Wild West Podcast: Recent Episodes
Michael King
Welcome to Wild West podcast where fact and legend merge. The Wild West Podcast presents the true accounts of individuals, who settled in a town built out of hunger for money, regulated by fast guns, who walked on both sides of the law, patrolling, investing in and regulating the brothels, saloons and gambling houses. These are stories of the men who made the history of the Old West come alive - bringing with them the birth of legends, brought to order by a six-gun and laid to rest with their boots on. Join us now as we take you back in history, to the legends of the Wild West.
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Step into the brutal reality of the 1874 High Plains with the debut episode of The German Sisters: A Story of Survival, a gripping new audiobook series from Books on Tape, expertly brought to life through ElevenLabs narration. Drawing directly from preserved 1928 Kansas State Historical Society records, military dispatches, and primary memoirs, author Michael King strips away a century of cheap dime-novel exaggeration to uncover the raw, heart-wrenching truth behind the German family tragedy. When a peaceful journey toward Colorado turned fatal along the Smoky Hill stage road, four young sisters—Catherine, Sophia, Julia, and Addie—were thrust into a harrowing fight for endurance across the frozen Texas plains. This powerful premiere strips back sensationalized myths to expose both the unfathomable horror of the ambush and the unexpected acts of human empathy that emerged during five brutal months of captivity amidst the Red River War.
Covering the book’s Introduction and Preface, this initial chapter sets the stage for a unique, dual-layered audio experience that seamlessly bridges objective historical documentation with vivid, immersive storytelling. Listeners will experience the frontier through a masterfully blended structure, feeling the crunch of parched earth under wagon wheels while tracing the strategic military campaign led by General Nelson A. Miles to bring the girls home. Born from four years of meticulous research and dedicated refinement, this definitive account captures the unbreakable will of two young girls left alone on the wilderness prairie. Available for a limited run of just one month as a serialized audio release, there is no better time to anchor this incredible piece of American history in your permanent library; listen to the opening chapter today, and purchase your complete copy online at books.by via the link https://books.by/michael-d-king.
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Step into the captivating world of the American frontier, where history, grit, and surprising truths converge to reshape everything you thought you knew about the Old West. In this engaging address, our speaker Dr. Frank Sharp peels back the layers of myth to reveal a astonishing reality: post-Civil War Texas was pulled from deep economic depression not just by hard-working cowboys, but by the legendary Texas Longhorn itself—a drive that infused what would be billions of dollars in modern currency into a devastated economy. Drawing on decades of firsthand research and vivid field experience, the narrative takes listeners from the original 1493 Spanish cattle imported by Columbus straight to the dusty trails of Fort Griffin and the iconic Western Cattle Trail.
Yet, this isn't merely a nostalgic walk down memory lane; it is an urgent rally for historical preservation. Listeners will be hooked as the speaker exposes a startling modern tragedy: while hyper-selective breeding has filled associations with crossbred "freaks" valued solely for oversized horn spans, the true, genetically pure, small-bodied Texas Longhorn is actually on the brink of critical extinction. With a perfect blend of Third-Grade math, sharp wit, interactive banter, and authentic passion, Dr. Frank Sharp offers an unforgettable look at the animal that quite literally carried American civilization forward. Tune in to discover why saving the true Texas Longhorn means safeguarding the very heart of Western heritage.
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Imagine standing atop Pawnee Rock in May of 1872, looking out over the vast, windswept plains of Kansas. As far as the eye can see, the earth itself seems to move—a living, breathing ocean of dark fur and thunder.
Welcome to The Wild West Podcast. Today, we invite you to travel alongside Colonel Richard Irving Dodge: soldier, keen naturalist, and eyewitness to the final, awe-inspiring days of the American frontier.
In this episode, written and produced by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley, Colonel Dodge takes us into the heart of the Great Plains. You'll hear his firsthand account of standing above a staggering buffalo herd—an unbelievable spectacle spanning twenty-five miles wide and fifty miles deep—and feel the pulse-pounding terror of being caught in a sudden stampede of five thousand charging bison.
This remarkable chapter of history unfolds just two months before Colonel Dodge would take command of Fort Dodge on the north banks of the Arkansas River, a mere five miles from where the legendary Dodge City was about to be born. At the time, Dodge was stationed at Fort Larned—a crucial outpost serving as a disbursement point for Indian annuities and a vital shield for the workers laying track for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad.
Step back in time with us to May 1872, and experience the frontier through the eyes of the man who lived it. Tune in now to The Wild West Podcast.
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Journey into the raw, untamed frontier of June 1872 with former buffalo hunter turned saloon owner George W. Brown. In this gripping episode, Brown details the chaotic birth of Buffalo City—a bustling boomtown sparked when a strict military ban on alcohol at Fort Dodge sent thirsty soldiers, hunters, and freight drivers searching for a new watering hole just beyond government lines. From makeshift tent bars and 25-cent whiskey shots to the rapid, wild rise of a frontier outpost, listen as history comes alive through firsthand accounts of ambition, lawlessness, and the men who built the Old West one wooden plank at a time.
Expect high-stakes drama, authentic period storytelling, and an unfiltered look at true frontier grit. You'll hear how a military ban on whiskey sparked an entire town, how wagonloads of gamblers and dance hall girls transformed a desolate prairie, and how an explosive, bullet-riddled saloon shootout unfolded over a midnight feud. Whether you're a history buff or just love a compelling, cinematic story filled with larger-than-life characters, this episode offers an unforgettable front-row seat to the wildest days of the American West—hit play and tune in today!
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Step back in time to the summer of 1872 and experience the raw, untamed spirit of the American frontier. Narrated through the vivid recollections of George W. Brown, this episode transports listeners directly onto the sun-drenched plains of Kansas, following the massive buffalo herds alongside legendary frontiersmen. Richly atmospheric soundscapes—from the crackle of evening campfires to the distant howl of coyotes—bring to life the gritty reality, unexpected humor, and rugged camaraderie of hunters like "Prairie Dog" Morrow and Thomas Nixon as they navigate a rapidly changing wild West.
Whether you are a historical enthusiast or simply love a compelling, well-told story, this immersive audio journey offers an unvarnished window into the lives of the men who shaped frontier lore. Listeners will be captivated by the colorful anecdotes, sharp wits, and larger-than-life tales of early entrepreneurial ventures and epic hunts along the Arkansas River. Tune in to hear history brought to life through authentic voice acting and traditional acoustic instrumentation that will leave you feeling as though you're sitting right beside the campfire.
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Saddle up and tune in to this thrilling episode of the Wild West Podcast, hosted by Brad Smalley! The show shines a spotlight on an upcoming doubleheader event in Dodge City, Kansas, featuring Dr. Frank Sharp—an educator, author, cattleman, and lead educator for the State of Texas Herd of Longhorns at Fort Griffin. In a captivating interview, Dr. Sharp dismantles common misconceptions about Texas Longhorns, revealing the shocking truth that genuine historical longhorns are actually critically endangered—far closer to extinction than most realize due to modern breeding trends prioritizing extreme horn length over pure historical traits. It’s an eye-opening conversation that bridges the rich, shared history between Texas and Dodge City, leaving listeners eager to learn more about the true identity of these iconic animals.
Beyond the rich livestock history, this episode delivers an irresistible invitation to a hands-on, high-energy community experience! Dr. Sharp previews his upcoming July 31, 2026 events at the Ford County Historical Society Museum, including an interactive morning session titled "Music on the American Frontier". Forget dry museum lectures—this session brings history to life by inviting adults and kids alike to grab spoons, maracas, or rhythm bones and jam along to authentic 19th-century cowboy trail songs. Between the fascinating frontier history, vivid historical artwork previews, and the promise of a foot-stomping good time, this podcast episode is a must-listen that will have you eager to dust off your boots and join in on the celebration!
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In episode 6 of Buffalo Days, the narrative opens with a sudden and intense prairie storm that triggers a massive buffalo stampede. As lightning strikes and kills a bull in the herd, the animals scatter in panic, threatening to crush the hunters and their heavily loaded supply wagons. The men are forced to make a desperate run through the blinding rain and mud, barely escaping the thundering herd when the storm runoff carves out a massive rut in the earth, redirecting the buffalo away from their path and slowing the animals down in a nearby river.
The following day, after the storm passes, the hunters venture out onto the prairie to survey the aftermath, following the winding, crooked trails left by the buffalo. Along the way, they witness the grim reality of the hide-hunting trade, coming across hundreds of decaying carcasses and spoiled hides left behind to rot by other hunters. After continuing their hunt for two more weeks to fulfill their quota of 557 hides, they haul their haul back to Fort Hays to collect their pay. The episode closes on a reflective note as the group splits up, leaving the narrator alone in a saloon to ponder his descent into becoming a hardened, cold-blooded "buffalo runner."
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Before sunrise, Josiah Wright Mooar sets out with Jim White to learn the technique of buffalo hunting from a stand. Moving six miles out, they locate a massive herd, utilizing the cover of sandhills and a riverbank to approach the animals while the skinners wait with a freight wagon nearby. As the buffalo draw close, Jim criticizes the animals' lack of intelligence and explains their tendency to stampede blindly. He then demonstrates how to set up a tripod shooting stand for his single-shot, lever-action Sharps .50 rifle. Jim methodically accounts for distance, wind, and bullet arc before opening fire. Using his specialized tripod, Jim systematically drops one buffalo after another; the narrator watches the animals lose their wild dignity as forty of them are killed without alerting the rest of the herd.
Once the hunt concludes, Jim signals the team to begin the arduous work of processing the kill. The skinners move the wagons forward and immediately begin skinning the carcasses using specialized knives and a horse-hitch to peel the hides away. While Jim White remains on high ground to keep watch for potential Indian threats, the rest of the crew spends nearly the entire day skinning and cutting the animals. By late afternoon, they finish harvesting the hides for curing and secure the hindquarters of meat—valued at three cents a pound—to ensure a profitable haul for the camp.
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Part Four of Buffalo Days details the intense encounters between the U.S. Army and 400 Native Americans and a regiment of "Buffalo Soldiers"—and the resilient Indigenous warriors of the Great Plains.
The section also features a memorable account from Jim White, who shared a campfire story about the harsh realities of life on the plains. White’s tale illustrated the unpredictable nature of the landscape and the constant threat to survival, grounding the historical military engagements in the personal, often harrowing experiences of those living through the era. This anecdote provides a humanizing perspective, contrasting the formal military history of the Buffalo Soldiers with the rugged, everyday existence of scouts and settlers in the American West.
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Part Three of Buffalo Days details Josiah Wright Mooar's transition into the life of a buffalo hunter on the American Great Plains during the 1870s. Mooar recounts the arduous process of outfitting an expedition, highlighting the logistical challenges of securing reliable teams, specialized rifles like the Sharps, and enough supplies to sustain a hunting party for months in the wilderness. He emphasizes that the work was brutal, characterized by extreme weather, isolation, and the constant physical toll of skinning and processing hundreds of bison hides.
Beyond the mechanical aspects of the trade, the author reflects on the grim reality of the near-extermination of the buffalo herds. He provides a first-hand account of the efficiency and ruthlessness of the professional hunters, whose systematic slaughter fundamentally altered the landscape and devastated the way of life for Indigenous peoples. The narrative serves as both a memoir of a rugged profession and a somber historical testament to the rapid ecological and cultural shifts that defined the era.
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Josiah Wright Moore, a young New Englander who traveled to Fort Hays, Kansas, in 1870 to make his fortune, recounts his initial struggles and a pivotal meeting with an experienced buffalo hunter named Jim White. After deciding to transition from hauling wood to buffalo hunting, Josiah attempts to purchase a wagon and team, which leads to a rough encounter with a stable owner who turns out to be Jim himself. Jim ultimately takes Josiah under his wing, and together they encounter Tom Nixon and AC Myers, who offer to form a four-man hunting team using a surplus outfit funded by eastern sportsmen. Inspired by a circular advertising a profitable market for buffalo hides through dealers like Charlie Rath, the men prepare to embark on a new hunting enterprise together.
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The Seline River Valley in Kansas was once home to immense migrating herds of shaggy buffalo that darkened the plains as far as the eye could see. These animals grazed on succulent buffalo and grama grass, drank from the local creeks and rivers, and wallowed in the hard-packed alkaline soil to lick salt from the ground. While Native Americans historically relied on these massive herds for food and clothing, they were not the only ones who hunted them. By the 1840s, the American Fur Company was purchasing thousands of buffalo robes annually. As more people entered the region following the 1859 gold strike at Cherry Creek, frontier merchants like Charles Rath arrived to establish trading contacts with the Southern Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Northern Comanche bands. Rath even strengthened these alliances by marrying a Cheyenne woman in 1860, the same year he took over a trading post on Walnut Creek following a deadly clash between the Kiowa tribe and the post's former owner, George Peacock.
As the decade progressed, tensions escalated between Native Americans and white settlers, leading to multiple raids on Rath's Walnut Creek trading post despite his efforts to maintain peace. For his own safety, his Cheyenne wife eventually convinced him to divorce her. Meanwhile, the expansion of the Butterfield Overland Dispatch freight service and the arrival of the railroad transformed the region's landscape. The military established several forts to secure the area, including Fort Fletcher (later known as Fort Hays). The rapid construction of the railroads brought in thousands of settlers and specialized construction crews, who were fed by professional buffalo hunters. Skilled marksmen, including Jim White, Tom Nixon, AC Myer, and Josiah Wright Moore, were hired by the railroad to hunt the animals. The hunters then sold the buffalo hides to factories to create the leather belts needed to drive the machinery of the emerging industrial age, fundamentally changing the American West.
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This historical yarn recounts the classic frontier hazing of "Herb," a boastful Dodge City resident who claimed to be an irresistible lady-killer but instead fell hook, line, and sinker for a mail-order prank. Orchestrated by local tricksters, the scheme buried the gullible romantic under a mountain of fake, hilariously absurd love letters from imaginary admirers. Unable to resist the promise of true love, Herb happily shelled out two dollars for a photo album to hold his fictitious harem and eagerly agreed to a late-night rendezvous in a dark lumberyard.
The climax unfolds in pure physical comedy when Herb arrives at the lumberyard, pours his heart out, and passionately squeezes a heavily veiled accomplice dressed in spotless white. Upon triumphantly peeling back the veil to claim his kiss, Herb realizes he has been thoroughly duped in front of fifty hidden, laughing spectators, sending him sprinting down the railroad tracks like a terrified frog. The ultimate punchline hits at the sales counter of Robert M. Wright’s general store, where narrator Luke McGlue—after listening to the greenhorn John Wesley Mooar retell the legend—cheerfully reveals that he was the mastermind behind the entire setup.
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Seeking adventure, Carl Ludvig Hendricks leaves Dodge City with a team of hunters to track buffalo across the untamed Kansas plains. Over the course of a year, the group braves harsh winter weather, navigates treacherous terrain, and constructs makeshift sod cabins for shelter. They survive grueling encounters with local wildlife, including managing infestations of lice from raw hides and fending off gray wolves, while the narrator personally overcomes a fear of ubiquitous rattlesnakes. The expedition proves highly lucrative as they amass over a thousand buffalo hides and dozens of wolf skins, despite growing friction with local Native American tribes who object to the hunters wasting thousands of pounds of meat.
Upon returning to Dodge City, the partners sell their equipment, divide their substantial earnings, and permanently part ways. The narrator briefly takes a job packing hides before moving to Kansas City to work as a hotel waiter, eventually relocating to Massachusetts to work in a steel wire mill. Reflecting on Dodge City's rapid transformation, the narrator describes how the fledgling railroad outpost quickly boomed into a lawless frontier town filled with saloons and dance halls. With no police presence, the town relied on vigilante justice, resulting in frequent, deadly gunfights and a rapidly growing local cemetery filled mostly with victims of violence.
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The story opens in the waning light of 1872, as Carl Ludvig Hendricks boards a steamship in Liverpool, the salt air thick with anticipation and the sharp tang of coal smoke. The decks soon fill with a raucous knot of Irish travelers, their laughter rising above the groan of the engines. For twenty-four days, Hendricks and his companions endure the relentless pitch and roll of the Atlantic, the air below decks soured by engine fumes and the sickly scent of vomit. Swedes, forbidden their usual card games, invent elaborate charades by lantern light, forging unlikely friendships in the cramped quarters. When the ship finally docks in New York, the city greets them with a cacophony of shouts and clanging streetcars. At Castle Garden, the registry lines snake endlessly, the air thick with sweat and hope. Amid the chaos, Hendricks witnesses the shattering grief of a fellow Swede as her child slips away, a stark counterpoint to the feverish promise of America. Luggage in hand, tickets clutched tightly, the immigrants press onward, propelled by dreams and the memory of loss.
The journey westward unfolds in a haze of cinders and dust, the train to St. Louis rattling through endless prairie. At the Hotel Missouri, its velvet drapes and polished brass promising a brief respite, Hendricks and his cousin are swiftly disabused of any illusions. The hotel staff, unsmiling and efficient, seize Hendricks’s treasured silver watch and the last of their Swedish coins to settle a mysterious charge, leaving the cousins adrift and penniless in a foreign city. Words fail them; the language barrier is a wall as solid as any fortress. Salvation arrives in the form of a young man with quick eyes and fluent English, who shepherds them through the labyrinthine station to their next train. In Kansas City, a crude map points the way to Osage City—one hundred miles of uncertainty. With only a handful of biscuits, they trudge the tracks, sleeping rough in a freight car, hunger and exhaustion their constant companions, until at last they find Anders Person, the cousin who is both anchor and promise of belonging.
Osage City thrums with the clang of hammers and the hiss of steam, coal dust settling on every surface. Hendricks labors first in the fields, his hands blistered by unfamiliar tools, before joining the crews laying track for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe. Under the watchful eye of Charles Rath, the work is relentless, the men bound together by sweat and necessity. Nights bring their own dangers: a sudden raid strips Hendricks of his mule team, the hoofbeats fading into darkness, and Rath must supply replacements. There are moments of levity, too—a chance meeting with Bat Masterson, whose reputation precedes him even in these raw settlements. When winter’s chill halts the rails, Hendricks returns to Dodge City, where two seasoned plainsmen beckon him south, across the wild sweep of prairie beyond the Arkansas River. There, beneath a vault of stars, they share the primal thrill of the buffalo hunt, the firelight flickering over faces etched by wind and hope.
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A man rides east through New Mexico with a coffin in his wagon, charcoal packed tight to fight decay, because his dying friend asked for one last mercy: don’t bury me in a foreign place. That single promise opens the door to the full, complicated life of Charles Goodnight, one of the most important names in Texas Panhandle history and a key figure of the American cattle frontier.
We trace Goodnight’s rise from a hard-schooled teenager on the edge of the Brazos Bottoms to a Texas Ranger who knows the plains so well he claims he barely needs a compass. The story runs straight through the Goodnight-Loving Trail, the post-Civil War cattle boom, and the brutal reality of pushing 2,000 longhorns across the Llano Estacado to reach markets and government contracts. You’ll also hear how pure necessity sparks a lasting invention: the chuck wagon, built from a surplus military wagon into the rolling heart of a trail outfit.
Then the narrative turns where most Western myths don’t. Molly Goodnight’s compassion leads to the rescue of Southern Plains bison calves and the creation of a herd that becomes a conservation landmark. And in a twist that still feels unreal, Goodnight forms a brotherly friendship with Quanah Parker, the Comanche leader whose family story intersects with Goodnight’s Ranger past. If you care about Wild West history, Texas ranching, frontier survival, and how reconciliation can emerge from violence, this one stays with you.
Subscribe for more true frontier stories, share the episode with a history-loving friend, and leave a review with the moment that hit you hardest.
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The Wild West didn’t run on courage alone. It ran on nerve, repetition, and a cold understanding that “the law” often arrived as a Colt revolver, not a badge. We take you into the real world behind the legends of Old West gunfighters, using sharp stories and historical color drawn from Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal by Stuart M. Lake, plus hard-edged accounts connected to Bat Masterson and Wild Bill Hickok.
We start with the famous Hickok vs Tutt gunfight in Springfield, Missouri, then pull apart the movie version of Western duels. Most fights weren’t staged showdowns with one heroic shot. They were sudden, messy, close, and dangerous to everyone nearby, with black powder smoke hanging in the air and outcomes unclear until the shooting stopped. From there, we zero in on what serious gunmen actually practiced: how they wore their six-shooters, how they tuned their triggers, and why “fast” only matters when it stays accurate.
Wyatt Earp’s most surprising lesson drives the heart of the conversation: the winner usually took his time. Not slow time, but a calm mind in a split fraction of a second. We also explain why fanning the hammer and shooting from the hip earned contempt from proficient gunfighters, how two-gun carry was more about a reserve than a stunt, why notched guns are largely a myth that spread through storytelling, and how safety habits like keeping an empty chamber under the hammer saved lives.
If you love Western history, Dodge City legends, and the true tactics behind frontier gunfights, subscribe, share the show with a fellow history fan, and leave a review with your biggest “Hollywood got it wrong” moment.
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A river can look calm and still be a trap. We drop into the Solomon River valley in 1857, where the U.S. Army launches what many consider the first true campaign against the Plains Indians in this series: the Cheyenne Campaign of 1857, better known as the Battle of Solomon Fork in northwest Kansas. The stakes are bigger than a single clash. This is the collision between a mobile Cheyenne world built on buffalo hunting, raiding, and shifting boundaries and a United States determined to impose fixed lines, enforce policy, and protect overland migration routes.
We walk through the pressure cooker that builds after the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, when rising immigrant traffic and wagon-train attacks trigger reprisals and then retaliation. With Secretary of War Jefferson Davis demanding punishment, Colonel Edwin V. “Bull” Sumner takes a stripped-down “scout in force” into Cheyenne country, leaning on speed, discipline, and a mix of units that includes 1st Cavalry, infantry support, prairie howitzers, and Indigenous scouts like Pawnee and Delaware trackers.
