves. Bass Reeves was one of its founding members.

After Sally catches Arthur plagiarizing Elizabeth Barrett Browning, he looks off at the waterfall and appears to acquire the meaning of love, which may also be the meaning of nature and the inspiration of poetry itself. He says wisely, 'That's all love is anyway, something feeling good and perfect for the first time, all over again. And again. And again.'

Bass Reeves had a modern penchant for disguise, or undercover work. He commonly dressed as a tramp or a cowboy, but his roleplaying went far beyond that. He rarely rode one of the well-bred quarter horses that the federal court provided deputy U.S. marshals or wore a badge proudly displayed. Instead, Bass wanted to blend into his environment so that he could potentially cozy up to his suspects, gather evidence, and arrest them without bloodshed. This pragmatic, nonviolent, and humble approach is the primary reason many historians claim that Bass was more than likely the inspiration for the Lone Ranger character depicted in books, radio, TV shows, and movies—because their similarities are uncanny.

Bass claimed that whenever he was tracking felons and serving writs in Indian Territory, the omen of bad weather would inevitably find him.

The Red River is the natural border between Texas and Indian Territory. The tributary gets its name from how red it turns from the region's red-colored soil during and after a flood.

Bass Reeves once declared, 'The bravest man I ever saw was Jim Webb.' Webb apparently felt the same about Bass, for after their gun battle in the San Bois Mountains, he managed to say before dying, 'Give me your hand, Bass. You are a brave man.'

Bass had a reputation for respecting and protecting animals—horses and dogs to be sure but also once a skunk, which had crawled up next to him one night while he was sleeping in Indian Territory. According to legend, one of Bass's prisoners at some point had spotted the unlikely pair and began hollering and making a dreadful racket to provoke the skunk into spraying Bass. But when Bass woke, he kept the animal calm by patting it and sweet-talking it until the skunk peacefully slunk out of camp.

'Manifest destiny' created a plethora of labor opportunities to attract men westward—from laying rails and mining to lumbering and cattle driving. The world's oldest profession was never more in demand: by the late 1800s, there were an estimated 50,000 'sporting women' like Calista working throughout the West.

Isaac C. Parker tried 13,490 cases during his tenure (1875-1886), and of the 160 men and women he sentenced to hang, 79 died on the gallows. Judge Parker did not commonly attend the hangings despite his moniker as 'the Hanging Judge'; in fact, he was vocal about his opposition to the death penalty. But the law was the law, and he followed it to the letter.

Chickasaw citizen Benjamin Franklin Colbert operated a profitable ferry on the Chickasaw Nation side of the Red River from 1853 to the mid-1870s. It was the main river crossing, serving the Butterfield Overland Mail and countless cattle drives.

The stockyards and the city of Fort Worth, known as “Cowtown,” represented the last stop for drovers heading north along the Chisolm Trail before crossing the Red River into Indian Territory.

Glen Rose, TX, which is 55 miles southwest of Fort Worth, is called the “Dinosaur Capital of Texas.” Much like future cows and cowboys, dinosaurs traveled through this area in droves, leaving tracks in mud. Mammoth skulls and tusks have also been discovered in nearby Waco.

The jail for the Western District of Arkansas was nicknamed “Hell on the Border” due to its dank, unsanitary, and overcrowded conditions. It was located in the basement of the Fort Smith Courthouse and consisted of two large cells of identical dimensions (29 feet by 55 feet) with the capacity to hold 150 prisoners each.