Every few minutes a bugle call sounded across the empty parade ground at Fort Davis in the rocky hills of west Texas. Every time I heard one, I expected to see John Wayne riding in front of a long column of blue-clad cavalry troopers galloping to rescue me from Apache or Comanche warriors. The morning breeze was gentle and I was the only visitor in sight that early in the morning. It wasn’t hard to let my imagination run for awhile.

Earlier this year we ran a story by former Park Service historian Richard West Sellars that examined how fully the National Park Service at Fort Laramie National Historic Site recounts the history of the 19th Century Indian Wars. The following article from Robert Pahre takes a broader look at how the National Park Service interprets Native American history.

We've grown accustomed to media coverage of property threatened by raging wildfires in California, but… West Texas? Large fires that raced across the high desert last weekend caused major damage in the small town of Fort Davis. Thus far, the key historic structures at Fort Davis National Historic Site have escaped, but it's been a close call, and fires are still not controlled.

With Barack Obama set to become the first American president of African-American descent, 3,000 or so of the 19th Century Army veterans who served at Fort Davis must be high-fiving each other somewhere in the beyond.