OVERVIEW
An off-road adventure magazine, Western Treasures was published monthly by Ames Publishing Company in Tarzana,
California. The original editor and publisher was Robert F. Ames. An avid fan of off-roading and back country exploring,
Mr. Ames covered ghost towns and "off the beaten path" sites in his first publication, Four Wheeler.
Mr. Ames also published a book, Western Treasures' Notebook of Lost Mines and Buried Treasure in 1966.
Western Treasures started with the Summer, 1963 issue. It was published erratically until 1966 when it got onto a more regular cadence.
Sometime in 1971, Lou Kjose took over as the publisher under the business name Nationwide Publishing Inc. in Hollywood, California. This was short-lived, and Kable News took over the title and had Frank Taylor as the editor. This seems to have been an interim step to find a new owner after Nationwide couldn't cover newsprint and distribution costs.
And then in late 1972 or early 1973, the title was acquired by Gordon Harrison and People's Publishing Company in Compton, California. Mr. Harrison slowly transitioned the title to Western and Eastern Treasures; this transition was complete after the January, 1976 issue.
CONTENT COMPLETENESS:
A total of 55 issues was printed from Summer 1963 through January, 1976 when the magazine became
Treasures (with significantly smaller fonts for both "eastern" and "western"). All cover images are
complete through this phase of the transition to the new title.