The heart of the story comes from soldier Robert E. Peck, whose eyewitness detail turns a textbook campaign into a lived experience: night fires, exhausting trails past abandoned villages, and the moment Cheyenne warriors mount and form a bold line across the valley. Then Sumner makes the choice that defines the fight, ordering a saber charge that stuns opponents who expected a gun battle at distance. We end with the brutal intimacy of close-quarters combat and the unanswered question of what “success” even means in a frontier war built to terrify and control.
If you care about U.S. Army history, the Cheyenne Indian Wars, and the real mechanics of conflict on the Great Plains, listen now, then subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review. What part of Peck’s account changed how you picture the Plains wars?
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A 17-day march ends with a shock of movement on the open Plains: roughly 300 Cheyenne warriors in line of battle and the US cavalry scrambling to form up before the infantry can even arrive. That’s the doorstep of the Battle of Solomon Fork, the 1857 Cheyenne Campaign, and the third chapter in our five-part series on the early Cheyenne Indian Wars leading toward the Sheridan Winter Campaign era.
We lean on a gripping primary source, a letter written from camp on Solomon’s Fork just after the clash. You’ll hear how fatigue and distance shape everything: Bayard’s battery left miles behind, horses too used up to keep pace, and a plan for carbine volleys replaced by a blunt command that changes the day: “Draw sabers, charge.” The result is a fast, messy pursuit where companies mix together, officers ride shoulder to shoulder, and a single moment of misfire and timing turns into hand-to-hand combat.
James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart's letter doesn’t stop at the fight. It follows the wound, the waiting, and the frontier logistics nobody puts on the monument plaque: delayed medical care, a column forced to pause, and an “ambulance” reduced to two wheels, cushions, and three mules. If you care about Kansas history, Plains Indian Wars history, US Army cavalry tactics, or firsthand accounts that cut through myth, Solomon Fork delivers a human view of how campaigns actually worked.
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Mud, rain, and a riverbank so soft every step sinks, that’s where Fort Dodge begins. We rewind to April 10, 1865, and follow Captain Henry Pearce and a tired group of soldiers as they plant a military post on the Arkansas River while most of the country’s attention is fixed on the war’s end in Virginia. This is Kansas frontier history at ground level, where “progress” sounds like shovels scraping clay and feels like cold water pooling on the floor.
We talk through what the earliest Fort Dodge actually looks like: no stone walls, no neat pine barracks, not even easy access to wood. Instead, survival means digging shelters into the high riverbanks, creating cramped, damp rooms that smell of wet earth and wool. With spring storms rolling in, sickness and exhaustion become part of the daily routine, yet the garrison keeps watch because the stakes are bigger than any one soldier’s comfort.
The real power of this story is the geography. Fort Dodge sits where the Santa Fe Trail splits, one route tracking the river and another cutting into the uplands. That crossroads turns a miserable patch of mud into a strategic gateway to the Southwest, protecting wagon trains, supporting mail routes, and giving settlers a safer shot at moving west. We also connect these early choices to the long-term arc of the Great Plains, including the transportation networks and economic forces that help fuel the American cattle industry.
If you care about Kansas history, the Santa Fe Trail, frontier military posts, or how the American West was built in small, gritty steps, this one’s for you. Subscribe for more, share it with a history-loving friend, and leave a review telling us what detail stuck with you most.
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Dodge City doesn’t just welcome the cattle drives; it feeds on them. When the herds arrive, so do the wages, the whiskey, the gambling, and the dance halls, and the town’s “wide open” side of the tracks turns into a nightly test of nerve for anyone wearing a badge. We tell the story of one of those nights, when Deputy Marshal Ed Masterson and Assistant Marshal Nat Haywood walk their beat down Front Street and hear shots coming from the Lady Gay.
What follows is a tense, step-by-step descent from order to bloodshed. You’ll hear how Ed tries to defuse a mob of drunken Texas cowboys, how Jack Wagner’s gun is taken and then reappears in the street, and how trail boss A. M. Walker’s threats pin Haywood in place long enough for everything to go wrong. A single misfire, a moment of hesitation, and a scuffle over a revolver become the opening for a point-blank shot that leaves Ed burning, bleeding, and staggering into a saloon with no chance of survival.
From there, the narrative turns personal and brutal as Bat Masterson arrives, sees his brother cut down, and fires four shots in retaliation. We stay with the aftermath too: the cold reception the wounded Texans receive in nearby saloons, Wagner’s confession and burial on Boot Hill, and the way Dodge City shuts down to mourn Ed with its first public funeral. It’s a gritty piece of Old West history that forces a harder question beneath the legend: what does mercy cost in a town built on vice, and what does justice look like when it happens in seconds? This is a partial remastered episode first recorded on September 28, 2019.
If you’re drawn to Wild West lawmen, Dodge City history, and the real stakes behind a frontier gunfight, press play, then subscribe, share the show, and leave a review. What do you think Ed could have done differently, if anything?
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A county doesn’t feel “real” until paperwork can beat chaos, and Ford County’s origin story proves it. We head back to April 5, 1873, when Kansas Governor Thomas Osborne signs the proclamation that creates Ford County and forces Dodge City to start acting like a place with a future, not just a boomtown with a rail line and a trail of grudges.
We walk through why that signature matters: the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad has pushed west, money is moving in freight and buffalo hides, and businesses are rising on land that settlers can’t even prove they own. Without deeds, courts, or a way to record property, the frontier runs on fear and force. That’s the backdrop for Osborne’s calculated picks: Charles Wrath as the commercial muscle, J.G. MacDonald and Daniel Wolfe to build civic structure, and Herman J. Fringer to make the written record that turns a claim into a title.
From Fringer’s drugstore ledgers to the first convening of the provisional government on April 16, 1873, we connect the dots between Western history and practical governance: land records, local courts, taxes, roads, and the first steps toward law enforcement. Along the way, we also examine how historical memory can elevate louder names while quieter builders like MacDonald still shape the foundation.
If you care about Dodge City history, Kansas history, the Santa Fe Railroad, or how the American frontier became a governed place, this story delivers the turning point. Subscribe, share the show with a history-loving friend, and leave a review to help more people find it. What part of “order” do you think mattered most: courts, titles, or the people chosen to enforce them?
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We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Wild West Podcast has been ranked #3 on PodRanker’s list of the Top 15 Best Western Podcasts of 2026!
A huge thank you to our incredible listeners for riding along with us every week. Whether we’re diving into the legends of outlaws, the grit of the prairie, or the hidden history of the Old West, your support is what keeps our spurs jingling!
If you haven't tuned in yet, now is the perfect time to head over to our campfire and join the conversation.
Check out the full rankings at https://podranker.com/western-podcasts/
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A railroad can feel inevitable when you see it on a map. Up close, it’s a gamble with a hard deadline, exhausted men, and miles of empty country that refuse to cooperate. We pick up the Santa Fe’s high-stakes race across the Arkansas Valley, where March 3, 1873 hangs over every hammer swing. Miss the Colorado border and the land grants that bankroll the dream can disappear, taking the company with them. Beat the clock and the “paper railroad” becomes a steel fact that rewires the American West.
As we move with the railhead, we trace the human cost of railroad construction: cramped boarding cars, dust-choked days, and the volatile boom towns that spring up overnight. We revisit the Newton General Massacre and the way violence trails commerce on the frontier. Then the lens widens to the railroad’s collision with Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche homelands, including Satanta’s push to meet expansion with sovereignty and negotiation, even as resistance sparks along the line.
Dodge City arrives like a shock to the system: no proper depot, just a boxcar office and stacks of buffalo hides waiting for eastern buyers and global markets. The Santa Fe doesn’t merely carry passengers, it accelerates the buffalo hide trade and the near-erasure of the herds, with consequences that ripple through Plains tribes, local boom economies, and the landscape itself. When the buffalo era collapses, the town pivots hard, welcoming Texas Longhorns and earning its “Queen of the Cowtowns” crown as cattle flood the stockyards.
If you care about Wild West history, the Santa Fe Railroad, Dodge City, the buffalo extinction, and how transportation transforms economies and lives, ride this line with us. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review with the moment you can’t stop thinking about.
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April 1 in the Great Plains isn’t just a punchline. We start with the kind of frontier humor that could make or break you: trail-boss tricks like sending a newcomer for a bucket of steam, and Dodge City stunts so convincing they leave bystanders sure they’ve witnessed a killing. Those pranks weren’t random cruelty. They were a social code, a way to build community fast, measure grit, and survive a life defined by hard work, uncertainty, and long stretches of dust and wind.
Then the story takes a sharp turn from saloons to searchlights. We head to April 1, 1939, when Dodge City transforms overnight into the center of the cinematic universe for the world premiere of Warner Brothers’ Technicolor epic “Dodge City.” Special Hollywood trains roll into town carrying major stars like Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, alongside Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, and Alan Hale. The population swells toward 50,000, the streets fill ten deep with hats and boots, and an army of reporters documents a prairie town watching a movie about itself.
What makes this night unforgettable isn’t only the celebrity or the parade. It’s the moment Ford County history collides with American mythmaking. We talk about how Hollywood shapes the Old West legend, why locals don’t seem to mind the facts getting bent, and what it feels like when your hometown stops being a place and becomes a story on the silver screen. If you care about Dodge City history, Old West culture, or how movies rewrite memory, hit play, subscribe, and share the show, then leave us a review and tell us: does a film keep history alive or blur it beyond repair?
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Boot Hill gets talked about like a legend, but legends get lazy. We wanted the names, the dates, and the ugly little details that show how Dodge City earned its reputation before the “classic” era of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson even settles in.
We walk through the earliest Boot Hill burials starting in 1872, when the railroad, soldiers from Fort Dodge, gamblers, buffalo hunters, and nonstop drinking turn a new town into a combustible mix. Stories like Jack Reynolds, the man remembered as Blackjack or Tex, the killing of hotel owner Carpenter J. M. Essington, and the violence in Tom Sherman’s dance hall make it clear that these were not neat Western showdowns. They were crowded, impulsive, and often senseless.
Then the episode turns to vigilante justice, the executions of Ed Williams and Charles “Texas” Hill, and the return of McGill, a buffalo hunter whose behavior becomes infamous. The real pivot point comes with the murder of William Taylor, a Black man and the private cook for Colonel Richard Dodge, and the military response that follows. That single killing helps push Dodge City toward formal law enforcement, the election of Sheriff Charlie Bassett, and a clearer divide in how ordinances are enforced north and south of the tracks.
If you’re into Dodge City history, Boot Hill history, or the truth behind Wild West myths, this is the ground-level story of how reputation is made and why a town eventually tries to bury it. Subscribe, share with a fellow Western history fan, and leave a review with the one Boot Hill story you think more people should know.
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A railroad with no rails, no spikes, and barely any money somehow convinces a frontier to bet on its future. We tell the origin story of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe as Cyrus Kurtz Holliday tries to turn Kansas from a bruised battleground into a connected, growing state, using a charter, political leverage, and sheer persistence to keep the dream alive through drought and the Civil War. If you love railroad history, Kansas history, and the real mechanics behind westward expansion, this is the moment where the myth meets the math.
We walk through what a “paper railroad” really means, why early pledges can’t touch the true cost of building track, and how one signature in Washington changes the entire game. Lincoln’s 1863 land grant turns prairie into capital and creates a relentless paradox: the rails must be laid to make the land valuable, but the land must be sold to pay for the rails, all under a hard deadline of March 3, 1873. The stakes are financial, political, and moral, because every mile raises the question of who pays and who loses.
From the first sod turned in Topeka to the practical choice to chase coal at Carbondale, we follow the Santa Fe’s early strategy and its push toward the cattle trade, challenging rival monopolies by reaching closer to the Chisholm Trail. We also spotlight the people who do the backbreaking work, from Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans to Mexican railroad laborers, and we don’t look away from the cost to Native lands as the iron trail cuts west. Subscribe, share the show with a friend who loves the Old West, and leave a review with the detail that hit you hardest.
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A town can look calm on a map and still be one bad decision away from open conflict. We step onto Front Street in Dodge City on March 19, 1883, where the air feels heavy with coal smoke, cheap whiskey, and the kind of tension you can taste. What follows isn’t a shootout at first. It’s something sneakier and, in its own way, more dangerous: a political war fought with ballots, backroom whispers, and headlines sharp enough to cut.
I tell the story of the nomination that puts Larry Deger forward as the “law and order” answer to Dodge City’s vice economy and the men who profit from it, including William H. Harris and the circle around the Long Branch. We dig into how Alonzo Webster backs Deger while old saloon rivalries turn public virtue into private vengeance. The Dodge City Times and the Ford County Globe don’t just report the fight, they join it, shaping the narrative as either a crusade for decency or a power grab fueled by jealousy and business rivalry.
Then come the tools that make everything combustible: Ordinances 70 and 71, framed as suppression of vice and vagrancy, enforced in ways that feel selective and strategic. As Luke Short feels the noose tighten, he starts reaching out to friends who don’t travel light. That’s when the Dodge City War begins to look inevitable, setting the stage for Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the famous Peace Commission moment that captures a town sweating through its own history. If you care about Old West history, Dodge City politics, frontier newspapers, or how “reform” can become a weapon, this story lands hard.
Subscribe for more Ford County history, share this with a friend who loves the Old West, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. What do you think really started the war: morality, money, or revenge?
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Heat pressed down on Newton in August 1871 like a hand over a mouth, and by midnight the town was a fuse. We open on a drought-stricken railhead where class divides sharpened nerves, the dance band was sent home, and the room held its breath. Then everything snapped. Hugh Anderson strode into Perry Tuttle’s hall and dropped lawman Mike McCluskey with a shot that turned a tense crowd into a battlefield. Amid the chaos, a coughing teenager named James Riley locked the doors, drew twin Colts, and harvested the room with terrifying precision—an unassuming figure who authored one of the bloodiest gunfights on the frontier and then vanished into the Kansas night.
From there, the wires caught fire. Editors rebranded Newton as “Blooton,” feeding the East’s appetite for frontier horror while reformers seized the carnage to push temperance and law. We dive into how correspondent E.J. Harrington—writing as Allegro—built a legend that sold papers, including the polished lie of the “Great Duel” where McCluskey’s brother and Anderson allegedly died together. We set the record straight: Anderson was smuggled South, healed, married, and lived long. The myth endured because it offered symmetry the facts refused to give.
The real ending took shape in steel and soil. When rails reached Wichita, the cattle trade moved on. Newton traded saloons for schoolhouses, brothels for church steeples, and six-shooters for threshing machines. Mennonite farmers arrived with turkey red wheat, barbed wire cinched the open range, and a new civic identity took root. Through it all, Riley remained a shadow—possibly consumed by illness, possibly drifting down the line—proof that the West wasn’t just won in gun smoke, but manufactured in headlines and remade by commerce and community.
If this story reframed how you think about the Wild West—where legend wrestles with ledger—tap follow, share with a history lover, and leave a review telling us which version of the story you believe.
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Heat shimmers above the Santa Fe tracks as Newton, Kansas splits in two: polished mahogany and temperance to the north, canvas alleys and all-night revelry to the south. We guide you through the second act of a borderland drama where the railroad doesn’t just deliver cattle and cash—it redraws morals, loyalties, and the limits of law. Perry Tuttle’s roaring dancehall, the Gold Room’s careful smiles, and a fiddler-reporter named Allegro weave a soundscape where stories pay better than truth and reputation is coin.
At the heart of the conflict stand two badges that should have kept the peace and instead crack it open. Mike McCluskey, the unyielding Yankee enforcer, and Billy Bailey, a Texan gambler pinned with borrowed authority, become emblems for bigger wars: North versus South, rail versus range, progress versus pride. When election day whiskey greases ballots for railroad bonds, tempers boil. A public humiliation spills into sunlight, and a gut shot renders a verdict no courtroom can soften. The town fractures along the rails and along the story each side needs to survive—self-defense for the railroad men, cold-blood for the Texans.
Hovering at the edge is James Riley, a frail eighteen-year-old with consumption and no fear left to spend. His quiet loyalty to McCluskey changes the odds in ways bluster never could, turning a feud into a fuse. As McCluskey flees, hears he’s cleared, and boards the return train, the badge feels like a shield, but the grass by the tracks says otherwise. We stop at the moment before the ambush, the air heavy with lead that hasn’t flown yet, and a town holding its breath.
If you’re drawn to Old West history, railroad town politics, true crime on the frontier, and the anatomy of honor cultures colliding with new power, this chapter delivers vivid storytelling, textured context, and a cliff that promises a hard landing. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves gritty Western lore, and leave a review to tell us: was it justice or revenge?
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A town can rise on paper before it stands in wood and stone. We follow Wilburn, a near-forgotten settlement in south central Ford County, from the bright moment it earned a federal post office in 1885 to the slow fade that followed when the railroad curved away. With clear eyes and a storyteller’s care, we piece together how a petition by Charles P. Brown and the steady hands of postmaster Lewis P. Horton briefly stitched Wilburne to the national fabric—and how one routing decision redirected commerce, families, and memory itself.
We explore why a post office meant power on the frontier, serving as the seal of legitimacy for prairie communities across Kansas. Mail linked people to markets, news, and each other, turning crossroads into communities and hope into plans. Then we pull back to the larger map: the iron rails that chose Meade and Minneola over Wilburn, the unforgiving calculus of grades and costs, and the ripple effects that followed. Stores thinned, expectations ebbed, and by 1914 the post office closed and its duties moved to Fowler, leaving only traces of a once-confident future in the dust.
Along the way, we challenge how we define history and who earns a place in it. For every Dodge City that looms large in legend, there are countless Wilburns’ that shaped daily life, agriculture, and migration but slipped from view when the trains didn’t stop. By centering the lives and choices of Brown and Horton, we honor the people who wagered on geography and grit, and we read their story as a guide to present-day infrastructure decisions—whether rails, highways, or broadband—that still decide which towns thrive and which fade. Subscribe, share with a history-loving friend, and leave a review to keep these quiet stories alive.
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Smoke curls over the Kansas plains as a newborn railhead meets a river of longhorns and the town of Newton explodes into life. We follow the ATSF’s breakneck push toward land grants, Boston capital’s cold calculations, and the way a 300-foot stockyard turned steers into hard cash while turning streets into a pressure cooker. Along the boardwalks and within twenty-seven saloons, gamblers, speculators, and trailworn drovers create a marketplace where whiskey, pharaoh, and risk drive the night.
We unpack the deeper collision shaping 1871: the industrial North’s telegraphs, timetables, and municipal bonds grinding against the open-range economy of the defeated South. For Texans limping home from Reconstruction, the Chisholm Trail promised redemption at thirty dollars a head; for Kansans investing in wheat and churches, that same promise arrived coated in dust and danger. Through Judge R. W. P. Mews’ accounts, Joseph McCoy’s logistics, and the Gold Room’s bright lure, we map how Newton’s soul split between extraction and settlement—and why the ledger would be settled in blood.
Beneath the hoofbeats lies a quieter villain: Texas fever, the tick-borne disease that spared longhorns but slaughtered local shorthorns. As herds grazed the blue stem, parasites spread, farms withered, and quarantine lines appeared on paper while law leaked away at dusk. The result is a city under siege, where farmers shoulder shotguns, drovers clutch Colts, and a teenage cowboy named James Riley carries frail lungs and fierce loyalties into a fate none can escape. This is the prelude to Bloody Newton, where progress, public health, and pride intersect with catastrophic force.
Ride with us into the heart of the Kansas frontier. If the story moves you, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves Western history, and leave a review so others can find these untold truths of the American West.
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A county can be born without a single shot fired. We travel back to February 26, 1867, when lawmakers in Topeka drew the first boundaries of Ford County and set a quiet revolution in motion. Out on the wind-cut Kansas prairie, the scene looked unchanged—buffalo grass, open sky, no fences—but a pen stroke had already begun to rearrange lives, routes, and destinies.
We unpack why the county took the name of Colonel James H. Ford, a 2nd Colorado Cavalry veteran whose influence stretched beyond the Civil War. The story pivots on Fort Dodge, the hard-won foothold guarding the Santa Fe Trail. That fort didn’t just symbolize order; it created the conditions for settlement, trade, and a sense of safety that maps alone could not provide. For years, Ford County existed in a strange in-between—boundaries on paper, no functioning local government—until growth and grit pushed the region toward structure.
Everything changes in 1873 when Governor Thomas Osborne formally organizes the county and Dodge City becomes the seat. Overnight, a rough hunting camp begins its transformation into an administrative and judicial hub. We explore how that shift redefined power from rifles and rumors to records and rulings—and how lines drawn in quiet rooms can ripple into courthouses, classrooms, and communities. Along the way, we reflect on the hidden engines of the American West: boundary-making, fort-building, and the steady work of turning space into a place.
If stories like this spark your curiosity, subscribe, share the show with a history-loving friend, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find our deep dives into Ford County’s past.
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A county’s name hides a better story than any barroom legend. We pull back the curtain on Colonel James Hobart Ford—the Union officer whose grit, speed, and stubborn discipline shaped the ground beneath Dodge City long before gunfighters made it famous. From Ohio roots to the Colorado Territory, Ford rose fast, helped raise the 2nd Colorado Infantry, and proved himself at Glorieta Pass, where Union forces stopped Confederate designs on the Southwest. Then came the crucible: the Kansas–Missouri border, where guerrilla raids and burned homes defined the fight and where Ford’s aggressive command went head-to-head with bushwhackers like Quantrill.
