Specializing in the History of the West in Narrative and Song

 

                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                               A professional historian, musician, and consultant, Mark has worked

                                                                                                           with the National Park Service, National Geographic Magazine, PBS

                                                                                                           Television, the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities, and numerous 

                                                                                                                                               state and local historic sites and museums.  He writes for both popular

                                                                                                           and scholarly audiences, having published with several university presses

                                                                                                           and periodicals such as New Mexico Magazine and Sports Afield.  He

                                                                                                           has written seven interpretive booklets for National Park Service sites,

                                                                                                           including Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Washita Battlefield

                                                                                                           National Historic Site, and Fort Union National Monument (click on the

                                                                                                           link below for Mark's books).

 

                                                                                                           In addition to his research and writing, Mark studies and performs the pop-

                                                                                                           ular music of the 19th and early 20th-century West.  He has entertained au-

                                                                                                           diences with his historic music at numerous venues, from the Gateway Arch

                                                                                                           in St. Louis, Missouri, to the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mex-

                                                                                                           ico.  Mark currently performs with musician and "living historian" Rex Rideout

                                                                                                           of Conifer, Colorado (TimeTravelMusic.com).  Their popular CD, Frontier

                                                                                                           Favorites: Old-Time Music of the Wild West, is available for sale here.

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                                                                                                           History of the Historian:  A native of Missouri, Mark began his career in

                                                                                                           Public History in the early 1980s as a seasonal park ranger at Bent's Old Fort

                                                                                                           National Historic Site near La Junta, Colorado.  He subsequently worked at

                                                                                                           Arrow Rock State Historic Site, Missouri, and Harpers Ferry National Histor-

                                                                                                           ical Park, West Virginia.  In 1985, he was the Mary Moody Northen Fellow

                                                                                                           at the Stonewall Jackson House in Lexington, Virginia.  From 1987 to 1991,

                                                                                                           Mark was employed as the Site Director at the Colorado Historical Society's

                                                                                                           Baca and Bloom Houses in Trinidad, Colorado.  Mark is a graduate of North-

                                                                                                           west Missouri State University, Maryville, Missouri, and obtained his Master of

                                                                                                           Arts degree in American Studies from the University of Wyoming.

    

                 Mark’s areas of expertise include the Santa Fe Trail; Indian/white conflict on the Great Plains; Bent's Fort on the Arkan-

                 sas; the buffalo robe trade; 19th-century American popular music; cowboy songs and ballads; the U.S.-Mexican War; 19th-

                 century American photography; Western freighting; Western film history; the West in popular culture, author Edward Abbey;

                 19th-century sport hunting; and Western Americana in general.  His research has taken him to numerous archives, libraries,

                 and antiquarian book stores across the country.

                   

                          2007 Highlights and Upcoming Events 
                                                                                 Check Back For Updates to this Calendar

                               

                  January, 2007:  Mark's feature article on cowboy artist and author Will James appeared in the January issue of New Mexico Magazine.

 

                  January 12-13, 2007:  Mark & Rex performed at the 18th Annual Colorado Cowboy Poetry Gathering, held at the Arvada Center in

                  Arvada, Colorado.

 

                  January 26, 2007:  Mark spoke on the journals of Zebulon Pike at the Pike Bicentennial Symposium at Adams State College.

 

                  February 2007:  The University of New Mexico Press released the paperback edition of The Southwestern Journals of Zebulon Pike,

                  1806-1807 (ISBN: 0-8263-3389-7), for which Mark wrote an introduction.  To order online, click here.  Or call 1-800-249-7737.

 

                  April 13-15, 2007: Mark & Rex were pleased to return once again as performers at Cowboy Songs & Range Ballads, held at the Buffalo

                  Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.

 

                  May 13, 2007:  Mark & Rex presented a special musical program on the music of Billy the Kid for the opening of "Dreamscape Desperado:

                  Billy the Kid and the Outlaw in America," an exhibition at the Albuquerque Museum.  For more info, click here.

 

                  May 19, 2007:  Mark & Rex returned to the Hiwan Homestead Museum in Evergreen, Colorado, for a command performance.

 

                  June 1, 2007:  Mark & Rex will conduct a half-day workshop on period music at historic sites and museums for the annual conference of

                  the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums.  This year's conference is in Santa Fe.  More info available at the

                  ALHFAM web site.

 

                  June 3, 2007:  Mark & Rex perform historic cowboy songs for the annual Spring Festival at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, Santa Fe.  If

                  you haven't been there, Golondrinas is a wonderful living history museum on the site of an historic rancho dating to the early 1700s.  After

                  their performance, Mark & Rex will take part in a book and CD signing with other regional authors.  For more info, check out the muse-

                  um's web site.

 

                  June 14-17, 2007:  Mark & Rex are the headliner entertainers for the annual rendezvous at Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site,

                  North Dakota.  More info to come.

 

                  July 3 & 5, 2007:  Mark & Rex will perform headliner concerts at the Stuhr Museum's celebration of 150 years of Hall County history,

                  Grand Island, Nebraska.  For more info, click here.

 

                  July 16-August 3, 2007:  Mark will teach a class for Colorado College Summer Session.  The subject of the class is the Navajo Long Walk.

                  A week-long field trip will take students to Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, the Navajo

                  Nation Museum, and the Bosque Redondo Memorial.  Class is limited to 12 students.  For more info, click here.

 

                  August 25, 2007:  Mark will MC the Main Stage at the 3rd annual Fiddles, Vittles & Vino, Southern Colorado's Own Bluegrass

                  and Culinary Festival, held at Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site in Colorado Springs (Rex will be on hand for some sweet pickin').

 

                  September 27-30, 2007:  Mark will be one of the speakers and Mark & Rex will perform at the 2007 Santa Fe Trail Symposium, held in

                  Trinidad, Colorado.  Check out the Santa Fe Trail Association web site here.

                 

 

               To learn more about Mark and his work, please explore the links below. For bookings and research

               and writing inquiries, e-mail Mark using the "Contact Mark" button, or write him at the following address:

 

 

                                                                                                  Mark L. Gardner

                                                                                                     P.O. Box 879

                                                                                           Cascade, Colorado 80809

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                

 

                                                                                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                         A "Santa Fe Wagon," from an 1876 engraving in Mark's book Wagons for the Santa

                                                       Fe Trade: Wheeled Vehicles and Their Makers, 1822-1880 (Albuquerque: Univer-

                                                       sity of New Mexico Press, 2000).

                                                                                                              

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