Dan L. Thrapp, a chronicler of the American West, died on Friday, April 29, at his home in Tucson, Ariz., of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 80.
A native of West Chicago, Thrapp began his travels as a paleontologist for the New York Museum of Natural History in the 1930s. At one point, the museum ordered an aerial search for Thrapp when it feared he had been lost on a solo exploration of cliff-dweller ruins in an unmapped canyon region of southern Utah.He was a foreign correspondent for United Press in England, Greece, Italy and Africa before joining the Los Angeles Times as religion editor (1951-1975).
Thrapp was an authority on the Apache wars in Arizona and New Mexico in the second half of the 19th century. His six books on the subject included "Al Sieber, Chief of Scouts" in 1964 and "The Conquest of Apacheria" in 1967.
He also wrote the "Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography" (University of Nebraska Press).