We follow Ford into the decisive sweep of 1864, where his leadership mattered at the Battle of Westport and across the pursuit of Sterling Price, driving Confederate hopes out of Kansas and back into Arkansas. As the Civil War shifted to the plains, Ford took command of the District of the Upper Arkansas, often working from a tent under open sky. Here the mission changed: protect the Santa Fe Trail, balance settler pressure against Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa resistance, and hold a fragile peace along a corridor that powered trade and migration. Out of this work rose a modest sod outpost that later became Fort Dodge, a linchpin for the region and a seed for Dodge City’s explosive future.
Ford died at 38, never seeing the cowboy capital take shape. Yet five years later, Kansas named Ford County in his honor—a recognition not of legend, but of logistics, patrols, and hard choices made along a dangerous border. We share archival insights from the Ford County Historical Society and the Ford County Legacy Center to bring his story to life: a portrait of a commander who traded romance for results and left a county that still bears his name. If you’re ready to rethink Dodge City’s origin story through the eyes of the soldier who secured it, press play, subscribe for more frontier deep dives, and leave a review sharing the detail that surprised you most.
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Cold bites, a promise binds, and a furnace roars—this is the Yukon at human scale. We start with a candid look at why facing reality beats denial, then follow the trail into Robert Service’s world, where men who moil for gold wrestle with fear, loyalty, and the math of survival. Our reading of The Cremation of Sam McGee sets the pace: a vow made on a brutal Christmas run, a body lashed to a sleigh, and a punchline so warm it melts the dread.
We unpack the craft that makes this ballad unforgettable. The rolling meter pulls like a dog team, the imagery flips from ice-burn to furnace blaze, and the narrative beats keep tension taut until humor snaps it. Along the way, we trace Service’s journey from British Columbia to Whitehorse, and the Gold Rush context that fed his voice—rough camps, frozen rivers, and the stern code that says a promise made is a debt unpaid. The poem’s twist—Sam smiling in the heat—lands as both macabre and merciful, reminding us that stories help carry loads the trail alone cannot.
Grounded in history, we connect the ballad to a likely source: Dr. Leonard Sedgeon’s account of cremating a miner aboard a frozen steamer, transformed into the Alice May for poetic rhythm. That detail anchors the legend in real Yukon logistics—when the ground is iron, fire becomes grace. If you care about frontier ethics, narrative poetry, or how humor redeems hardship, this journey offers rich terrain. Listen, share with a friend who loves a good yarn, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find the show.
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A cold morning, a fortified town, and a scaffold placed just out of earshot—Charleston, Virginia tried to choreograph John Brown’s end and, with it, the story the country would remember. What they could not contain was a single handwritten note that slipped past the rope and into the bloodstream of a nation already splitting at the seams.
We walk the final hours with four witnesses whose perspectives refract the moment: Thomas J. Jackson, the meticulous VMI professor whose faith and discipline frame the state’s show of force; Edmund Ruffin, the fire-eater who turns pikes into propaganda and sees opportunity in the gallows; David Hunter Strother, the conflicted journalist caught between honesty and editorial fear; and a young John Wilkes Booth, reading the scene as theater and quietly rehearsing a darker role. Alongside them, Brown tends his will, thanks his jailer, hands coins to his men, and chooses silence over spectacle—saving his last words for paper, not the crowd.
The procession becomes public theater, the pause on the trapdoor stretches time, and the drop turns a man into a symbol. From controlled access to censored sketches, from church bells in the North to militia drills in the South, we trace how a state-managed execution became a catalyst. Keywords that matter here—John Brown, Harper’s Ferry, Bleeding Kansas, Stonewall Jackson, Edmund Ruffin, John Wilkes Booth, abolition, secession, Fort Sumter—aren’t just tags; they’re threads that stitch a straight line from a quiet cell to a continent at war.
Listen for the details that history often blurs: the bronze guns on the field, the black box that is also a coffin, the exact phrasing of a prophecy that predicted blood. Stay for the larger question that lingers long after the body is cut down: can power manage meaning when memory prefers to travel light and fast? If this story moves you, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves American history, and leave a review telling us what single moment changed your view.
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A single word—fire—ripped through a quiet winter night and changed Dodge City forever. We travel back to late 1885 as flames burst from the Junction Saloon, raced down Front Street, and turned landmark businesses into a corridor of embers. With no pressurized water system and winter winds pushing the blaze, neighbors hacked at ice for bucket brigades while heat made even brick buildings fail. The Long Branch Saloon, Delmonico’s, Zinnerman’s hardware, and more fell in hours, and embers leapt the tracks to ignite warehouses and strain the town’s last defenses.
Amid chaos, Marshal Bill Tilghman and the fire brigade made a stark choice: blast a firebreak with gunpowder to stop the advance. By dawn, roughly 14 businesses were gone and losses neared $150,000—staggering in 1885. Yet the ashes carried a blueprint. The second major fire of that year forced Dodge City to abandon the fragile speed of wood construction and invest in brick, stone, and a modern waterworks. What began as catastrophe became a civic turning point, ending the bucket brigade era and setting the foundation for a safer, more durable city.
We unpack how disasters reshape policy and place, why fireproof materials and infrastructure mark the shift from boomtown myth to municipal staying power, and how memory and rebuilding can coexist in the same streets. If you’re drawn to Western history, urban resilience, or the untold decisions behind a city’s survival, this story offers vivid detail and lasting lessons. Subscribe, share with a history-loving friend, and send us a local event from Ford County we should investigate next—your story might be the next page we bring to life.
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A coffin rattles into a mining camp and turns out to be a piano—an unlikely miracle for a saloon that runs on cards, noise, and stubborn pride. We set the scene in a winter-struck gulch where 300 miners live by the hour and try not to think about the lives they left behind. Goskin, the gambler who owns the hall, wants one thing for Christmas: someone brave enough to bring that silent instrument to life.
What follows is a story about fear, longing, and the strange ways grace finds a way in. A half-frozen stranger steps out of the storm, warms his hands by the fire, and admits he used to play. When he touches the keys, the room stops moving. Imperfect chords swell into old ballads and familiar carols that carry the men back to apple blossoms, Scottish heather, and candlelit aisles. Even the toughest faces fold when Home Sweet Home lands. The gambling halts, glasses lower, and hardened men drift out to write letters they’ve owed for years.
Then comes the twist that only the frontier could provide. The player asks for a brother named Driscoll, vanishes before dawn, and leaves an empty till and a trail that dies in the snow. The white hair? A wig. The musician? The three-card man who watched the piano like a starving wolf watching a door. Yet the con can’t erase the truth of what happened. Music worked where bullets and bravado never could. It made space for memory, tenderness, and the kind of Christmas that holds time together, even in a place built on luck.
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Snow that bites, winds that snap, and a cabin lit by a single candle—yet the room still fills with carols and the smell of plum pudding. We journey across the Old West to uncover how pioneers forged the Christmas we recognize today, transforming scarcity into ritual and distance into community. From homestead kitchens humming weeks in advance to stockings hung by a hard‑won fire, we explore the customs that stitched a shaken nation back together after the Civil War and blossomed into a national holiday by 1870.
We share first‑hand accounts that feel close to the skin: a family pushing through storms to reach a new life in Oregon Territory, neighbors snowshoeing through four feet of powder for a frontier feast, and Dodge City’s Christmas Eve council where civic ambition briefly overshadowed goodwill. These vignettes reveal the texture of the season on the prairie—homemade ornaments from evergreens and ribbon, popcorn garlands, cookie‑dough keepsakes, and gifts carved, knitted, and stitched over months. Each detail reminds us that meaning grows where hands work and hearts wait.
Midway, we read Robert W. Service’s “The Christmas Tree,” a moving tale of a discarded fir that becomes a beacon for a child in pain. The poem echoes the frontier ethic: rescue what the world overlooks, turn it into light, and let hope do the rest. By the close, we reflect on hospitality and charity as the enduring core of the holiday—values that carried pioneers through savage winters and still kindle warmth in ours. If these stories deepen your own traditions, share the episode with someone you love, leave a quick review, and subscribe so you never miss the next journey west.
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Forget the postcard version of Dodge City. We open the door to the Great Western Hotel and step into a town intent on trading dust for dignity, noise for order, and short-term profits for a longer arc of respectability. The surprise is in the name itself: Great Western wasn’t a nod to cattle drives; it was a bid to borrow the prestige of Brunel’s railway and steamship, the Victorian shorthand for speed, reliability, and modern life. That branding choice tells us more about ambition on the plains than any staged gunfight ever could.
We follow the transformation from the unpolished Western House to a hotel with plate glass, private rooms, and a no-whiskey policy under Dr. Samuel Galland, a German immigrant who believed Dodge City could be sober and civilized. Along the way, we separate trail reality from tourist memory: drovers called it the Western or the Dodge City Trail, while the phrase Great Western Trail arrived decades later through scholarship and heritage markers that retconned the landscape. The evidence runs through ledgers, newspapers, and the lived language of the men who drove the herds.
The human stories make the stakes tangible. A silk-top-hatted dentist walks Front Street on principle and learns the cost of standing out before earning respect. Fires scorch the business district, owners come and go, the hotel changes names and survives the Dust Bowl, then vanishes in 1942—only to reappear as a museum gateway that sits near modern trail markers, inviting a tempting but false connection. What remains is the real takeaway: the West wasn’t just won by grit; it was branded into being by people who knew that names can move minds as surely as rails move trains.
If this reframe challenged a myth you held, share the episode, leave a rating, and tell us which Western “truth” you want us to unpack next. Subscribe for more history with receipts and a clear eye.
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A single whistle split the prairie air—and with it, the future of two rival towns. We revisit November 25, 1887, when the Arkansas, Kansas, and Colorado Railroad rolled into Ford, Kansas and turned isolation into opportunity, commerce into momentum, and a bitter rivalry into a clear verdict. What looks like a short stretch of track becomes a story about how infrastructure decides who thrives, who moves, and who fades from the map.
We set the stage with Dodge City’s fifteen-year boom as a cattle and railroad capital, then zoom into the quieter but consequential struggles of southern Ford County’s farmers. Without rail access, every mile to market was risk: spoilage, delays, and thin margins. The new line changed that overnight. With Ford connected to Dodge City and eastern markets, exports grew, schedules stabilized, and investment finally made sense. The town stepped into a broader economy where grain, livestock, and goods could move with dependable speed.
The rivalry with Ryansville brings the stakes to life. Routes are power, and when the tracks chose Ford, merchants in Ryansville made a dramatic decision—lift entire buildings onto rollers and move their livelihoods across the prairie. It’s a vivid moment of Great Plains history that illustrates a lasting truth: when the path to markets shifts, communities shift with it. We explore how rails replaced wagon trails, how a spur line closes a local frontier, and how a map can be redrawn by timetables, grain elevators, and the steady rhythm of freight.
If you’re drawn to stories where technology meets human grit—railroad history, frontier towns, agriculture, and the economics of access—you’ll find this tale both vivid and timely. Subscribe for more sharply drawn moments from Ford County’s past, share the episode with a history lover, and leave a review to help others discover these hidden turning points.
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A quiet click in a digital archive set off a bigger question: how did a tidy tale about the “Western Trail” in 1873 outrun the dusty, documented truth of 1874? We follow the breadcrumb trail from a glossy magazine headline to the rail-choked streets of Dodge City, where buffalo hides, not longhorns, drove the economy. From there, we trace John T. Lytle’s government contract to feed the Sioux, the mapped river crossings, and the August 1, 1874 deadline that defined the first verified drive.
Along the way, we meet J. Frank Dobie—ranch-born, campus-bound, and unapologetically devoted to story over footnote. Dobie prized living voices more than ledgers, and he found a perfect partner in Frank Collinson, an Englishman turned cowboy who wrote his memories decades after the fact. Collinson likely helped gather cattle in late 1873 and later fused that groundwork with the 1874 trailblazing into one clean narrative. It’s a classic compression: a roundup becomes a “first drive,” and a modern brand name—“Great Western Trail”—is retrofitted to the past until it feels original.
We don’t stop at debunking. We explore why these stories endure, how civic branding amplified a legend, and what’s at stake when heritage tourism, folklore, and archival history collide. The lesson isn’t to toss out the campfire tale. It’s to read it alongside the map: let the archive keep the dates straight while the storytellers keep the culture alive. By the end, you’ll see how a name, a narrative, and a single year can redirect the memory of the West—and why holding fact and fable in tension gives us a richer, more honest past.
If this journey changed how you think about Western history, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a friend who loves a good trail story.
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A trail’s name shouldn’t be a marketing plan, yet that’s exactly how the West’s most traveled cattle route got mislabeled. We follow the evidence from a fresh historiographical review back to 1874, when John T. Lytle cut a new path north after the Chisholm route jammed, and forward to the moment Dodge City exploded into the greatest cattle market on earth. Along the way, we sit with the drovers’ own words—the functional names they used at the time—and weigh them against monuments, brochures, and a 1960s academic phrase that grew into a modern myth.
We break down how the Western Trail took shape: the 7D steers headed for the Red Cloud Agency, the push through Cow Gap, and the pivot to the Santa Fe railhead at Dodge. Then we zoom out to the forces that ended the era—barbed wire tightening across the plains and Kansas quarantine laws that shut the gate on Texas herds. The numbers are staggering: millions of cattle and horses moved along this single route, reshaping the national diet and remaking a frontier town. Yet the cultural heartbeat remains in small details: a two‑bits bath, a new shirt from the general store, a night at the Long Branch.
The naming controversy ties past to present. We recount the 1931 granite marker that enraged George W. Saunders by blending rival trails, track the 1965 origin of “Great Western Trail,” and examine why later citations fall apart under close reading. Our case for Western Cattle Trail isn’t just pedantry—it’s about honoring the people who built the route, avoiding confusion with a modern recreational trail, and keeping the historical record clean. If you care about what really happened—and what we choose to call it—this story gives you the tools to spot folklore dressed up as fact.
If this deep dive sharpened your view of Western history, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves the cattle trails, and leave a review telling us which piece of evidence changed your mind.
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A cold wind skims the Potomac, the town sleeps, and nineteen men step toward a federal armory believing they can change the course of a nation. We pull you inside the hour-by-hour chaos of Harper’s Ferry—bridges taken in the dark, telegraph alarms racing east, hostages herded into a small engine house, and a plan that tightens into a steel trap. No tidy hindsight, just the immediacy of crackling dispatches and the raw choices that turned a local raid into a national reckoning.
We trace John Brown’s long arc from Calvinist vows to Kansas bloodshed, and the radical choice to build an integrated force with a provisional constitution promising full equality. Harper’s Ferry offered rail lines, rivers, and a mountain corridor for guerrilla war—and it offered symbolism Brown could not resist. He seized Colonel Lewis Washington and lifted the sword of the first president, claiming the Revolution’s legacy for abolition even as the town armed itself from windows and alleyways. The first man to die was Hayward Shepherd, a free Black railroad worker, and his death became a battlefield of stories that still echo.
Order arrived with United States Marines under Robert E. Lee and J. E. B. Stuart, a moment layered with historic irony. A final demand for surrender, a battering ram, and three minutes of controlled violence ended the siege, but not the argument. Brown’s failure on the ground grew into power in the courtroom and at the gallows, where his words cut through decades of compromise. We follow the people at the center—Dangerfield Newby fighting for his family, young idealists from Oberlin, veterans from Bleeding Kansas—and examine how a single night forced the country to face the cost of its contradictions.
Listen for a vivid reconstruction of the raid’s timeline, the tactical mistakes that doomed it, and the ideas that made it unforgettable. If this story moved you or taught you something new, follow the show, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so others can find it.
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Halloween in Dodge City is posted once a year during the month of October. The podcast tells the story of some of the characters who lived in Dodge City, Kansas, during the early frontier days. The story takes place on October 31, when a fictitious character named Luke McGlue visits a resting site known as Boot Hill. While waiting to administer the Kelly Cure, Luke visits and tells the stories of individual characters buried at Boot Hill. These long-lost souls include Lizzy Palmer, a local prostitute, McGill, who is tracked down and killed by James Hanrahn, and the shooting of Essington, a carpenter who built the first hotel in Dodge City. But the most infamous story told here is about Billy Brooks, the first unofficial marshal of Dodge City. To learn more about the Luke McGlue stories you can visit The Machiavellian of Dodge City.
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Step into the roar of 1859 as we stage a real-time radio reenactment of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. We don’t narrate from a safe distance; we drop you into the town as telegraph wires snap, church bells turn to alarms, and the first shots streak over the Potomac. The result is a tense, immersive experience that reveals how a desperate plan by 21 men pulled a divided nation closer to civil war.
We follow Brown’s radical vision to seize the federal armory, arm the enslaved, and trigger an uprising, then measure it against the cold reality of Marines assembling under a colonel named Robert E. Lee. You’ll hear the clatter of boots outside the engine house, feel the helplessness of hostages, and sense the moral heat that pushed abolition from prayer to powder. By simulating breaking news, we capture uncertainty as it happened—before verdicts, before myth, while choices still splintered by the minute. That immediacy surfaces questions that echo now: when is force justified, what does courage cost, and how do tactics reshape a cause?
Beyond the drama, we unpack why a failed raid could still rewrite the nation’s timetable. The operation collapses within 48 hours, but its shock travels farther than any telegram. Trials transform into platforms, newspapers harden into trenches, and compromise gives way to confrontation. Through layered sound design and focused storytelling, we show how communication, logistics, and conviction collided at Harper’s Ferry—and why the blast wave still ripples through debates on resistance and justice today.
Cue up the episode, put on your headphones, and walk into the engine house with us. If this journey moves you, follow the show, leave a rating or review, and share it with someone who loves bold history told with cinematic detail.
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The prairie doesn’t forget—and it won’t let us forget either. We follow a chilling thread from a 96-mile irrigation scheme called the Eureka Canal to a vanished laborer whose story was buried in snow, silence, and someone else’s balance sheet. What begins as a Halloween ghost story widens into a study of hubris, place, and the quiet power of naming the lost.
We unpack Asa T. Soule’s rise from hop bitters fortune to Western empire building, and how the canal promised a new Eden but ran headlong into the Arkansas River’s fickle flow, upstream diversions, and soils that drank hope dry. Cimarron’s resistance to Soule’s political muscle frames the stakes: when capital treats geography and democracy as obstacles, the land and its people push back. Alongside the spectral sightings at the ditch, we track records, letters, and courthouse files to a name—Silas Croft—whose ruined farm in New York and final steps into the 1886 blizzard turn rumor into history.
When the storm returns and a haunted rage rattles the Cimarron Hotel, brute force proves useless. Truth does what bullets can’t: we write the obituary Silas never received and publish an expose that rebalances the ledger. The wails fade, the canal goes quiet, and a simple cross on the prairie replaces fear with remembrance. From there, the story pivots to legacy and choice: fame back East or roots in a town that values ground truth. We choose the pressroom over the spotlight, because progress isn’t measured in ditches or dollars—it’s measured in decency, accountability, and the names we refuse to lose.
If you believe stories can right old wrongs and that journalism still matters when the wind starts to howl, hit play, follow the show, and share this episode with a friend. Then tell us: whose name needs to be spoken next?
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"Howdy, partners! Gather 'round the campfire because The Wild West Podcast is taking you on a haunting adventure this Halloween with our special episode, "Ghost Stories of the Wild West!"
Prepare for chilling tales of spectral gunslingers and lost souls echoing across the plains. Discover legends and true encounters from this untamed land, like a phantom marshal searching for his grave under the desert moon.
Dim the lights and get ready for thrills and unforgettable stories! Don’t miss out on the Wild West Podcast: Halloween Ghost Stories of the Wild West, available now at https://www.westerncattletrailassoc.com/ghost-stories.html."
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The wind on the Kansas plains doesn’t just rattle old storefronts; it carries the names we’ve let disappear. We retrace the final patrol of City Marshal Ed Masterson, shot along Dodge City’s infamous deadline in 1878, and follow the paper-thin trail of his remains from Fort Dodge to the overgrown ruins of Prairie Grove to the tidy rows of Maple Grove. What starts as a gripping frontier shootout turns into a forensic hunt for a missing grave, a meditation on how towns expand, and a reckoning with what gets erased when progress moves faster than memory.
Together we navigate saloon-lit streets, the split-second decision that may or may not have dropped Jack Wagner, and the ache of not knowing whether Ed’s last act delivered justice or if Bat Masterson’s gun wrote the final line. Along the way we listen to the whispers of other displaced souls—the card sharp shuffled like a deck of cards, the cowboy lost in the paperwork, the woman buried beneath a schoolhouse—and confront a stark civic question: what do we owe the dead when our cities grow over their bones?
This story blends archival curiosity with ghostly lore to surface practical lessons. We talk about responsible reinterments, the value of meticulous records, and how tools like ground-penetrating radar, historical maps, and community memory can restore names to the map. Ed’s presence lingers not to frighten but to remind: a headstone is more than stone; it is a promise to keep faith with those who stood the line before us. If a hero can be forgotten, any of us can. Press play, share this with someone who loves Western history and city lore, and tell us: how should communities mark the graves they’ve moved? If the story moved you, subscribe, leave a review, and help keep these names on the wind.
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A whispered promise in a dark adobe room turns into one of the West’s most unforgettable journeys. We open on Fort Sumner in 1867, where Oliver Loving lies dying from gangrene and Charles Goodnight—trail boss, Ranger, problem‑solver—makes a vow to carry his partner home to Texas soil. From that moment, the story stretches backward into a life built on risk and forward into a 700‑mile funeral procession that defines what honor meant on the high plains.
We trace Loving’s rise from Kentucky farmer to the “Dean of Texas Trail Drivers,” his market savvy shaped by years freighting goods and reading the needs of frontier forts. The Civil War wipes out his fortune, pushing him into a bold partnership with Goodnight, a younger scout whose field sense matches Loving’s business mind. Together they sidestep hostile Missouri routes and blaze west to Fort Sumner, feeding Army contracts and inventing the chuck wagon to tame chaos on the trail. The price is brutal: a ninety‑six‑mile dry drive across the Llano Estacado, stampedes into the Pecos, and constant tension as Comanche riders guard a homeland the cattle herds now scar.
