26 Men Who Lived to Lie Again

 May 31, 2026

   The rolling—and roiling—contradictions of this world never cease to amaze me. If you live long enough you will experience the realization that virtually everything we celebrate as being stellar and heroic in one era has a polar opposite and you will see the very same heroes turned into villains. Custer comes to mind, as does a certain law enforcement group.

26 Men Who Lived to Lie Again

   When I was just a lad, I absolutely loved a short-lived TV series that was filmed in Arizona about the historic Arizona Rangers.

Kelo Henderson as Ranger Clint Travis

in "26 Men"

   This weekly Western appeared on ABC from 1957-59 and was filmed in and around a western movie town set in a small neighborhood north of 40th Street and Camelback in Phoenix called Cudia City. You could see the movie set from Barry Goldwater's back porch. When my grandparents came out from Iowa in 1958, we did a car trip to Phoenix and after we imbibed on fresh-squeezed orange juice from a Camelback roadside vendor, we visited Cudia City and I remember being disappointed that in the small jail on the movie set, the bars in the window were made of wood, painted black.

   Of course, as you probably know, the TV series was based on a real group of Arizona Rangers

When Arizona Rangers and Mexican Rurales

meet on the border in the 1900s.

   Never mind that, for the most part, both groups‚the Rangers and the Rurales, operated in the best interests of the mine owners and were instrumental in the questionable deportation of union workers in Bisbee. The Rangers came in on a political whim in 1901 and were disbanded on a similar whim in 1909.

   Perhaps inspired by the TV show, the group was resurrected in 1957 as volunteer auxiliary group to law enforcement.

   Today, they are in hot water again. A front page story in the Arizona Republic this morning tells the sad and sordid tale of odd associations of some of the Arizona Rangers in today's quasi-official capacity who have shady backgrounds (unpaid loans and close associations with the Hells Angels). A political football has ensued with legislation proposed to disband the group once again. Oh, my.

  And, so it goes down the drain pipe of life, like a ping pong ball bouncing from side to side to the endless sea.

   Meanwhile. . .

Saddle up, saddle up.
Saddle up, saddle up, saddle up.

This is the story of 26 Men.
Who rode the Arizona Territory.
High is the glory of 26 Men,
Who's parish helped to fill the Territory.

26 Men who saddled up and then
Rode out to answer duty's call.
26 Men who lived to ride again
And fight for the rights and the liberty of all.

This is the story of 26 Men
Enforcing law within the Territory.
Praise be the Glory of 26 Men
Who rode the Arizona Territory.

Ride on. Ride on. Ride on.

—The 26 Men theme song