When spring floods slow their third drive, impatience meets pride. Loving rides ahead with a single scout and is ambushed on the Pecos. What follows is survival by inches—Wilson’s barefoot escape through cactus, Comancheros hauling Loving to the fort—and then the quiet horror of frontier medicine that cannot amputate in time. Goodnight arrives to find his friend alive but fading, hears the fear of a foreign grave, and answers it with action: finish the contracts, secure the family’s future, return in winter, and carry Loving home in a tin casket packed with charcoal. The slow cavalcade across 700 miles becomes a moving testament to the cowboy code: a word kept when it costs everything.
This episode blends hard history with human stakes: the economics of the postwar cattle boom, the invention that changed trail life, the conflicts in Comancheria, and the origins of a legend that inspired Lonesome Dove. Ride with us through dust, duty, and the choices that make a name last. If this story moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—what promise would you cross a desert to keep?
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A contract to feed a frontier post shouldn’t have ended at a river cave, but the Pecos has a way of bending plans. We head out with Oliver Loving and W.J. Wilson on a night-run mission to Fort Sumner that turns into a standoff against a swelling war party, where ground, grit, and a few feet of brush decide the line between life and legend. When a parley sign flickers on the plains and a hidden shot rips through Loving’s wrist and side, the story snaps from strategy to survival, and the cave on the bluff becomes a cramped theater where fear, fever, and resolve fight for the lead.
From there, the path forks. Wilson crawls into the night to fetch river water in his boots, then makes the hardest choice a partner can make: leave a wounded friend to swim for help. He slips down the Pecos past a mounted sentinel, abandons his rifle to the sandy current, and staggers barefoot across a country of thorns with a scavenged TP pole, waking to wolves every time sleep threatens. Starved and sunburned, he reaches the trail and flags down Charles Goodnight, who pieces together the fight from Wilson’s rough map and rides back to recover what the river didn’t take—including Loving’s Henry rifle.
Loving’s path is its own test of will. He crawls out after days, arm shattered, side wound mending, and survives on the last oils of roasted leather gloves before striking a deal with Mexican farmers to haul him to Fort Sumner. Army surgeons battle infection, a late amputation becomes the final gamble, and a quiet agreement is sealed between partners: debts will be paid, promises kept. When Loving dies that September, Goodnight carries the work for two years and brings his friend home 700 miles to Weatherford, Texas—closing a loop the plains tried to cut in half.
If you’re drawn to true frontier history, cattle trail lore, and the human code that held partnerships together when the land tore everything else apart, press play and ride with us. Subscribe, share this story with a friend who loves Western history, and leave a review to tell us which moment stayed with you.
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A limestone mansion built to defy the prairie became a vessel for sorrow—and then a sanctuary. We take you inside Dodge City’s Home of Stone, from John Mueller’s audacious rise and the black walnut staircase that flaunted prosperity, to the winter they called the White Death that buried a cattle empire under ice. Amid ruin, another story took hold: Caroline’s quiet grief, a nursery that never warmed, a rocking chair that swayed without wind, and a whisper that sounded like a child who didn’t get to grow up.
When the Schmidts moved in, the house learned new rhythms—electric light, hot bread, children’s laughter—until a visiting boy tumbled down the staircase and said another child pushed him. Instead of fleeing, Elizabeth Schmidt opened the town’s memory, reading county ledgers and finding the Mueller graves that numbers can’t account for. Elma saw the silent boy in the wavering lamplight, pointing to the nursery, to his heart, and out across the endless plains—a pantomime of loss that didn’t need words.
The answer wasn’t force; it was recognition. In the basement, a trunk with faded initials held a small carved wooden horse, smooth from a child’s hands. Placed on the parlor mantel—the warm center of the home—the toy changed the house’s weather. The chill lifted. Doors stilled. What remained felt like a guardian more than a ghost. Across decades, the Home of Stone became a living museum of Dodge City’s true legacy: not just gun smoke and cattle drives, but the durable courage of pioneer mothers and the quiet rituals that heal places.
If this story moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves haunted history, and leave a review telling us the object you’d place on your mantel to honor a forgotten story.
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November 29, 1864 dawned cold on the Colorado plains as Cheyenne and Arapaho families slept peacefully under an American flag—a gift promising protection. By nightfall, over 200 Native Americans lay dead in what would become one of the most shameful episodes in American history.
The Sand Creek Massacre didn't happen in isolation. It grew from a toxic brew of broken treaties, gold rush fever, and political ambition. Once respected Cheyenne and Arapaho territories, recognized in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, were systematically stripped away as miners and settlers poured into Colorado. When tribes resisted this invasion, territorial officials seized their opportunity. Governor John Evans issued proclamations essentially authorizing the killing of any Native Americans, while Colonel John Chivington—a Methodist minister with political aspirations—assembled a regiment specifically to confront the "Indian problem."
What makes this story particularly heartbreaking is that Chief Black Kettle and other peace-seeking leaders had been actively working with authorities, believing they were under military protection at Sand Creek. Instead, Chivington's troops unleashed unspeakable violence: women and children shot as they fled, bodies mutilated, scalps and body parts taken as souvenirs to be displayed in Denver theaters. As one witness testified: "It was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized."
Though three federal investigations condemned the massacre in the strongest terms, justice remained elusive. Chivington escaped punishment by resigning his commission, while brave whistleblowers like Captain Silas Soule paid with their lives for speaking truth. The massacre transformed the American frontier, shattering trust between Native peoples and the government and igniting decades of intensified conflict across the plains.
By exploring this difficult history, we confront uncomfortable truths about our nation's past and the human capacity for both cruelty and courage. Join us for Dr. Jeff Broom's upcoming presentation at the Dodge City Library on October 4th, where he'll examine the complex narratives surrounding this pivotal event through rigorous historical research and primary sources.
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Uncover the chilling mystery that lurks beneath Dodge City's storied past. While gunfighters and cattle drives typically dominate Wild West lore, a different kind of legend has quietly persisted for generations – the haunting of the Mueller Schmidt house.
The Stone House stands as an architectural anomaly on the Kansas plains. Built in 1881 with imposing two-foot-thick limestone walls, it was designed to last forever in a town where everything else seemed temporary. But according to countless witnesses over the decades, something else has remained permanent within those walls. Disembodied footsteps echo on the grand staircase. Lights flicker on and off in rooms known to be empty. Most haunting of all, a woman's silhouette appears regularly at an upper window, eternally waiting for someone who never returned.
What tragedy befell this imposing structure? Was it a heartbroken bride who perished during a merciless Kansas winter? Or does the haunting stem from darker origins – perhaps connected to the violence that earned Dodge City its reputation as "the wickedest little city in America"? Could there be secrets literally buried beneath the foundation?
This October, join hosts Michael King and Brad Smalley as they meticulously investigate this enduring mystery, combining rigorous historical research with firsthand accounts to separate chilling folklore from historical fact. They'll unlock the heavy oak door and cross the threshold that generations of Dodge City residents have approached with trepidation. Whether you're a history buff, paranormal enthusiast, or simply love a good mystery, "The Secret of the Stone House" promises to be our most captivating exploration yet of the supernatural side of the Wild West. Find us wherever you get your podcasts – if you dare to listen.
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Gold rushes change landscapes—both physical and human. When 100,000 settlers poured into Colorado Territory following the 1858 discovery of gold, they unknowingly set in motion a chain of events that would culminate in one of America's most controversial military actions. The newcomers' wagons followed water sources critical to both buffalo herds and the nomadic Plains Indians who depended on them for survival. As these resources vanished, tensions escalated into violence.
Historian Jeff Broome takes us deep into the complexities of the Sand Creek Massacre, challenging simplified narratives through meticulous primary source research. His account traces the growing conflict through 1864—from the killing of Cheyenne Chief Lean Bear to the Hungate family murders to the failed Camp Weld peace conference. Each incident represents a thread in a complex tapestry of cultural misunderstanding, economic pressure, and political maneuvering.
What makes Broome's perspective particularly valuable is his commitment to evidence over preconception. Despite discovering his own great-great-uncle fought with the 3rd Colorado Cavalry at Sand Creek, Broome maintains his dedication to letting archaeological findings and primary documents guide his conclusions. His willingness to revise established stories when evidence contradicts them—as with his discoveries at the Hungate massacre site—demonstrates true historical integrity. Most poignantly, Broome finds common ground with Native perspectives by acknowledging the profound cultural trauma of boarding schools that severed Indigenous peoples' connections to their ancestors by prohibiting their languages.
Don't miss Dr. Broome's upcoming presentation on October 4th at the Dodge City Library, where he'll continue exploring these complex historical narratives. For more on the American West, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or visit wildwestpodcastbuzzsprout.com. Questions or comments? Reach us at wildwestpodcast@gmail.com.
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Charlie Bassett may be the most important Wild West lawman you've never heard of. Before Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson became household names, they wore their first badges under his leadership in Dodge City, Kansas—a place so notoriously lawless it earned the nickname "the wickedest little town in America."
Born in Massachusetts in 1847, Bassett's journey took him from Civil War battlefields to the heart of frontier chaos. Standing only five feet four inches tall, what he lacked in physical stature he more than compensated for with quiet resolve and unwavering integrity. As Dodge City's first Marshal and Ford County's first Sheriff, he faced down the wildest elements of the American frontier—rampaging cowboys, professional gamblers, and ruthless outlaws—while establishing the foundations of law and order that would allow civilization to take root.
Unlike his more famous protégés, Bassett didn't build his reputation on spectacular gunfights or self-promotion. His authority came from competence, calm judgment, and moral courage. When a man was lynched by vigilantes, Bassett conducted a thorough investigation and boldly declared to the governor that the victim had been innocent. When the notorious Sam Bass gang robbed a train of $60,000 in gold, Bassett led the posse that pursued them across the Kansas prairie. And when the deadly tension between two rivals erupted in gunfire at the Long Branch Saloon, it was Bassett who restored order in the aftermath.
Perhaps most telling was his role in the famous "Dodge City War" of 1883. When his friend Luke Short was unfairly driven from town, Bassett helped assemble a formidable group of frontier legends—including Earp and Masterson—whose mere presence forced town officials to back down without a shot being fired. Their gathering, immortalized in the famous "Dodge City Peace Commission" photograph, marked one of the last great moments of the Wild West era.
Bassett died in 1896 at just 48 years old, seeking treatment for Bright's disease in Hot Springs, Arkansas. His passing, like much of his life, was quiet and dignified—a stark contrast to the outsized legends that would grow around many of his contemporaries.
This episode pulls back the curtain on the forgotten lawman who mentored legends, revealing how true courage often comes wrapped in quiet authority rather than gunsmoke and bravado. Discover the untold story of the lawman's lawman—Charles Bassett, the steady hand who truly tamed the West.
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The tangled web of myth and reality surrounding Dutch Henry Borne reveals a captivating window into the American frontier experience. Our exploration of this enigmatic outlaw's life continues as we examine the controversial claims and counterclaims about one of the West's most fascinating characters.
Dutch Henry's transformation from military scout to notorious criminal traverses the shifting moral landscape of the frontier. Beginning his Western career in 1867 as a scout for Custer's 7th Cavalry, Borne witnessed the brutality of the Ouachita Massacre in 1868, which seemingly triggered his disillusionment with military service. By 1871, he had staked a claim in Kansas and ventured to Colorado for buffalo hunting. After suffering an attack by Cheyenne warriors and facing accusations of instigating the conflict, Bourne's sense of injustice drove him to steal Army mules and the commandant's horse, vowing revenge and setting him on a path toward outlaw status.
The most fascinating controversy we tackle is whether Dutch Henry was actually present at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in June 1874. Official records indicate he was incarcerated in Kansas at the time, yet multiple independent sources—including the battle site monument, Olive Dixon's account of her husband Billy Dixon's experiences, and Borne's own later correspondence—place him at this pivotal frontier conflict. This historical mystery highlights the challenges of frontier record-keeping and the complex nature of Western mythology.
Our examination of Dutch Henry's later years reveals his evolution from notorious horse thief to family man, marrying Ida Dillabaugh in 1900 and fathering four children while maintaining his frontier identity. His correspondence with Western writer Charles Seringo demonstrates how aging frontiersmen often sought to cement their places in the narrative of the American West.
What makes Dutch Henry's story so compelling is how it illustrates the blurred lines between lawman and outlaw in a land where personal vendettas and survival often trumped abstract ethics. Was he truly at Adobe Walls? The evidence is compelling but contradictory—much like the man himself. Listen and decide for yourself as we unravel one of the West's most enduring mysteries.
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Some monsters aren't fiction – they're buried in Dodge City Cemetery beneath stones that read "beloved husband and father."
The story of Print Olive might be the most shocking true tale we've covered on Whiskey and Westerns. While sipping Bullet Bourbon (a fitting choice given Print's remarkable ability to absorb lead throughout his violent career), we unraveled the brutal history of a man whose sadistic tendencies would make even fictional villains seem tame.
Print began as a Texas cattle baron in the post-Civil War era, accumulating wealth by gathering "maverick" cattle – a term derived from Samuel Maverick, who famously refused to brand his herds. But Print's legacy wasn't built on business acumen alone. His reputation for horrific violence preceded him across the frontier. He once tied suspected rustlers to trees, wrapped them in freshly skinned wet cowhides, and watched as the rawhide slowly dried and crushed them to death in the hot Texas sun. Those who crossed the Olives had a tendency to "leave the country" permanently.
When Nebraska farmers Mitchell and Ketchum killed Print's brother Bob in self-defense, Print's revenge was swift and gruesome. After capturing the men through a bounty, Print hanged Ketchum while Mitchell remained handcuffed to him, forcing Mitchell to dangle by his arm while watching his partner strangle. Print then shot both men repeatedly before burning their bodies, earning the nickname "The Man-Burner." This incident forced Print to relocate to Dodge City, where he eventually met his own violent end in a Trail City saloon.
Perhaps most fascinating is how Print's brutal story influenced American literature. Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lonesome Dove" contains characters and scenes directly inspired by Print Olive's life. Jake Spoon, the hanging scene, Dietz and PI – all have roots in the actual history of this forgotten frontier monster.
Want to learn more? Visit our website to download "Ladder of Rivers," the book that chronicles Print's complete story and likely inspired McMurtry's masterpiece. Our next episode will feature the Dora Hand story, another fascinating tale connected to Print's violent web of influence.
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Step back in time to the dusty, lawless streets of Dodge City, Kansas as we unravel the enigmatic legend of "Mysterious" Dave Mathers over glasses of Knob Creek bourbon. Few characters in Western lore earned their nicknames more honestly than Mathers, whose life story combines gunfights, peculiar behavior, and ultimately, a disappearance that sealed his place in frontier mythology.
We trace Mathers' journey from his early days as a horse thief running with Dave Rudabaugh to his arrival in Dodge City around 1874. After surviving a near-fatal knife attack and forming an unusual business relationship with local physician Dr. Thomas McCarty, Mathers embarked on a colorful career that regularly blurred the line between lawman and outlaw. You'll hear the hilarious tale of "the conversion of Dave Mather," where he exposed a preacher's congregation as hypocrites with a well-placed gunshot, and discover his unique method for testing his sobriety—shooting at the town fire bell after leaving saloons.
The heart of our story follows Mathers through his time with the notorious "Dodge City Gang" in Las Vegas, New Mexico, his return to Dodge as assistant marshal, and his fateful, escalating feud with town founder Tom Nixon. Their rivalry over politics, business competition, and a woman culminated in one of Dodge City's most telling shootouts—where Mathers killed Nixon with four bullets and walked away free on self-defense claims, despite the shooting occurring weeks after Nixon's initial attempt on his life.
What happened to Mysterious Dave after that deadly encounter? Like many aspects of his life, his ultimate fate remains shrouded in mystery—a fitting end for a man whose very nickname acknowledged the enigma of his existence. Join us for this captivating glimpse into frontier justice, personalities, and the complex moral code that governed the American West.
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Gunfire echoes across the Kansas plains, where desperate men take cover behind a hasty barricade of battered wagons and lifeless horses. With their ammunition dangerously low and hope dwindling, the situation looks grim—until one valiant soldier boldly steps forward, ready to embark on what appears to be a suicide mission.
Welcome to the gripping tale of the Battle of Little Coon Creek, set in September 1868. This extraordinary tale chronicles how Corporal Patrick "Patty" Boyle’s unrivaled bravery turned the tides in what seemed like a certain death sentence for his comrades. Historian Jeff Broome unveils how a typical dispatch run between frontier forts transformed into a desperate struggle when Boyle and Corporal Leander Herron stumbled upon their fellow soldiers under fierce attack by warriors along the Santa Fe Trail.
As the drama unfolds, we see Boyle make a heart-wrenching choice—handing over his weapons with the unforgettable words, "Here, boys, you want them more than I do." He then charges headfirst into enemy lines, determined to seek reinforcements. Meanwhile, the defenders are locked in a harrowing battle that stretches through the night, their ammunition dwindling to a mere twelve rounds by dawn. Just when hope is all but lost, an unexpected sight emerges on the horizon: cavalry soldiers, gallantly charging to the rescue, clad only in their white underwear, appearing like ghostly apparitions on the battlefield.
What’s even more captivating is what happened after the battle. Decades later, while Corporal Leander Herron was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor, the memory of Boyle—who had tragically passed away before he could receive recognition—remains unadorned despite his incredible heroism. In his extensive research, Broome unearthed a rare gem: a 1930 radio interview featuring the then 85-year-old Leander Herron sharing his vivid memories of that fateful night, connecting us to this often-overlooked chapter of frontier history.
This tale is more than just a recounting of a military skirmish; it delves into the profound themes of sacrifice, duty, and the complex nature of heroism through the ages. For enthusiasts of the American frontier, military history, or tales of remarkable courage, Patty Boyle’s midnight ride is a powerful testament to the extraordinary individuals whose stories have shaped the West.
Listen, share, and subscribe to our podcast for more hidden gems from America's frontier past—where everyday heroes made history through remarkable acts of bravery.
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The violent clashes that erupted across the Kansas frontier in 1868 have often been shrouded in overly simplistic narratives. Historian Dr. Jeff Broome courageously challenges these conventional interpretations, revealing the intricate realities that drove Southern Plains tribes to warfare against white settlers.
Through his remarkable research into Indian depredation claims—sworn testimonies encompassing nearly 800 storage feet at the National Archives—Broome uncovers perspectives that have long been overlooked. "Here is a hidden voice of these settlers," he explains, shedding light on the experiences of frontier families intertwined in the conflict.
The roots of violence run deeper than commonly perceived. The Cheyenne migrated from Minnesota centuries ago, displacing other tribes and asserting their dominance over the Central Plains. Yet by 1868, their control had lasted merely two generations, while a series of treaties had drastically reduced their lands by approximately 15 times. The tipping point arrived as settlers disrupted the buffalo migrations essential to the Cheyenne's survival.
Most revealing is Dr. Broome's evidence regarding Chief Black Kettle, who was traditionally viewed as a steadfast peace advocate. Settler accounts suggest he "played both sides"—cultivating relationships with military authorities while supporting war preparations. Although he did not directly participate in raids, his role appears more intricate than previously recognized.
The August 1868 raids commenced along Spillman Creek, where newly arrived homesteaders suddenly became vulnerable on isolated claims. With no established towns or newspapers in the area, ascertaining exact casualty numbers remains challenging, though Governor Crawford estimated "upwards of 40 settlers" killed.
By delving into these untapped primary sources, Broome helps us grasp that the violence in 1868 resulted from a potent combination of diminishing resources, broken promises, tribal dynamics, and government shortfalls—a nuanced perspective vital for anyone striving to comprehend this pivotal moment in American frontier history.
Would you be ready to explore more? Subscribe to our podcast for the complete "Trails to the Washita" series, and share your thoughts at wildwestpodcast@gmail.com about what aspects of this complex history you'd like us to examine next.
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Step back in time to the American frontier of 1872, where massive buffalo herds still thundered across the plains in their ancient migration patterns. Through the eyes of George W. Brown, we witness these magnificent beasts as they moved with the seasons—northward in spring to the Dakotas and Canada, then southward again as winter approached, seeking shelter in the river valleys of the Great Plains.
Brown's tale centers on a hunting expedition along the Smoky Hill River with his colorful companion, Dave "Prairie Dog" Morrow. As they track buffalo herds through territories known to be hunting grounds of the Cheyenne, Brown uncovers the entrepreneurial spirit that earned Morrow his unusual nickname. From catching and selling prairie dogs to eastern tourists for five dollars a pair, to developing increasingly sophisticated trapping methods, Prairie Dog's business ventures reveal the speculative mindset that drove many frontier entrepreneurs until competition inevitably flooded the market.
The narrative takes an unexpected turn when Prairie Dog mysteriously vanishes one morning, leaving Brown to encounter other characters like Thomas Nixon—a former Nevada miner who claimed to have killed over 2,000 buffalo in just over a month. These personal stories unfold against the backdrop of a rapidly changing West, where railroads were pushing into new territories and the massive buffalo herds that had dominated the landscape for centuries were facing their final days. This episode offers not just a glimpse into the practical aspects of buffalo hunting, but also the camaraderie, competition, and challenges that defined life on America's western frontier during this pivotal era.
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Pour yourself a shot and settle in for an entertaining journey through Dodge City lore and fine spirits! Our debut episode of "Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday" brings together host Mike King and Dodge City historian Brad Smalley to explore frontier legends while sampling Ardbeg 10, a smoky Islay scotch.
We kick things off by shattering a persistent Wild West myth about the origin of "shot" glasses. Despite romantic notions of cowboys trading bullets for whiskey, historical records reveal that in 1870s Dodge City, a shot cost about 25 cents—enough to buy nearly ten bullets. When George Hoover established the first saloon in what would become Dodge, he dispensed whiskey by the ladle for two bits, likely delivering a more generous pour than today's standard shot.
The heart of our episode revolves around Luke McGlue, Dodge City's most infamous resident who never actually existed. This entirely fictional character served as the perfect scapegoat for the town's practical jokers, including legendary figures like Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. When pranks were pulled and someone needed to take the blame, Luke McGlue became the untraceable culprit, preventing potential violence in a town where everyone carried guns.
We share the hilarious tale of Dr. Meredith, a traveling "medical man" who came to deliver a lecture on "private diseases" after corresponding with the nonexistent Luke. What followed was an elaborately orchestrated practical joke featuring staged disruptions, gunfire that extinguished the saloon's lamps, and ultimately a terrified doctor fleeing town on the first train out.
Throughout our storytelling, we appreciate the complex flavors of Ardbeg 10, discussing how peat imparts its distinctive smoky character during the whiskey-making process and identifying flavor notes from beeswax to black pepper.
Subscribe to our podcast for weekly episodes where we'll continue exploring legendary characters, historical tales, and fine spirits from the American frontier. Search "Wild West podcast" to find us and join our Wednesday tradition of whiskey and wonderful stories!
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The enduring legend of Belle Starr, America's notorious "Bandit Queen," culminates in this riveting final episode that traces her tragic demise and extraordinary posthumous transformation. After the death of her husband Sam Starr in 1886, Belle found herself in a desperate legal battle to keep her beloved home at Younger's Bend. The Cherokee Tribal Council delivered devastating news – as a non-citizen, her claim to the land had vanished with her husband's passing. Demonstrating remarkable resilience, she quickly formed a strategic alliance with Jim July, a young man of Creek and Cherokee heritage, securing her homestead through this new marriage while agreeing to stop harboring fugitives.
Despite her attempts to reform, the shadows of Belle's past continued to circle. By February 1889, she had accumulated a long list of potential enemies – from her disgruntled neighbor Edgar Watson to her own resentful son Ed Reed. On February 3rd, just days before her 41st birthday, Belle was ambushed on a lonely stretch of road near Eufaula. The attack was brutal and cowardly – shot in the back with what many believe was her own double-barreled shotgun, then finished off as she lay wounded on the cold ground. Though she was found still alive and brought home to her daughter Pearl, her injuries proved fatal.
The investigation into Belle's murder exemplifies frontier justice at its most ineffective. Despite compelling evidence against prime suspect Edgar Watson, including distinctive footprints at the crime scene, he was acquitted due to insufficient evidence and reluctant witnesses. The mystery of who killed Belle Starr remains unsolved to this day, adding another layer to her fascinating legend. It was her violent death that catapulted her from local notoriety to national fame, as sensationalized newspaper accounts caught the attention of publisher Richard K. Fox. His 1889 paperback "Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen" reinvented her as a beautiful, educated Southern belle driven to crime to avenge her Confederate brother's death – a romantic fabrication far removed from the complex reality of the woman who had just one conviction for horse theft.
Belle's grave at Younger's Bend bears the poetic inscription: "Shed not for her the bitter tear... 'Tis but the casket that lies here, the gem that fills it, sparkles yet." These words perfectly capture the essence of the Belle Starr phenomenon – the transformation of a frontier woman into an enduring symbol of the Wild West. Share your thoughts about this fascinating American legend and explore our illustrated dime novel for the complete story of the Bandit Queen's remarkable life.
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Saddle up for a journey into the heart of podcast storytelling excellence as we explore the remarkable success of the Wild West Podcast. Since 2017, this captivating show has transported listeners back to frontier America through its perfect tagline: "where fact and legend merge."
What makes this podcast truly exceptional is the extraordinary partnership that brings each episode to life. Michael King serves as the meticulous researcher and writer, crafting historically accurate narratives that go beyond the audio medium into carefully illustrated dime novel-style publications. This isn't just historical recounting—it's a deliberate homage to the very format that originally popularized Western tales 150 years ago. Meanwhile, Brad Smalley delivers each story with authentic frontier gravitas, his signature "Howdy from Dodge City" greeting backed by genuine credentials as a local Boot Hill gunfighter and historical reenactor. When Smalley narrates, you're not just hearing history; you're connecting with someone deeply embedded in the traditions and physical space that shaped these legendary tales.
While other Western podcasts cast wide nets across the entire frontier or rely on cinematic production values, the Wild West Podcast takes a different approach. By focusing intensely on Dodge City and prioritizing substance over flash, King and Smalley have created something remarkably authentic. Their 260+ episodes, typically running 20-30 minutes each, cover both iconic figures and obscure historical moments with equal dedication. The result? A show that's reached listeners in 150 countries and maintains an impressive 4.6-star rating. It proves something powerful about storytelling today: in our digital age, deeply local knowledge delivered through genuine voices can resonate globally, ensuring these complex, sometimes contradictory, but eternally fascinating chapters of American history continue to echo for generations to come. Subscribe now to experience the perfect blend of historical accuracy and spellbinding storytelling that only the Wild West Podcast can deliver.
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Get ready to celebrate the spirit of the West! The Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame Committee is thrilled to invite you to honor remarkable individuals, both living legends and those who have passed, by nominating them for induction into the illustrious Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame!
This is your chance to spotlight someone extraordinary! Whether you're part of an organization or an individual with a passion for preserving cowboy culture, we welcome your nominations. Each year, our dedicated nominating committee will meticulously review all submissions to choose the next inductees who deserve to be immortalized.
Ready to make your nomination count? You can easily request a nomination form from Boot Hill Museum, Inc., right on Front Street in Dodge City, Kansas, or take advantage of the convenience of their online form at www.boothill.org/kchf-nomination. But don’t wait too long! All nominations must be submitted by August 31, 2025, to be considered for the exciting 2025 induction ceremony which will be held on Saturday, November 8, 2025!
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"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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The rugged terrain of Indian Territory in the 1880s offered both peril and possibility—a perfect backdrop for one woman's remarkable transformation from grieving widow to frontier legend. After losing both her brother to war and her husband to violence, Myra Maybel Reed found herself drawn to an untamed region where she would forge an extraordinary new identity.
Her fateful connection with the notorious Starr family wasn't merely about seeking protection in dangerous lands. The Starr's represented a powerful Cherokee lineage steeped in resistance, their outlaw status inextricably linked to tribal politics and the traumatic aftermath of the Trail of Tears. When Belle married Sam Starr in 1880, she gained more than a husband—she secured a tenuous foothold in a world where she might otherwise have remained perpetually vulnerable as an outsider.
At their homestead dubbed "Younger's Bend," Belle emerged as a formidable strategist at the heart of a sophisticated criminal operation. Far from a passive companion, she orchestrated logistics for the rustlers, thieves, and fugitives who sought refuge under her roof—even reportedly sheltering Jesse James himself. Her shrewd intelligence, celebrated by those who knew her, proved invaluable in navigating both the shadowy outlaw underground and the complex legal landscape that threatened to ensnare her.
Judge Isaac Parker's fearsome court finally caught up with Belle and Sam in 1882, resulting in her only documented conviction. Yet even facing imprisonment in Detroit, Belle adapted brilliantly, earning a reputation as a model prisoner while Sam struggled with incarceration. Upon their release, the brief flicker of domestic tranquility she attempted to build at Younger's Bend was repeatedly extinguished by Sam's reckless criminal pursuits and her own legal entanglements.
The violent death of Sam Starr in a Christmas party shootout with his own cousin in 1886 left Belle not only grieving but facing an existential crisis, as her very right to remain at Younger's Bend depended on her marriage to a Cherokee citizen. Through it all, she demonstrated remarkable resilience, adapting to survive in a land defined by shifting jurisdictions, tribal sovereignty, and the ever-present threat of violence—a true testament to the extraordinary will of the woman who became known as the Bandit Queen.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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Step back in time to July 4, 1884, when Dodge City, Kansas staged one of the most audacious spectacles ever seen on American frontier soil – a genuine Mexican bullfight. As the cattle trade slowed and prosperity waned, former Mayor A.B. Webster hatched a plan that would either save the town's economy or cement its reputation for lawlessness.
The Great Bullfight of 1884 represents the fascinating collision of American frontier spirit with Spanish tradition. Within days, Webster raised $10,000 from local merchants desperate for economic revival. In less than two months, they transformed 40 acres into an arena capable of seating 2,500 spectators. When faced with legal opposition, Webster's response became legendary: "Hell. Dodge City ain't in the United States."
The story unfolds like a frontier drama – five flamboyantly dressed Mexican matadors facing off against carefully selected ferocious longhorn bulls, thousands of spectators filling the stands, reporters from major newspapers documenting every moment, and special excursion trains bringing visitors from across the country. The pinnacle came when matador Gregorio Gallardo confronted "the meanest bull in the West" in a breathtaking display of courage that still echoes through Dodge City's history. What followed was a night of wild celebration, keeping the Marshal and his deputies scrambling to maintain order as the town enjoyed its last hurrah before settling into quiet small-town life.
Join us for this remarkable tale of American ingenuity, defiance, and spectacle that changed Dodge City forever. Subscribe to Wild West Podcast for more fascinating stories from the American frontier, and share your thoughts at wildwestpodcast@gmail.com – we value your input and may feature your comments in future episodes.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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The remarkable transformation of Myra Maybel Shirley from educated piano player to notorious outlaw woman unfolds against the chaotic backdrop of post-Civil War Texas. What forces drive a respectable young woman into the dangerous world of outlaws? The answer lies in the unlikely sanctuary her family's farm provided to some of America's most wanted men.
Scyene, Texas was described as "a rendezvous of the reckless raiders of the Southwest," a perfect hideout for Missouri's Confederate guerrillas-turned-outlaws. When the James-Younger gang sought refuge at the Shirley farm, they found in May a woman hardened by war and displacement, who moved comfortably among them despite her formal education. Her friendship with Cole Younger sparked persistent rumors, while her marriage to former Quantrill raider Jim Reed cemented her connection to the outlaw world.
Reed's criminal career dragged May into an increasingly dangerous existence. As they fled from Texas to Missouri to California with their two young children, Pearl and Ed, May's options narrowed. When authorities issued a warrant for her arrest as an accessory to Reed's crimes, the line between being an outlaw's wife and an outlaw herself blurred. After Reed's violent death in 1874, May faced the ultimate challenge: surviving as a widow with two children in a society that offered little support for women in her position. These formative years, marked by hard choices and compromised morality, set the stage for her emergence as the legendary Belle Starr.
Join us for Part 3 of Belle Starr's story - "Younger's Bend: The Cherokee Queen" - where we'll explore her captivating years from 1875 to 1880. Subscribe now to follow this fascinating journey through the life of one of the Wild West's most misunderstood figures.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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The afternoon of April 14, 1935, began with an unsettling calm across the southern Great Plains. After weeks of relentless dust storms, this brief moment of respite felt almost divine—until an ominous black line appeared on the horizon. Witnesses described a sky divided between golden sunlight and a monstrous curtain of dust that towered a thousand feet high, churning like a reverse waterfall.
When this apocalyptic wall struck, it transformed day into a darkness "worse than any midnight." The assault was multi-sensory and terrifying. Wind-driven sand lacerated exposed skin, buildings trembled, and the air itself became a choking hazard loaded with particulate matter. Perhaps most bizarre were the electrical phenomena—static electricity generated by billions of dust particles created blue sparks dancing between animals' ears and enough charge to short-out automobile engines or knock people to the ground with a handshake.
Black Sunday wasn't merely a weather event but the physical manifestation of America's worst man-made ecological disaster. This catastrophe emerged from a perfect storm of misguided federal policies, economic desperation, and ecological ignorance. The transformation of native grasslands into unsustainable farmlands had stripped away nature's defense mechanisms against drought and wind. When these elements combined with economic pressures of the Great Depression, the result was catastrophic—a haunting reminder that our relationship with the natural world requires respect for systems that evolved over millennia. What lessons can we draw from this devastating chapter in American history as we face our own environmental challenges today?
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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The infamous Belle Starr—a pistol-packing outlaw queen of the Wild West or a misunderstood historical figure whose legend overshadows reality? This fascinating exploration of Myra Maybel Shirley Starr reveals the stark contrast between the woman herself and the sensationalized "Bandit Queen" who captured America's imagination.
Born in 1848 Missouri to a prosperous family, young May Shirley straddled two worlds—receiving a refined classical education at Carthage Female Academy while simultaneously developing remarkable riding and shooting skills under her beloved brother Bud's guidance. This duality would define her life, creating a woman comfortable in multiple spheres and unwilling to conform to 19th-century expectations of femininity.
The Civil War shattered the Shirleys' comfortable existence. Missouri's brutal guerrilla conflict exposed May to violence, betrayal, and a moral code that existed outside conventional law. When her idolized brother Bud was killed by Union soldiers in 1864 and their hometown of Carthage burned, the family fled to Texas, joining countless displaced Southerners seeking new beginnings. This dramatic downward mobility—from affluence to a primitive dugout dwelling in lawless Scyene, Texas—became the crucible that transformed an educated young woman into a figure who would associate with notorious outlaws.
Through meticulous historical research, we unravel how the seeds of the Belle Starr legend were planted in this tumultuous period of American history. The podcast examines how personal tragedy, war trauma, and frontier justice shaped not just Belle's trajectory but the wider cultural fascination with outlaws who defied authority in the post-Civil War era. What emerges is a captivating portrait of resilience, reinvention, and the complex dynamics between historical truth and American mythmaking.
Follow our four-part series on Belle Starr and other remarkable women who shaped Western narratives. Subscribe now to journey with us through the untamed territories of fact, fiction, and the compelling gray areas where legends are born.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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The sprawling plains of North America once thundered with the hoofbeats of countless bison and horses belonging to the Kiowa Nation – a people experiencing a golden age of cultural flourishing in the early 19th century. From their origins near the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, the Kiowa embarked on an epic southward migration that transformed them into masters of the Southern Plains landscape.
Step into this vibrant world through the story of Satanta, known initially as "Big Ribs" and later as "White Bear." Born between 1815-1820 to the revered Chief Red Tipi, Satanta entered a society of remarkable complexity. His father stood at the pinnacle of Kiowa leadership, serving both as a powerful band chief and as keeper of the Tai Mi – the tribe's most sacred object and centerpiece of their Sundance ceremony. This extraordinary heritage placed Satanta on a path toward prominence within a society structured around intricate kinship networks, spiritual power, and warrior accomplishments.
The Kiowa way of life reveals sophisticated adaptations to plains existence. Their masterful horsemanship revolutionized hunting, warfare, and trade, while their deep connection to buffalo provided sustenance, shelter, and tools. Through bilateral kinship systems and a clear social hierarchy based on horse wealth and spiritual authority, the Kiowa organized themselves into bands led by prestigious chiefs from the aristocratic onde class. The spiritual world centered on Dawdaw – a sacred life force permeating all existence – accessed through vision quests and embodied in the ten sacred medicine bundles guarded by hereditary priests.
Discover how this cultural context shaped Satanta's formative years and set the stage for his emergence as one of the most significant Kiowa leaders during a period of profound change and challenge. By understanding the rich tapestry of beliefs, traditions, and social structures that defined Kiowa life, we gain insight into a sophisticated indigenous society whose legacy continues to resonate in Native American history. Subscribe now for an immersive journey into one of the most fascinating chapters of the American West.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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Step back in time to the American frontier where five extraordinary women defied expectations and carved their names into history.
The vast expanses of the American West weren't just shaped by cowboys and outlaws – they were transformed by women of remarkable courage, talent, and determination. Our journey begins with Annie Oakley, whose unparalleled sharpshooting skills captivated audiences worldwide while she maintained a carefully crafted feminine image that made her revolutionary talents acceptable to Victorian sensibilities. We contrast her approach with Calamity Jane, who boldly rejected feminine norms, embracing masculine attire and behavior to create opportunities in a world that offered women few paths to independence.
The notorious Belle Starr emerges as the compelling "Bandit Queen" whose practical buckskins, boots, and armed presence challenged conventional womanhood and captured public imagination through sensationalized stories that both celebrated and simplified her complex reality. We then explore Sacajawea's crucial but undercompensated contributions to westward expansion – her indigenous knowledge of plants, languages, and diplomacy proved essential to the Lewis and Clark expedition's survival, revealing how Native expertise enabled American colonization. Finally, Sarah Winnemucca's powerful advocacy illuminates indigenous resistance through her groundbreaking public speaking career and autobiography that challenged harmful stereotypes while navigating the precarious position of cultural mediator.
These women weren't merely passive witnesses to history – they were active architects of the American West, challenging our understanding of frontier life through their exceptional skills, defiance of restrictive norms, and tireless advocacy. Their stories reveal how media and mythology both elevated and constrained them, creating legends that sometimes overshadowed the complex realities of their lives. By examining these five remarkable women beyond the archetypes that often define them, we gain profound insights into female agency, resilience, and the multifaceted nature of fame in a transformative era.
Don't miss our special announcement about the upcoming 65th annual Dodge City Days festival celebrating "Women of the West" – subscribe now to hear about exciting events leading up to this unforgettable celebration of Western heritage!
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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A single mechanical failure changed the course of Western history on a hot July night in 1870. When Medal of Honor recipient Private John Kile pressed his Army Remington against Wild Bill Hickok's head and pulled the trigger, the hammer fell with a dull click instead of a fatal blast. That misfire in Paddy Welch's Saloon set off a desperate struggle that would leave Kiley dead, his companion wounded, and add another chapter to Hickok's growing legend.
Hays City in 1870 stood at a crossroads, transforming from a chaotic railroad terminus into a fledgling settlement while still harboring the volatile energy of the untamed frontier. Into this powder keg came three men whose collision course was perhaps inevitable: Wild Bill Hickok, no longer sheriff but still carrying his deadly reputation; Private John Kile, whose Medal of Honor couldn't outshine his troubled past marked by desertion and discipline problems; and Private Jeremiah "Jerry" Lonergan, renowned for his formidable fighting prowess.
Their confrontation erupted with stunning violence. Lonergan trapped Hickok in a powerful bear hug while Kile pressed his revolver to Hickok's head. When the gun misfired, Hickok managed to draw his own weapons despite being restrained, shooting Kiley fatally and wounding Lonergan before making a dramatic escape through a glass window. He fled to Boot Hill Cemetery with a Winchester rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition, leaving town the next day while authorities—both military and civilian—declined to press charges against him.
This authenticated incident, documented in military records yet largely overlooked in popular history, reveals the razor-thin margins between life and death on the frontier and how practical considerations often outweighed strict legal procedure. Join us as we uncover this forgotten chapter in Western history, where a single mechanical failure altered destinies and added another extraordinary tale to the Wild Bill Hickok legend.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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Step back in time to autumn 1877, where the whispers of history echo beneath the branches of an oak tree at Sawlog Creek. Frank Buskirk and his fellow drovers have just completed their cattle drive from Texas, setting up camp near Dodge City when a stranger named Bob Shaw rides into their midst. What begins as a chilling campfire tale about two men—one guilty, one innocent—hanged from the very oak tree above their heads, becomes a haunting prelude to violence that will soon unfold.
Shaw's story of frontier justice gone wrong serves as a dark foreshadowing when the cowboys venture into Dodge City the following day. Inside the bustling Lone Star Saloon, past grievances collide with present tensions as Shaw confronts Texas Dick in a display of frontier fury that erupts into a shootout. Deputy Marshal Ed Masterson intervenes, but not before bullets fly and blood is spilled, leaving multiple men wounded and forever changed by the encounter.
Through Buskirk's firsthand account, we witness not only the violent reality of Western life but also how these stories were recorded and sometimes distorted in the pages of frontier newspapers. The Dodge City Times reports the incident with errors and omissions, highlighting the gap between lived experience and published history—a reminder that the Wild West we think we know may be built on incomplete truths.
This gripping narrative excavates the complex nature of frontier justice, the bonds formed between men on cattle drives, and the thin line between order and chaos in places where law was still taking root. Beyond the gunsmoke and bloodshed lies a meditation on how stories shape our understanding of history and ourselves.
Ready to dive deeper into authentic tales from America's frontier? Subscribe to our premium content for just $3 monthly and join us in uncovering the real stories that defined the West. Connect with us across all major podcast platforms and social media—each episode brings you one step closer to understanding the true spirit of the American frontier.
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"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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The forgotten heroes who shaped the American West emerge through the harrowing tale of the 1867 cattle drive that would later inspire the beloved "Lonesome Dove" narrative. As northeastern cities expanded in the 19th century, feeding their growing populations became increasingly problematic. The solution came in the form of the Long Drive—an economic revolution where small teams of cowboys moved massive herds of Texas longhorns over 600 miles to Kansas railheads, creating the foundation for a national food market.
Behind this economic transformation were extraordinary individuals whose courage defined the frontier spirit. When Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving embarked on their second cattle drive in 1867, they faced challenges that modern Americans can hardly comprehend—from stampedes during electrical storms to deadly encounters with indigenous warriors. African American cowboy Bose Ickard emerged as "one of the best night riders" in Goodnight's crew, demonstrating remarkable skill during a dangerous nighttime stampede. His cautious response—"I wasn't certain who had this herd till I saw you. I thought maybe the Indians had them"—reveals the constant vigilance required on these perilous journeys.
The centerpiece of this episode recounts the fateful decision that would claim Oliver Loving's life. Against Goodnight's advice, Loving rode ahead to secure a business contract at Fort Sumner, accompanied only by the remarkable "One-Armed Bill" Wilson. Their subsequent battle with over a hundred Indians, Wilson's miraculous escape swimming down the Pecos River, and Loving's tragic death reveal the extraordinary human cost behind the economic development of the West. Perhaps most compelling is how these historical events inspired fictional characters like Joshua Deets in "Lonesome Dove," based on the real-life Bose Ickard—a testament to how African American cowboys found respect in communities that valued skill over race. Join us as we reclaim these overlooked stories and discover how the American West has always been more diverse than popular culture suggests. Subscribe to our podcast for more untold tales that shaped our nation's history!
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
At the razor's edge where civilization meets chaos stood a man whose name struck both fear and awe - Wild Bill Hickok. The sweltering summer of 1869 found Hays City, Kansas transformed into a powder keg of violence where 37 licensed liquor sellers hosted a volatile mix of railroad workers, soldiers, buffalo hunters, and fortune-seekers.
When traditional law enforcement faltered against this tide of lawlessness, the town turned to James Butler Hickok, hoping his fearsome reputation might restore order where others had failed. Within just five weeks as acting sheriff, Hickok would face two deadly confrontations that defined his controversial approach to frontier justice.
The first clash came when Bill Mulvey, "a notorious murderer from Missouri," terrorized the streets in a drunken rampage, firing indiscriminately through businesses. Using a clever tactical deception, Hickok called to imaginary men behind Mulvey, creating just enough distraction to draw and fire a single fatal shot. Just weeks later, when Samuel Strauhun and eighteen companions destroyed John Bitter's beer saloon, Hickok's warning was chillingly direct: "Do, and they will carry you out." When Strauhun challenged this ultimatum, another deadly shot rang out.
Though coroner's inquests ruled both killings justified, Hays City began questioning whether Hickok's methods were too extreme - a sentiment that would soon cost him his position. Through these blood-soaked confrontations emerges a complex portrait of frontier justice, where the line between necessary force and excessive violence blurred in the prairie dust.
Experience the raw, unfiltered story of Wild Bill's Hays City and decide for yourself: was he the solution to lawlessness or something more troubling? Subscribe now to explore more fascinating chapters from the American frontier, and check out "The Making of Wild Bill Hickok" by Michael King, available now on Amazon. We invite you to dive into the exciting world of the "This Week in the West" podcast!
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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Step into the captivating world of one of the American frontier's most enigmatic figures as we unravel the complex tapestry of James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok. Beyond the legendary gunfighter lies a man of striking contradictions – fearless yet temperamental, courteous yet deadly, flamboyant yet practical.
Our deep dive reveals Hickok as neither simple hero nor villain, but rather as the embodiment of frontier complexity. Contemporary accounts paint him as quiet and unassuming one moment, intimidating and volatile the next. Though General Custer praised his composure in danger, his quick temper triggered deadly confrontations. Remarkably, this same man demonstrated steadfast loyalty, generosity, and a tendency to champion underdogs, from saving young Buffalo Bill Cody from a beating to protecting mistreated animals and dispersing lynch mobs.
Physically striking at over six feet tall with flowing hair and piercing blue eyes, Hickok crafted his appearance carefully, alternating between practical frontier attire and meticulously tailored shirts with scarlet vests – actively contributing to his own mythmaking. While undoubtedly an exceptional marksman, modern analysis suggests his true advantage in confrontations came from extraordinary composure under fire and unwavering readiness to use deadly force. His diverse career as scout, teamster, lawman, and gambler showcased remarkable adaptability, though Hays City ultimately proved "too tough" even for the legendary Wild Bill.
Discover why Hickok remains such a fascinating figure as we separate fact from fiction and explore how his real-life complexities became intertwined with the mythical Wild West narrative. Subscribe now to continue this journey through frontier America, where extraordinary characters like Hickok remind us that history is rarely as simple as the legends suggest.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
Before Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson became synonymous with Dodge City, a more sinister form of "justice" ruled the streets. "The William Taylor Incident" transports you to 1873 frontier Kansas, where the line between law and lawlessness wasn't just blurred—it didn't exist at all.
Narrated through the eyes of Herman Fringer, one of Dodge City's founding settlers, this harrowing account reveals how a simple misunderstanding escalated into a brutal execution. William Taylor, a well-regarded black servant from nearby Fort Dodge, found himself in the crosshairs of the town's self-appointed vigilantes after refusing to transport a man to a local brothel. What follows is a chilling sequence of events culminating in a public execution that would ultimately force Kansas officials to establish formal governance in the notorious frontier town.
The story provides a raw, unflinching look at early Dodge City when it was little more than a collection of saloons, general stores, and brothels serving buffalo hunters and railroad workers. With approximately thirty killings in less than a year and the nearest law enforcement over a hundred miles away, the settlement operated on its own brutal code—where perceived slights could carry deadly consequences.
Beyond recounting a forgotten tragedy, this narrative examines how one man's murder potentially catalyzed the appointment of Ford County's first commissioners and sheriff, forever changing the trajectory of what would become one of the most famous frontier towns in American history. Listen as we uncover this pivotal moment when the Wild West's lawlessness was forced to give way to civil order, all sparked by the tragic death of an innocent man whose final words still echo through time: "Please, Mr. Scott, don't shoot me like you shot my mule."
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
Bat Masterson wasn't just a legendary gunfighter—he may have been the greatest practical joker the American West ever produced. His favorite prank? The notorious "Indian Act," where he and his friends would dress as Native Americans, complete with war paint, to terrorize boastful newcomers in Dodge City. They'd stage mock killings in the streets before charging at their target, revealing the joke at the last moment. Their careful planning included ensuring victims' weapons were unloaded or filled with blanks—but they didn't account for concealed weapons, as they discovered when a man named Harris pulled a hidden pistol from his boot and shot one of the pranksters.
Behind these elaborate pranks was the shadow of Luke McGlue, "the most notorious troublemaker that ever walked the boardwalks of Dodge City." If your horse disappeared or obscenities appeared on the water tower, locals would blame it on Luke. The catch? Luke didn't exist. He was a fictional scapegoat created by Masterson and his friends to take the blame for their countless antics, allowing the real pranksters to walk free while newspapers reported on "the Luke McGlue crowd" with a wink.
These pranks weren't just for laughs—they served as informal initiation rites in a town divided between reformers and the original "Dodge City Gang." If you could survive being the butt of a joke while maintaining your good humor, you were accepted as a true Dodge Citian. Even after dangerous incidents like the Harris shooting, the pranks continued for years, only fading as civilization gradually tamed the frontier. As one old adage went, "if you kill them, they won't learn nothing"—and the Luke McGlue crowd apparently never did learn their lesson. Discover these forgotten stories that reveal how humor, not just violence, shaped the culture of the Wild West. Want more tales of frontier pranks? Check out our book "Antiques of Luke McGlue" for stories you won't find anywhere else outside Dodge City.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
The crack of gunfire shatters the morning air over Dodge City's dusty plaza. A black derby hat bobs above a railroad embankment as bullets fly from every direction. It's April 16, 1881, and Bat Masterson has just stepped off the train and into one of the American frontier's most chaotic yet consequential gunfights.
Masterson had returned to help his brother, Jim, recently fired as city marshal and locked in a business dispute over the Lady Gay Dance Hall. What begins as a personal matter quickly escalates into a symbolic last stand of Dodge City's wild era. When Masterson encounters his brother's rivals AJ Peacock and Al Updegraff near the train depot, tensions explode into gunplay that engulfs the entire town.
Through vivid storytelling, we transport you to Front Street as frightened onlookers peer through broken windows, watching the legendary gunfighter exchange shots with his adversaries while bullets kick up dust around his famous derby hat. The shootout's aftermath proves even more fascinating—Mayor Webster arrives with a shotgun to arrest Masterson, marking a decisive shift in Dodge City's history. Though Updegraff survives his wounds and Bat pays only an $8 fine, the Masterson brothers are effectively banished from town as new civic leaders implement moral ordinances to tame the notorious frontier outpost.
This forgotten gunfight represents something far greater than a personal dispute—it captures the precise moment when Dodge City chose civilization over chaos, commerce over gunplay, and law over legend. Join us as we resurrect this pivotal moment that forever changed the trajectory of one of America's most infamous frontier towns.
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- Want more Wild West stories? Don't miss our partnership with the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum's new "This Week in the West" podcast—click the link to discover more tales from America's frontier past!
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
While most Western history fans know the famous lawmen and outlaws who made Dodge City legendary, the actual souls buried on Boot Hill Cemetery have remained largely forgotten—until now. These weren't just nameless bodies; they were real people whose violent deaths created the reputation that still defines Dodge City nearly 150 years later.
The summer of 1872 marked the beginning of Boot Hill's dark legacy when Jack Reynolds, described as a "notoriously contemptible desperado," was shot six times by a railroad worker during an altercation. Newspaper accounts coldly reported that "law-abiding people of the Southwest had been rid of a terror." This callous attitude toward violent death became the norm in early Dodge, where murders occurred with shocking frequency.
From the gambler Denver who shot a man called "Blackjack" simply "for the pleasure of watching him kick," to dance hall owner Tom Sherman who publicly executed a troublemaker named Burns by asking bystanders, "Well, I better shoot him again, hadn't I boys?" before putting a bullet between his eyes—these stories reveal why Dodge earned its nickname as "the wickedest little city in America." The turning point came in June 1873 when William Taylor, a Black cook for Colonel Richard Dodge, was murdered by drunks, prompting military intervention and the establishment of Ford County's first official law enforcement.
Boot Hill was never a proper cemetery but a convenient dumping ground for those nobody claimed or cared about. By 1879, civic leaders had grown weary of Dodge City's association with Boot Hill and closed it down, attempting to reshape the town's blood-soaked image. Yet the forgotten stories of those buried there—ordinary people caught in extraordinary violence—reveal more about the real Wild West than any Hollywood portrayal ever could.
What forgotten stories from America's frontier past fascinate you? Subscribe to hear more untold tales from the Wild West that challenge everything you thought you knew about our shared history.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
Step into the contested territory of frontier legend as we continue our deep dive into the life of Dutch Henry Borne, one of the American West's most enigmatic figures. From cavalry scout to notorious outlaw, Borne’s story straddles the line between documented history and frontier mythology—nowhere more prominently than in the controversy surrounding his presence at the famous Battle of Adobe Walls.
The journey begins with Borne’s early days alongside General Custer, where witnessing the brutal Washita Massacre triggered what appears to be a moral turning point. But was his disillusionment truly ethical, or merely personal? As we follow his path from military scout to buffalo hunter to horse thief, we confront the fundamental question of how much we can trust historical records in reconstructing the lives of frontier figures.
At the heart of our exploration lies the fascinating contradiction about Borne’s whereabouts during the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. Official records place him in jail in Kansas during the battle, yet multiple sources—including a monument at the battle site, Olive Dixon's historical account, and Borne’s own later correspondence—firmly position him among the defenders. This historical mystery showcases how Western narratives are shaped by competing truths, unreliable reporting, and the personal biases of both contemporary observers and later historians.
The episode concludes with Borne’s capture by Sheriff Bat Masterson, his eventual marriage and retirement in Colorado, and a final assessment of the evidence for and against his participation at Adobe Walls. Throughout this narrative, we're reminded that frontier history exists not as clean fact but as contested territory where official records, personal testimonies, and mythmaking collide. Listen now to decide for yourself where truth lies in the remarkable story of Dutch Henry Borne’s, and share your own conclusions about this fascinating frontier enigma.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
Get ready, Western enthusiasts! At Wild West Podcast, we are thrilled to unveil an incredible new partnership with the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum! Together, we're embarking on an adventure that celebrates the untamed spirit and captivating stories of the American West.
Join us for the thrilling pioneering of "This Week in the West" podcast! This exciting weekly show, hitting your ears every Monday morning, will take you on a five-minute journey into the mesmerizing history of the West. Broadcasting from the iconic National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, "This Week in the West,” will shine a spotlight on the remarkable individuals and groundbreaking events that have shaped this legendary region. Don't miss out on the excitement—tune in and explore the stories of "This Week in the West by clicking the link on the description page of this podcast to discover more about "This Week in the West," .
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
The saloon doors swing open on a sweltering evening in Dodge City as Cimarron George seeks refuge from the oppressive prairie heat. What begins as a simple quest for companionship quickly draws him into the electric atmosphere of the Long Branch Saloon – a microcosm of frontier tension where personal vendettas, political ambition, and business rivalries converge under the watchful glass eyes of a massive mounted moose head.
George finds himself privy to whispered conversations about the dangerous feud brewing between Jim Masterson and AJ Peacock, co-owners of the Lady Gay Saloon. The conflict centers around Peacock's brother-in-law Al Updegraff, accused of theft and drunkenness, with rumors swirling that legendary lawman Bat Masterson might soon return from Tombstone to defend his brother's honor. These tensions crystallize when Mayor Webster makes his unforgettable entrance – breaking his cane over a man's head merely for offering congratulations after supposedly spreading rumors during the election.
The evening introduces us to a cast of frontier characters that embody the West's contradictions: Tom Nixon, the legendary buffalo hunter who reportedly killed 120 buffalo in 40 minutes, now serving as assistant marshal; Pat Sughrue, the jovial Irishman newly elected to city council; and Marshal Singer, whose casual approach to peacekeeping belies the violence simmering beneath Dodge City's surface. As Webster warns of trouble on tomorrow's horizon and orders deputies to watch the train station, the Beeson Band strikes up a patriotic tune that momentarily unites the diverse saloon patrons – a fleeting harmony in a town poised on the edge of conflict.
Saddle up with us for more frontier adventures by checking out the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum's five-minute podcast "This Week in the West," premiering every Monday. What forgotten stories of the American West are you most curious to explore?
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
At the Wild West podcast, we are on an inspiring mission to revive the spirit of the classic dime novel, reimagining it for a modern audience while accounting for inflation in both price and narrative depth. Our goal is to invigorate these captivating stories, ensuring they not only echo the charm of their predecessors but also resonate with contemporary themes and characters. In doing so, we create a literary experience that honors the rich tradition of storytelling, allowing these tales to thrive and evolve, captivating readers for generations to come. If you are interested in purchasing one or more of these fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click on the link provided on the description page of this podcast. Click here to order your copy today.
Support the show
If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
A single gunshot in the darkness of a Dodge City night forever altered the course of Western history, claiming the life of beloved performer Dora Hand in a case of tragic mistaken identity. When James "Spike" Kenedy fired into Mayor James Kelly's home on October 4, 1878, he had no idea his vengeful bullets would strike the talented singer sleeping in the mayor's bed while he was away on business.
What followed was one of the most remarkable manhunts of the Old West. An all-star posse of legendary lawmen—including Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Charles Bassett—pursued Kenedy across rugged terrain and swollen rivers. Their dramatic confrontation and Kenedy's subsequent capture might have been the stuff of dime novels, but what happened next reveals the complex reality of frontier justice.
Despite Kenedy's apparent admission and the overwhelming circumstantial evidence, this son of a wealthy cattle baron walked free when his father arrived in town with a satchel full of money. Dora Hand's funeral drew the entire town in mourning, yet justice remained elusive. Through firsthand accounts, newspaper reports, and historical records, we piece together this forgotten tragedy that embodied both the best and worst of the American frontier—where a woman known for her generosity and beautiful voice could be gunned down in her sleep, and where even the combined efforts of the West's most famous lawmen couldn't secure justice against the power of wealth and influence.
Listen now to discover this captivating story that brings together celebrity, violence, pursuit, and the fascinating contradictions of Western justice. If you enjoy tales where history's footnotes reveal profound truths about the American experience, subscribe to our podcast and leave a review to help others find these forgotten stories of the Wild West.
Don't miss out on the excitement—tune in and explore the stories of "This Week in the West" by clicking on the link "This Week in the West."
If you want to own one or more of the beautifully illustrated dime novel publications, click Order Now.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
Affordable literature changed America forever. In 1860, a publishing revolution began when Beadle's Dime Novels introduced inexpensive, accessible fiction to the masses. For just ten cents, readers could escape into thrilling frontier adventures, border romances, and historical tales set during pivotal moments in American history.
These humble orange-covered pamphlets achieved something remarkable – they democratized reading. When titles like "Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter" sold over 300,000 copies, they weren't just bestsellers; they represented a fundamental shift in how Americans consumed stories. With typical sales between 35,000-80,000 copies per issue (when traditional hardcovers sold far fewer), dime novels created the first truly mass market for fiction in the United States.
The format evolved over decades, expanding beyond Beadle's original series to encompass story papers, nickel weeklies, and various forms of inexpensive serialized fiction published between 1860-1930. These publications didn't merely entertain – they helped forge a shared national narrative during America's formative years. At the Wild West Podcast, we're passionate about reviving this literary tradition for contemporary readers. We're reimagining these captivating tales with modern sensibilities while honoring their historical significance and adventurous spirit. Want to experience these illustrated stories yourself? Click the link in our description to purchase our modern take on the classic dime novel – adventure awaits! Click here to order your Dime Novel today!
The Cowboy’s This Week in the West
A National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum podcast exploring the people who shaped the West.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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What challenges did Wyatt Earp face in his early law enforcement days, and how did he manage to navigate the rough-and-tumble world of the American frontier? Prepare yourself for a riveting exploration of Earp's early career as we dissect his adventures in Wichita, Kansas, during the bustling mid-1870s. From handling animal control to conducting building inspections, discover the surprising breadth of duties that fell on the shoulders of a frontier lawman. Hear about Earp's first major arrest of the notorious horse thief W.W. Compton and the socio-political hurdles he encountered while trying to establish his reputation in a rapidly evolving town.
Follow Wyatt Earp's rollercoaster journey as his career sees both triumphs and setbacks in Wichita. We reveal the events that both earned him respect and questioned his judgment, including an unfortunate saloon incident and a heated altercation with political rival William Smith. This episode unravels the intricate layers of political maneuvering and financial scrutiny that Earp faced, setting the stage for his legendary escapades in Dodge City. Get ready to explore the intense and colorful history that shaped one of the most storied figures of the Wild West.
Support the show
If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
Wyatt Earp's transformation from faro dealer to legendary lawman unfolds through his pivotal years in Dodge City, Kansas. Fresh from his stint in Wichita, Earp arrived in 1876 with companion Celia Ann "Maddy" Blaylock and quickly secured a position as Deputy Marshal. His duties extended far beyond apprehending criminals to include mundane civic maintenance tasks that rarely make it into romanticized Western narratives.
The podcast reveals fascinating gaps in Earp's documented history, particularly his 1877 venture to gold-rush Deadwood. Rather than prospecting, Earp's entrepreneurial instincts led him to establish a lucrative firewood business during the bitter Dakota winter, charging $12 per cord with desperate gamblers offering up to $50 during extreme conditions. This shrewd business acumen showcases a dimension of Earp seldom highlighted in traditional accounts.
Perhaps most consequential was Earp's chance meeting with Doc Holliday while pursuing outlaw Dave Rudabaugh in Fort Griffin, Texas. This seemingly random encounter would forge one of the West's most famous partnerships. Upon returning to Dodge City as assistant marshal in 1878, Earp became embroiled in escalating tensions with Texas cowboys, culminating in the controversial shooting of George Hoy and a reported confrontation with notorious gunman Clay Allison. Surprisingly, contemporary accounts suggest Earp may have avoided direct confrontation with Allison's gang, contradicting later heroic narratives and highlighting the complex relationship between historical reality and Western mythology.
Don't miss our upcoming interview with Peter Brand, acclaimed author of multiple works on Wyatt Earp and Tombstone. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/wildwestpodcast for announcements and join our exploration of the authentic American West beyond the silver screen legends.
Support the show
If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Send us a text
Step into the wilderness of the 19th-century Southern Plains, where the Cheyenne people navigated a complex world shaped by their cultural practices, social structures, and the buffalo that defined their existence. In this engaging episode, we delve into the rich culture of Cheyenne life, from their dynamic traditions to the fierce battles waged to protect their way of life against encroaching settlers and rival tribes. Discover how the buffalo was more than just a food source; it represented the heartbeat of the Cheyenne culture, symbolizing survival and identity.
As we unravel the fascinating journey of the Cheyenne, listeners will learn about their transition from a fixed agricultural lifestyle to a nomadic existence, which enabled them to thrive in harmony with the land. We also highlight the democratic principles that characterized their society, emphasizing their respect for family units and communal decision-making. This perspective challenges common narratives about Indigenous people, showcasing their resilience and adaptability during a period of great upheaval.
Engage with the complexities of their interactions with white settlers, including the devastating health crises brought on by the influx of miners and diseases. The Cheyenne's fight for survival illustrates the ongoing struggle to preserve their culture and territory amidst overwhelming challenges. With rich stories of bravery, community cooperation, and a deep connection to nature, this episode promises to enlighten and engage.
Join us to explore the Cheyenne legacy and experience how their story continues to resonate today. Don't forget to subscribe and share your thoughts with us! Your feedback is valuable, and we love hearing from our listeners.
Support the show
If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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Step into the heart of the Wild West where saloons serve as arenas of both camaraderie and conflict. Join us for an immersive journey into the life of Bat Masterson and the notorious Oriental Saloon in Tombstone, a place where fortunes could be won or lost in a moment. This episode unveils intricacies of historical rivalries as Bat Masterson aligns with Wyatt Earp against a backdrop of escalating tensions and looming danger.
Discover the riveting story of Charlie Storms, a figure whose bravado stirs the atmosphere of the saloon, leading to a fatal confrontation with Luke Short. Through captivating storytelling and rich historical context, we unravel the dynamics of power that defined this period. Each moment is filled with high stakes and the looming threat of violence, reminding us that decisions in the Old West were anything but simple.
As we navigate through this thrilling narrative, we offer not just a recounting of events, but a reflection on the human experience within the chaos of the era. What drove these formidable figures? How do their choices resonate today in our complex social structures? Tune in for a story that blends fact with historical drama, and engage with us as we explore the delicate balance of power, survival, and honor in the world of the Wild West.
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"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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What if one man's entrepreneurial spirit could transform a fledgling frontier outpost into an iconic Wild West town? Join us as we uncover the audacious story of George Merritt Hoover, the Canadian immigrant whose innovative strategies birthed Dodge City on June 17, 1872. Discover how Hoover circumvented military restrictions to open the first bar just outside Fort Dodge and how his bold move sparked a boom, attracting competition like Hoodoo Brown's bar and a gunsmith shop. Through Hoover's eyes, we explore the early hustle and bustle of Dodge City, where his legacy as a pioneering business leader and community builder still resonates today.
Get ready to be enthralled by tales of business acumen and political prowess as we traverse Hoover's journey from saloon owner to the city's first elected mayor and state legislator. His ventures expanded from bars to cigars and even banking, laying the groundwork for what is now Fidelity State Bank. We'll also delve into Hoover's personal life, including his intriguing marriage to Maggie and his stance on prohibition, which illustrates his complex character. This episode promises a rich tapestry of history, ambition, and the enduring impact of one man on a legendary town.
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If you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
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What if the thin line between law and chaos was a daily path you had to walk? We take you back to the wild streets of 1873 Ellsworth, Kansas, where every choice could make or break a gambler's fortune. This is the poignant tale of Chauncey "Cap" Belden Whitney, a respected lawman and skilled scout known for his steadfast commitment to justice in the turbulent American frontier. Whitney, a prominent figure in his community, notably participated in the intense and storied Battle of Beecher Island in 1868. This event solidified his reputation as a courageous defender of settlers. In 1871, he was appointed sheriff of Ellsworth County, where he earned accolades for his unwavering dedication to law enforcement and ability to maintain order in a lawless region.
The tragic turn occurred one fateful evening when Billy Thompson, a brash and impulsive frontiersman, sought to stir trouble over a heated card game. Thompson, known as the brother of the notorious Ben Thompson, was determined to escalate tensions. As voices rose and the atmosphere charged, Whitney stepped in to quell the brewing confrontation, prioritizing peace and the safety of those around him. Tragically, in a sudden act of violence, Thompson drew a double-barreled shotgun and fatally shot Whitney, cutting short the life of a man who had devoted himself to protecting others in a perilous time. Whitney's death sent shockwaves through the community, highlighting the ever-present dangers faced by law enforcement officers in the Wild West.
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What do a controversial horse theft, a prized mowing machine, and encounters with notorious gunmen have in common? They're all pivotal moments in the chaotic and thrilling early life of Wyatt Earp that we unravel in today's episode. This is not just a history lesson—it's a wild ride through legal dramas and survival tactics that defined the rugged spirit of the American frontier. From the accusations of mishandling funds in Barton County to his daring jailbreak following horse theft charges, we promise an exploration of Earp's audacious maneuvers and the relentless pursuit of justice in an era where law and disorder often went hand in hand.
Join us as we recount Wyatt Earp's tumultuous journey through the gritty streets of Peoria, Illinois, alongside his brother Morgan, where legal troubles followed them like shadows. Listen in as we guide you through the charged atmosphere of Ellsworth, Kansas, a place teeming with danger and notorious figures like Ben and Billy Thompson. Witness the tension-filled encounter that ensued between Billy Thompson and Sheriff Chauncey B. Whitney, setting the stage for the unfolding drama of Earp's life. Through these stories, we paint a vivid and unvarnished portrait of a man whose legacy was forged in the fires of the Wild West.
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What happens when the past comes alive around a crackling campfire, and tales of the Wild West blur the lines between legend and reality? As we journey through the trails of the 19th-century cattle drives, you'll find yourself in the company of cowboys as they navigate treacherous paths from South Texas to Sawlog Creek. The tranquility of their rugged lifestyle is shattered with the arrival of Bob Shaw—a mysterious rider with news that can change everything. Join us as we explore the challenges and timeless camaraderie of life on the trail, where every stranger could be a friend or a foe.
Bob Shaw's haunting story of vigilante justice unfolds under the starlit sky, where an innocent man named Callahan met a tragic fate. His gripping tale of mistaken identity and moral dilemmas paints a vivid picture of justice gone wrong in the Wild West. Listen as Shaw's words weave a tapestry of tension and uncertainty, evoking the harsh reality of frontier justice that lingers like ghostly whispers in the evening air. This is history at its most raw and riveting—a narrative where the past casts long shadows over the present.
In the heart of Dodge City, the pulse of the frontier beats strongest. Our journey crescendos at the Lone Star Dance Hall with a showdown between Texas Dick and Bob Shaw, each step echoing the unpredictability of the era's raw danger. Amid the anticipation of payday and a well-deserved break, the search for Texas Dick adds an element of suspense and intrigue. As tensions escalate, we invite you to experience the gritty reality of the American West and to join us on an adventure rich with history, drama, and the spirit of the untamed frontier.
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Uncover the extraordinary life of Wyatt Earp, a man whose journey from troubled youth to iconic lawman is nothing short of legendary. Ever wondered how a young boy from Monmouth, Illinois, influenced by a complex father during the Gold Rush, transformed into a symbol of justice in the Wild West? We promise you'll gain insight into the trials and triumphs that shaped Wyatt's indomitable spirit, as we explore his family's ambitions and adversities from Illinois to Iowa, and beyond. Listen as we unravel the pivotal encounters and personal tragedies that molded Wyatt into the resilient figure he became.
Join us as we trace Wyatt Earp's evolution through the chaotic towns of Peoria, Ellsworth, and the notorious Dodge City. From his early days as a horse thief and con artist to his celebrated tenure as a keeper of the peace, Wyatt's story is a testament to his determination to civilize the untamed frontier. Engage in the thrilling accounts of his relentless efforts to bring order amidst the saloons and gambling halls, crafting communities with schools and churches. This episode offers an unforgettable adventure into the heart of the Wild West, where Wyatt Earp emerges as a true symbol of perseverance and justice.
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What if preserving our past could ignite a deeper sense of belonging and continuity within our communities? Uncover the profound impact historic preservation holds for both individuals and society. In today's world, it's crucial that we hold on to the significance of preserving our historic buildings. Landmark conservancy is not just a practice; it's a heartfelt commitment that greatly enriches our society. We cultivate a profound sense of belonging, continuity, stability, identity, and cherished memories by nurturing our connections to these historic places. Together, we can honor our past and ensure that these reminders of our history remain vital to our community for generations to come.
The meticulous upkeep of venerable buildings plays a vital role in safeguarding the rich tapestry of our communities' history and culture. These structures serve as silent witnesses to the passage of time, echoing the stories and traditions that have shaped our identities. We must acknowledge the immense value of preservation efforts, actively working to maintain these architectural treasures for the benefit of future generations. By doing so, we can ensure that the essence of our heritage remains vibrantly intact, allowing those who come after us to appreciate, learn from, and be inspired by the profound lessons of our past. Together, let's explore the heartfelt commitment required to safeguard our shared legacy for generations to come.
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As we explore the captivating story of Doc Holliday and the vibrant community of Dodge City in the late 1800s, we uncover a world filled with excitement, danger, and unforgettable friendships. This episode takes listeners on a remarkable journey that examines the social dynamics and chilling events that shaped the lives of those who called Dodge City home. As cattle traders flocked to the town for prosperity, a lively and unpredictable environment thrived amid the noise of saloons and gambling halls.
Through the experiences of local residents, we see how the atmosphere shifted from a seemingly idyllic life to one of chaotic upheaval. As tensions mounted throughout July 1878, the narrative intensified, capturing significant incidents that escalated unrest in the community. Doc Holliday became entangled in this tumultuous landscape, forming an alliance with Wyatt amid the confusion. They emerged as unlikely partners in navigating this treacherous world, bonded by shared experiences transcending rivalry and hostility.
As the story unfolds, we witness the rise of stringent ordinances designed to regulate the vices within Dodge City. With a complex web of political motivations and decisions, authorities aimed to clean up the environment while profiting from fines imposed on lawbreakers. However, these efforts soon backfired, igniting resentment among the cattle-driving community as they resisted the growing reach of law enforcement. Amid the tension, Doc and Wyatt's friendship deepened against intrigue and danger. They saved each other in peril-filled moments, but their bond was also marked by shadows of doubt and suspicion lurking just beyond the horizon.
The Wild West Podcast skillfully chronicles the events surrounding Doc Holliday's storied journey through Dodge City, leaving listeners captivated by the intertwining narratives of law, loyalty, and adventure. This exploration of history portrays a gripping saga that transcends simple storytelling, instead serving as a meditation on the human experience amid the tumultuous rhythms of a bygone era.
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What happens when the isolation of the prairie meets the vibrant atmosphere of Dodge City? Venture into the heart of the Wild West with us as we recount our journey from the open plains to the lively Long Branch Saloon. Here, the warmth of camaraderie mingles with the thrill of adventure, and we encounter intriguing characters like Pat Sughrue, the newly elected sherif, and Tom Nixon, the legendary buffalo hunter turned assistant marshal. The saloon becomes a melting pot of old friendships and new alliances, offering a glimpse into the spirited hospitality that defines this rugged locale.
But tension brews beneath the convivial surface, as rumors of theft and escalating feuds simmer between key figures like Jim Masterson and AJ Peacock. The stakes reach a fever pitch with a dramatic gunfight in Dodge City Plaza, where Bat Masterson finds himself in a high-stakes showdown. As bullets fly and chaos ensues, the once peaceful streets transform into a battlefield. Join us as we unravel the complex tapestry of law enforcement, personal vendettas, and unexpected alliances in the Wild West, where every encounter could lead to danger or discovery. Check out our new book “Man in a Black Derby Hat”
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What if the lawlessness of the Wild West was more than just a backdrop—it was the very essence of survival? Step into the dusty streets of Tombstone, where political turmoil and notorious figures like Ike Clanton and Johnny Ringo weave a tangled web of deceit and power struggles. Join us as we recount a riveting stagecoach ride with legendary lawman Bob Paul, and witness the mounting tensions between the charismatic Wyatt Earp and the fearsome cowboy gangs. Experience the gritty reality of a town on the brink of chaos, as alliances form with the likes of Doc Holliday and Luke Short to confront the outlaw menace.
Travel back further to 1878, where the relentless pursuit of justice takes center stage in the saga of William Brazelton. Sheriff Charles A. Shivel and his determined posse, featuring the tenacious Bob Leatherwood, orchestrate a high-stakes ambush that unfolds with precision and courage. As Brazelton’s reign of terror comes to a dramatic end, reflect on the political tensions and looming challenges that continue to simmer in Tombstone. Alongside these gripping tales of lawlessness and bravery, we invite you to engage with our Wild West adventure across various platforms and connect with us for more enthralling stories from this iconic era.
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What was life like for a southern dentist who swapped his tools for a six-shooter? Step into the boots of Doc Holliday as we unravel the fascinating tale of his transformation into a legendary gunslinger amidst the whiskey-soaked chaos of Dodge City. Known as the "Queen of the Cowtowns," Dodge City was a vibrant tapestry of adventure and vice, where commerce thrived alongside the clink of poker chips and the allure of untamed opportunities. Journey with us through the dusty streets of this frontier town, where the spirit of the Old West collided with the first whispers of order and civilization, painting a vivid backdrop for the escapades of colorful characters who called it home.
Join us as Bat Masterson vividly recounts Doc's striking presence and stormy love affair with the fierce Kate Elder. With insights from iconic figures like Wyatt Earp, you'll get a front-row seat to the complex social dance of Dodge City's elite as Doc navigated a world brimming with cattle traders and boisterous saloons. This episode captures the raw energy of a time when life was an adventure in every moment, inviting you to discover the enduring magnetism of these legendary historical figures. Embrace the Wild West's enduring allure as we explore the captivating story of Doc Holliday and the dynamic life he led in a town where every encounter promised a new story. The playback is now fixed and revised.
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What happens when a promise binds you to a chilling task in the heart of the Arctic wilderness? Grab your parka and prepare for an eerie journey as we explore Robert W. Service's iconic poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee." Join us as we unravel the captivating narrative inspired by Service's real-life friend, Dr. Leonard Sugden, who faced the impossible task of cremating a miner's body in the frozen Yukon. Through the haunting and mysterious events depicted in the poem, we invite you to reflect on the profound bonds of friendship and the surprising ways hope can manifest in life's coldest moments.
Through the artful storytelling of Service, we embark on a gripping exploration of reality and acceptance amidst the unforgiving backdrop of the Klondike Gold Rush. The poem's fascinating blend of fiction and reality comes alive as the northern lights illuminate this unforgettable tale. Discover how the tale of Sam McGee is not just about survival, but also about finding warmth and solace in the most unexpected of places. This episode promises to leave you pondering the transformative power of embracing harsh realities and finding unexpected hope, even when the world seems frozen in despair.
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What if the wild, rowdy days of Dodge City were not just about saloon brawls and cattle drives, but also about side-splitting pranks and unexpected friendships? Join us as we explore the uproarious tales of Luke McGlue, a legendary prankster whose antics turned the hardships of frontier life into laughable escapades. From his Irish roots with the noble McDonald clan to his infamous reputation in Kansas, Luke—or Buster, as his friends called him—crafted a legacy of mischief and merriment. Imagine an encounter with Smiley, an old-timer whose stories are as colorful as the prairie sunsets. Together, they paint a lively picture of early Dodge City, where every day was an opportunity for a new adventure.
Sit back at the Lady Gay Saloon with us and the enigmatic Mayor Kelly, a man whose tales of a pet bear named Paddy will leave you both amused and amazed. You'll hear about Paddy's wild antics, from creating chaos in local hotels to becoming a Christmas dinner centerpiece. These stories reveal the unexpected twists and heartfelt connections within a community that embraced laughter as a way of life. Through these rollicking tales, discover how Dodge City became a haven for playful scoundrels and spirited camaraderie, inviting you to laugh along with the legendary figures who called this town home. Prepare for a journey filled with mayhem, mischief, and a dash of frontier charm that will transport you back to a time when humor was the best remedy for the challenges of the Wild West. Click here to order: The Antic Tales of Luke McGlue: The Dodge City Prankster
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Imagine celebrating Christmas in the rugged lands of the Old West, where pioneers faced harsh winters and isolation but still crafted warm, heartfelt celebrations. Join us as we journey back to the mid-1800s, exploring the unique and resilient festive traditions of families like the Kincaids in Oregon and William Lehigh in Routt County. These pioneers, despite their sparse resources, managed to fill their homes with the spirit of the season through homemade decorations and modest gatherings that brought them comfort and unity. Discover how these early customs not only warmed the souls of those settlers but also laid the foundation for the Christmas traditions we hold dear today.
In a heartwarming tale of hope, we share the story of a Christmas tree that transformed the life of a young girl living in poverty. Despite the tree's physical decay, its symbolic light kindled joy and healing, reminding us of the powerful impact a simple act of kindness can have. As we wrap up our series, Mike and I express our gratitude to you, our listeners, for joining us in celebrating the true essence of Christmas. It's a season that unites us across generations, encouraging us to embrace hospitality and charity, and to always do a little something extra for others. Let this episode inspire you to carry forward the warmth and generosity that Christmas embodies. Photo by Josh Roesener Photography
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Discover the untamed spirit of the Wild West as Mike King takes us on an exhilarating ride through the life of the infamous Doc Holliday. From his early days in Georgia as a dignified dentist to becoming a feared and notorious figure in the American frontier, Holliday's journey is anything but ordinary. Narrated by the talented Brad Smalley we explore a youthful incident that laid bare the racial tensions of the era and propelled him towards his fate in the sun-baked lands of Dallas, Texas, where he hoped the climate might mend his ailing health. With multiple sources at hand, we uncover the nuances of Holliday's character—a blend of southern charm and reckless abandon that left an indelible mark on history.
The stakes rise as we recount the thrilling race day drama under a military post, where Holliday's threat for Sugarfoot to win or else, becomes the center of attention. The narrative then leads us to Holliday’s return to Fort Griffin, where a contentious encounter at the gambling table between Holliday and Ed Bailey unfolds. The blurred lines between myth and reality add intrigue, as we question the authenticity of tales that have become legendary. The bond between Holliday and Big Nose Kate emerges as a testament to loyalty and survival amid the chaos, highlighted by her daring rescue of her lover, Doc Holliday from a lynch mob. Don't miss this compelling episode that captures the essence of a man whose legacy echoes across the Wild West.
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Ever wondered how a Wild West mining camp turned a potentially grim Christmas Eve into a legendary celebration? Join us as we unravel the unexpected events of 1858, where the boisterous spirit of 300 miners in a remote camp near Pinochet took a heartfelt turn towards the festive. Narrated by Brad Smalley and brought to life by the creative editing of Mike King, this episode promises a lively tale of camaraderie and surprise. As Christmas approached, the miners decided to swap their rugged evening shenanigans for a moment of spiritual reflection and humanitarian warmth. However, the night takes an unexpected twist when a rumor of three deaths turns into an uproarious unveiling of a "lovely pianer," sparking laughter and a sense of community stronger than the usual hustle of their lives.
In this episode, you'll experience the charm of a Wild West Christmas through the vivid storytelling of Samuel Davis. Feel the suspense as a cart carrying a mysterious box rolls into town, only to reveal not the somber remains as expected, but a delightful piano. The unexpected surprise turns what could have been a night of mourning into an unforgettable celebration, showcasing the humor and resilience of the miners. Listen in to witness the warmth and wit that transformed this small camp into a festive haven, reminding us all of the power of human connection and the spirit of Christmas.
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Dive into the uproarious world of "The Antic Tales of Luke McGlue: The Dodge City Prankster" by Michael King! This electrifying blend of fiction and history whisks you back to the raucous early days of Dodge City, Kansas, a place bursting with mischief and mayhem. In this thrilling narrative, the notorious prankster Luke McGlue comes to life, drawing inspiration from real-life tricksters who kept the town buzzing with laughter and chaos.
Imagine a time when Dodge City was alive with playful scoundrels—frontiersmen, doctors, lawyers, fraternity brothers, and gangsters all perpetrating elaborate ruses and clever jests! Luke McGlue, the ultimate master of mischief, takes center stage, orchestrating a whirlwind of antics that were not only entertaining but also designed to test the mettle of outsiders trying to join the exclusive Dodge City Gang.
As King's vivid storytelling unfolds against this rich historical tapestry, you’ll find yourself enthralled by the audacious pranks and the spirited camaraderie of a community where laughter reigns supreme. Get ready for a rollicking adventure that celebrates the playful spirit of Dodge City and the unforgettable character of Luke McGlue!
If you're captivated by this gripping tale and eager for more thrilling escapades with Luke McGlue, you won't want to miss out! Dive into your next great adventure by grabbing your copy on Amazon—click the link in this podcast description. With seven exciting new chapters, your next reading journey is just a click away!
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Can a man of faith truly make a difference in a town where gunfights and saloons rule the day? Join us on a journey to uncover the extraordinary impact of Reverend Ormond W. Wright, a young minister who dared to challenge the chaotic spirit of Dodge City in the late 1800s. Armed only with unwavering compassion and a mission of unity, Reverend Wright faced skepticism head-on and transformed a tumultuous community into one that embraced hope and peace. Through our vivid storytelling, you'll discover the fascinating tale of how a determined reverend from New Hampshire became a respected leader in a wild frontier town notorious for its lawlessness.
In this episode of Wild West Podcast, we transport you to a time when the streets of Dodge City were alive with danger and moral uncertainty. Here, Reverend Wright's resolve and empathy became a guiding light for weary travelers, struggling families, and rowdy cowboys alike. As we recreate the lively frontier scene and reveal Wright's remarkable journey, you'll witness how his steadfast faith became a pillar of strength in a town yearning for redemption. Tune in to hear how Reverend Wright's legacy of compassion and forgiveness forged a path towards a more harmonious existence amidst the untamed chaos of the Wild West.
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Have you ever wondered how a refined gentleman could thrive in the wild, rugged landscape of the Old West? Join us as we uncover the extraordinary saga of Dr. Oscar H. Simpson, the daring dentist who swapped his silk top hat for a cowboy hat in Dodge City, Kansas. Known as the Mayo of Dentistry, Dr. Simpson's journey is a fascinating tale of resilience and ingenuity. From facing skepticism and ridicule in the notorious Long Branch Saloon to pioneering dental techniques that drew national acclaim, Simpson's story is a testament to courage and innovation. Discover how this stalwart professional not only survived but thrived, leaving an indelible mark on his community and beyond.
Embark on a journey through Dr. Simpson's groundbreaking career, where his trailblazing methods redefined dentistry in the American West. With a knack for efficiency, he could perform an astonishing number of root canals in a single day, earning him a reputation that transcended Kansas borders. Despite the controversies, his contributions were recognized even by the US Supreme Court. Beyond the dental chair, where did his passions lead? Into the world of dairy farming, showcasing a versatility that truly set him apart. Tune in for an episode brimming with the spirit of the Old West and the remarkable exploits of a true pioneer.
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Step into the Wild West with us as we unravel the colorful linguistic tapestry of Dodge City! Here, words like "stinker," "stiff," "joint," and "cooler" paint a vibrant picture of life on the frontier. Join us on a journey through tales of unforgettable characters and the gritty realities they faced as we uncover the rich cultural history woven into the very language of this iconic town. In this exciting episode, we explore how these terms have transformed against the backdrop of Dodge City's chaotic charm, which mirrors its dynamic social scene and lively, if sometimes unruly, inhabitants.
Meet the infamous Luke McGlue—a true master of mischief and evasion—as we explore the cultural significance of language in a place where law and order often felt optional. From vigilantism to Bat Masterson, the playful prankster, and the cleverly named "cooler" used to maintain a fragile peace, the words of Dodge City give us a fascinating glimpse into the town's untamed spirit.
Together, we'll illuminate the incredible linguistic legacy left by buffalo hide hunters and the raucous street life, inviting you to experience the wickedest little city in the West in all its aromatic glory! Join us for an adventure that promises to be as entertaining as it is enlightening!
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What if the legendary figure Dutch Henry Born was more than just an outlaw of the American frontier? Join us as we unravel the tangled threads of his life, beginning with his uneasy alliance as a scout under General Custer, and his moral conflict following the Black Kettle Massacre. Mike King and Brad Smalley dig deep into Born’s transition from military service to buffalo hunting, a shift that marked the onset of his criminal endeavors. We question whether his actions were motivated by personal biases or genuine ethical concerns, and we grapple with the historical inconsistencies that make tracing Born’s true story as challenging as it is fascinating.
Our exploration doesn't stop there. We venture into Born’s possible connections with historical icons like Levi Richardson and Bat Masterson, speculating on whether a bond formed during the Battle of Adobe Walls influenced Masterson's relentless pursuit of justice. Through compelling, albeit circumstantial, evidence, we entertain the likelihood of Dutch Henry's presence at Adobe Walls despite the potential for embellishment in historical narratives. This episode challenges the reliability of historical records and invites listeners to draw their own conclusions about Dutch Henry Born’s enigmatic legacy on the American frontier.
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What if one promise could define an outlaw's entire legacy? Discover the audacious life of Dutch Henry Born, a Wild West figure whose bold pledge to never steal a white man's horse captivated the frontier. From leading a daring horse-stealing syndicate across four states to his tense encounters with law enforcement and the military, Born’s story is one of fearless escapades and relentless pursuits. Unravel the intricate web of his criminal network, where thieves and fences operated with precision, and witness the dramatic moments that defined his life, including his capture and miraculous survival in Russell, Kansas.
Join us as we navigate the stormy relationship between Born and the law, exploring his interactions with iconic figures like Charles Goodnight and the 4th US Cavalry. Witness the precarious dance of justice as Born evades capture time and again, challenging the very fabric of law enforcement in the Wild West. Through gripping anecdotes and pivotal confrontations, the episode sheds light on the ripple effects of Born’s actions on local communities and law officials like Bat Masterson. Immerse yourself in the untamed frontier, where the line between outlaw and legend blurs, and explore how Dutch Henry Born’s daring life left an indelible mark on history.
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Step back in time to the rugged frontier of Dodge City, where untamed chaos and colorful characters gave rise to its infamous reputation. Brace yourself for the untold stories of notorious figures like Jack Reynolds and the elusive Black Jack, whose lives and deaths echo the lawlessness of the Wild West. Through the tales of violence and whiskey-fueled antics, we promise an eye-opening exploration of how Dodge City's Boot Hill became a symbol of this lawless era, setting the stage for its eventual transformation.
Discover the turbulent events of 1873 that sparked the birth of law and order in Dodge City. From Colonel Dodge's imposition of martial law to the election of Charlie Bassett as the first sheriff, witness the crucial moments that reshaped the city. As we recount the stark contrasts in law enforcement around the railroad tracks and share the tragic fates of figures like William Ellis, we piece together the gritty reality of a frontier town striving to break free from its wicked past. Join us as we unravel the legacy of Dodge City's notorious beginnings and the community's push toward civility.
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Join us on a historical journey through the American West with Brad Smalley, a vibrant storyteller and fourth-generation Dodge Citian, as we uncover the compelling tales of the Western Cattle Trail. We promise you’ll gain a deeper understanding of a transformative era in American history, as Brad shares vivid accounts from the post-Civil War period, highlighting pivotal moments such as the establishment of military forts along critical trade routes and the impactful Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867. This episode intricately weaves personal and historical narratives, shedding light on the roles of influential figures like General William Tecumseh Sherman, and examining the broader implications of these strategic realignments.
As we reminisce about this bygone era, we celebrate the trailblazing efforts of John T. Lytle, who in 1874 drove 3,500 cattle from Texas to Nebraska, marking the birth of the Western Cattle Trail. Discover how Dodge City emerged as a key shipping hub, fortified by the Kansas Quarantine Line, which kept Texas cattle west due to tick-borne illnesses. Through Brad’s captivating storytelling, this episode honors the enduring legacy of these historical developments and underscores the importance of keeping these stories alive as part of our collective history. Immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of the Western Cattle Trail and the remarkable stories that continue to shape our understanding of the American West.
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What if one man's rebellion against the military set him on a path to infamy in the untamed territories of the American West? Join us as we unravel the saga of Dutch Henry Born, a figure whose life was as wild as the frontier itself. Born to German immigrants in Wisconsin, Born’s journey through the 1870s is a riveting tale of accusations, escape, and eventual notoriety. From his alleged murder charge in Michigan to his scouting days alongside George Armstrong Custer and Wild Bill Hickok, Born’s disdain for authority and hunger for freedom led him to the shadowy world of crime. His turbulent encounters with the Cheyenne and clashes with law enforcement, amidst the chaotic backdrop of Ellsworth, Kansas, paint a vivid picture of a man living on the edge.
Experience the high-stakes capture of this elusive horse thief as we recount the intense pursuit by Sheriff Alexander Ramsey and Undersheriff Stevens on that fateful day in June 1874. The chase across the prairie culminates in a tense standoff at Oak Creek, revealing the relentless spirit of those who sought to bring Born to justice. We'll also explore the broader historical landscape, including the buffalo hunters' encroachment into indigenous territories and the mystery of Born’s alleged involvement in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. Tune in for a captivating exploration of a complex figure against the backdrop of the American West's legendary tales and turbulent history.
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Ever wondered how military forts without traditional defenses managed to secure the American West during the 1860s? Discover the strategic brilliance behind Kansas forts like Fort Zarah and Fort Larned, as we unravel their critical roles along the Santa Fe and Smoky Hill Trails. Through the voices of historical figures such as Elizabeth Custer, we bring to light the stark living conditions and immense challenges soldiers faced while safeguarding settlers and aiding railroad construction.
Journey with us into the heart of the Central Plains Indian Wars and witness the turbulent period of Kansas expansion from 1857 to 1868. Through the expert narration of Brad Smalley, we immerse you in the harsh realities experienced by early settlers amidst Indian incursions and the resulting conflicts. Explore the historical significance of the trails, forts, and treaties that defined this era, and enhance your understanding with the accompanying audio book available on Amazon. This episode promises a gripping exploration of the dramatic events that shaped the American West.
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Unearth the history of the American West as we celebrate the momentous 150th anniversary of the Western Cattle Trail. Join us for an unparalleled event scheduled for November 1st and 2nd, 2024, where you'll secure insights into the legendary tales that shaped the frontier. Historian Brad Smalley will captivate you at the newly added Upland Ranch Fireside Stories event on October 31st, sharing enchanting stories of Dodge City and cowboy life by the fire's glow. Discover how you can immerse yourself in this lively historical journey and claim your spot before the October 23rd deadline.
As our grand celebration concludes, don't miss the screening of "Home on the Range" at Boot Hill Museum on November 2nd. This special film explores the rich legacy of the iconic anthem of the West, spotlighting its roots in Smith County, Kansas. Stay for the engaging panel discussion with the film's director, Ken Spurgeon, and special guests Mitch Holtus and Dean Holtus, sure to provide profound insights into the music and culture of the American West. Mark your calendars and prepare for an unforgettable look into the stories and melodies that have defined our heritage.
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Prepare to be transported to the wild and mischievous streets of 1877 Dodge City, where history and legend collide in a Halloween tale like no other. Our featured guest, the acclaimed historian Brad Smalley, guides us through the shadowy alleys of folklore, bringing to life the notorious pranks and ghostly apparitions that haunt this frontier town's past. Discover the mythical mischief of Luke McGlue—a character as infamous as he is fictional—whose legendary antics are said to have left an indelible mark on Dodge City lore. You'll not only meet Luke but also encounter the real-life characters who added color to this wild and lawless town.
From the chilling specters in the graveyard to the tales of gun-slinging saloon disputes, this episode promises an evocative journey through a time when the Wild West was truly wild. Listen as we unravel the stories of figures like Lizzie Palmer and Billy Brooks, whose lives were steeped in the drama of frontier justice and untamed desires. The pranks, legends, and spirited tales of Dodge City are woven together with historical insight, making this a must-listen for history buffs and lovers of legend alike. Tune in, and let the haunting echoes of Dodge City's past captivate your imagination.
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Forget everything you thought you knew about the Chisholm Trail. Historians Gary and Margaret Kraisinger have conducted groundbreaking research that challenges the traditional story of this iconic route. Contrary to popular belief, the Chisholm Trail wasn't a singular path from South Texas to Kansas. Instead, it was a vast network of military, stagecoach, and trading roads used by cowboys in the post-Civil War era.
The story of Jesse Chisholm, often credited with creating a trail for cattle drives, takes on a new dimension. His role is now understood as establishing a wagon road connecting the South Canadian River in Indian Territory to the Arkansas River in Kansas. This nuanced understanding underscores the importance of primary sources in ensuring historical accuracy.
The Gary and Margaret Kraisinger story reminds us that history is not static but a dynamic narrative that evolves with new discoveries and perspectives and we, as part of this narrative, have the power to shape it. The Kraisingers' research invites all who cherish historical accuracy to participate in rethinking the Chisholm Trail and the broader context of cattle drives in post-Civil War America. By doing so, we gain a deeper appreciation for the complexities and nuances of this period and the diverse routes that define it.
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Dr. Michael Miller, a historian with a former career in technology, brings his expertise and passion for the American cattle industry to our latest episode. Discover how a chance encounter with rare historical documents led Dr. Miller down an unexpected path, exploring the history of the XIT Ranch and the Capital Freehold Land and Investment Company. We promise a journey into the complexities behind the cattle trailing that persisted into the 1890s, challenging the oversimplified narrative of the American frontier's closure in 1890.
We delve into the economic and social ripple effects of the XIT Cattle Ranch on the Texas Panhandle. From the substantial land deals orchestrated by the Capital Syndicate to the agricultural experimentation it spurred, we uncover how the ranch shaped regional development despite its struggles with water scarcity and the elusive search for oil. Dr. Miller's recounting of the critical reception of a book on this subject highlights the vivid storytelling that captures Texas's rich history.
Join us as we explore the enduring legacy of the XIT Ranch, from its origins as a state-funded project to its role in the evolution of cattle ranching practices. We discuss the environmental challenges of the West, past and present, including the historical overstocking that contributed to the Dust Bowl. As anticipation builds for the 150th anniversary conference of the Western Cattle Trail, Dr. Miller shares personal anecdotes that bring the history to life, promising an unforgettable portrayal of the legendary cowboys and the trails they traveled.
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What if a fictional character could take the blame for all your mischievous antics? Meet Luke McGlue, the legendary scapegoat of Dodge City, concocted by the town's own prankster hall-of-famers like Bat Masterson. Join us as we explore how Luke's mythical existence saved many a troublemaker from the wrath of their neighbors. From Reverend Wright's pony going missing to Dr. Meredith being coaxed into town under false pretenses, these tales of mirth and mayhem reveal the camaraderie and sheer audacity that defined life in this notorious frontier town. Prepare for stories that will leave you laughing and marveling at the wild, whimsical spirit of Dodge City's heyday.
But not every story is just a laugh—sometimes, things take a turn for the tense. Imagine Dr. Meredith caught in the eye of a saloon storm, as a simple attempt to reason with a rowdy crowd snowballs into a full-blown showdown. Thank goodness for Bat Masterson, whose quick thinking and quicker draw kept Dr. Meredith safe amidst the chaos. This episode doesn't just recount a bullet-riddled adventure; it captures the essence of Dodge City's wild heart, where danger lurked around every corner, but so did humor and unexpected alliances. Hold onto your hats, because this journey through Dodge City's rugged past promises all the thrills and spills of a legendary Western tale.
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Gather 'round the campfire, folks! I'm Brad Smalley, your trusty storyteller of the Wild West Podcast. Imagine sitting under the vast Kansas sky, warmed by the crackling flames at Udland Ranch, a historic site steeped in the lore of Dodge City. It's here that we resurrect tales from a time when cowboys roamed and legends were born. If you can't make it out to join us in person, fear not! We've brewed up a concoction of stories you won't want to miss, including the curious life of Luke McGlue and the secrets buried in Boot Hill. For just $3 a month, you can unlock these hidden gems and ride along with us as we explore the untold chapters of the Wild West.
Whether you're a local or tuning in from afar, this is your chance to experience the essence of the Wild West without leaving your home. It's more than just history; it's a shared journey into the heart of a bygone era, one story at a time. So saddle up and subscribe to our extended content, where the frontier spirit lives on through the tales we tell. Let's keep the campfire burning and the stories flowing. Join our community of history enthusiasts and become part of the legend today!
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What happens when a flamboyant newcomer meets the unpredictable characters of Dodge City? Fairchild, the not-so-brave Indian fighter, steps into the Wild West with all the theatrical flair of a Broadway show. His garish attire and bold persona quickly make him the talk of the town, but it's Bat Masterson's mischievous streak that truly sets the stage for this comedic tale. Listen as Billy Dixon recounts Fairchild's misadventures, including a memorable nighttime turkey hunt that promises more hilarity than hunting success.
Join us on a whirlwind journey through the lively streets of 1874 Dodge City as we uncover the whimsical antics and camaraderie that defined the frontiersmen of the era. From Fairchild's exaggerated tales of bravery to the clever pranks orchestrated by the legendary Bat Masterson, this episode paints a vivid picture of the motley crew that shaped the Wild West. Through Dixon's captivating narrative, experience the spirit of adventure and the laughter that echoed through the plains, providing a glimpse into a bygone era of bold characters and unforgettable escapades.
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Have you ever wondered how the Wild West celebrated Halloween? Join Mike King and Brad Smalley as they resurrect our favorite troublemaker, Luke McGlue, to share a spellbinding tale of Dodge City's unique Halloween traditions. Picture a town square ablaze with carved pumpkins, flickering lanterns, and vibrant costumes as the community gathers for a night steeped in Native American-inspired festivities. From traditional games to breathtaking costumes, the ambiance is electric, capturing the essence of Halloween's historical heritage.
But the night doesn't end there. As the clock strikes eleven, the men of Dodge City, led by the infamous Luke McGlue and the legendary Bat Masterson, hatch a daring plan at the local saloon. Their notorious "Indian Act," a staged prank to test newcomers, promises both thrills and chills. Listen in as we recount one of the most unforgettable nights in Dodge City's history, blending the nostalgia of the past with the mischievous spirit of the present. This episode is a perfect concoction of history, community, and a dash of audacious fun.
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What if the tall tales of Wild West mischief you’ve heard weren’t just stories, but a way of life in Dodge City? Join us as we unravel the legend of Luke McGlue, a fictional troublemaker concocted by Bat Masterson and his band of pranksters to navigate the rough-and-tumble world of Dodge City. From hilarious horse thefts to the infamous "Indian Act" prank that took a dark turn, we’ll reveal how this character became the scapegoat for all manner of antics in town, showcasing the unique humor and resilience of its residents. You'll hear about how one particular prank went awry, leaving a man named Harris injured, and how these unpredictable stunts served as a litmus test for the newcomers.
Discover the gritty, chaotic, yet oddly charming social dynamics of Dodge City, where maintaining a sense of humor was often the key to survival. We explore the role of pranks in forging community bonds, even highlighting figures like Dr. Simpson who thrived under such wild conditions. We’ll also touch upon "Antiques of Luke McGlue," a book that immortalizes these colorful stories and ensures the legacy of Dodge City’s most notorious prankster lives on. So, get ready for a wild ride through history, where humor and hijinks shaped an entire community.
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How did mysterious ruts on a Kansas ranch lead to an expansive journey uncovering the Western Cattle Trail? Join us as we welcome Gary and Margaret Kraisinger, distinguished researchers with a deep passion for American West history. Starting with a curious find in 1967, the Kraisingers embarked on a relentless quest, piecing together the trail’s forgotten paths and extending its known reach all the way to Oglala, Nebraska. Their groundbreaking work has shed new light on the often-overlooked intricacies of cattle driving and its impact on the American frontier.
We'll explore the post-Civil War evolution of cattle trails and their critical role in shaping the settlement and economic landscape of Kansas and beyond. Learn about the Texas drovers, the strategic significance of Doan’s Crossing, and the bustling trading posts that became lifelines for cattle drivers. Discover how the rise of towns along the railroads transformed the cattle industry and hear about the challenges, legislative changes, and disease outbreaks that ultimately led to the trail's decline. This episode celebrates the dedication and historical contributions of the Kraisingers while offering a rich narrative on one of the most vital chapters in the development of the western United States.
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Unravel the cultural and economic tapestry of the American West through the lens of the Western Cattle Trail in our conversation with Brad. Ever wondered how cowboys, cattle, and cow towns like Dodge City became iconic symbols of the West? Brad reveals the trail’s indispensable role in shaping these enduring images, making the American West a captivating tale of resilience and adventure. Discover how the trail was not just a route but a lifeline, driving millions of cattle from Texas to thriving northern markets and transforming towns into bustling hubs of activity.
Explore the symbiotic relationship between key landmarks and the cattle industry along the Western Trail. From Dugan's Roadhouse to Dodge City, these places not only provided essential services to cattle drives but also flourished due to their strategic importance. Brad sheds light on how these stops offered rest, supplies, and opportunities, creating a web of interdependence that was crucial for the trail's success. Listen to how this intricate network of locations contributed to a legacy that continues to influence the culture and economy of the American West today.
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What if a single trail could redefine the cattle industry and shape the American West? Join us as we unravel the extraordinary journey of John T. Lytle, and his 3,500 cattle, an endeavor that led to the creation of the iconic Western Trail. Spanning from Texas to Nebraska, this trail transported six million cattle over a decade, surpassing the Chisholm Trail in its pivotal role within the industry. Discover the legendary stops along the way, from Doane's Crossing to Dodge City and Ogallala, and understand how each landmark contributed to the growth and transformation of the American frontier.
We are thrilled to have historian Gary Kraisinger share his insights on Dugan's Roadhouse, a crucial rest stop near Dodge City. Hear the incredible story of James Dugan and his family's resourcefulness in running this essential trading post, strategically positioned at the junction of major routes. Learn how Dugan's Roadhouse became a bustling hub for cowboys and travelers, connecting various Texas feeder trails and even tracing connections to the historic Santa Fe Trail and Coronado's journey to Quivira. This episode is an absolute must for history enthusiasts and anyone captivated by the pioneering spirit of the Old West.
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Was Wild Bill Hickok a larger-than-life hero or a product of wild exaggerations? This episode promises to uncover the truth behind Colonel George Ward Nichols' controversial portrayal of Hickok in Harper's New Monthly magazine. You'll hear about how Kansas newspapers didn't hold back in criticizing Nichols' hyperbolic claims and learn about the unfiltered character of journalism during that period. We also discuss Springfield, Missouri's transformation post-Civil War and how Union veterans influenced the town's atmosphere, bringing to light the simmering tensions and lasting resentments that defined the era.
Step back in time with us as we dissect the romanticized legend of Wild Bill Hickok, exploring his personal sense of honor and the complex relationships that shaped him. We delve into the infamous Hickok-Tutt gunfight—the pivotal event that catapulted Hickok into Western legend. And don’t miss our examination of the archetype of the Western lawman, highlighting how Hickok set the gold standard for future lawmen in Kansas cow towns. From a historic gunfight to the enduring mythos of Western law enforcement, this episode provides a comprehensive look at the man behind the legend and his lasting impact on American history.
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What if the true story of resilience and struggle in American history has been overlooked for too long? Explore the harrowing journey of the Northern Cheyenne tribe after the Battle of the Little Bighorn. From the brutal winter attack on Dull Knife’s village by Colonel Ranald S. McKenzie to the relentless military pursuit leading to the eventual surrender at Fort Robinson, we unravel the heartbreaking events and the courageous leadership of chiefs like Dull Knife and Little Wolf. Join us as we uncover the tribe’s forced relocation to the Southern Cheyenne Reservation, a direct violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, and the subsequent challenges they faced.
During the summer of 1877, the Northern Cheyenne's relocation journey led to unexpected cultural exchanges with the residents of Dodge City. These interactions challenged existing stereotypes and altered mutual perceptions. We'll discuss the stark environmental contrasts between the Northern and Southern Plains and what it meant for the Cheyenne's sense of identity and displacement. This episode delves into how these encounters questioned the very essence of a "way of life" and shaped the American historical narrative.
Lastly, we reflect on the legacy of the Cheyenne Exodus and why this significant migration remains lesser-known. This story's relevance to the Great Plains and its commemoration through monuments, museums, and cultural reenactments are discussed. We're honored to be joined by James N. Leiker, author of "The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory," who shares his profound insights into this period. Tune in for an enriching conversation that bridges past and present, shedding light on the ongoing relevance of these historical events in contemporary identity struggles and rural depopulation.
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What if a single magazine article could immortalize a man into legend? This episode explores how Colonel George Ward Nichols' sensational account in Harper's New Monthly Magazine transformed James Butler Hickok into the iconic "Wild Bill." Through Nichols' eyes, we unveil post-Civil War Springfield, Missouri, and the momentous meeting in a dimly lit saloon that forever altered Hickok's legacy. Step back in time with us to experience the unique ambiance of a town recovering from war and the birth of a larger-than-life persona that captivated the nation.
Journey through the escalating tensions between Wild Bill and Davis Tutt, leading up to their legendary gunfight in Springfield's town square. We explore the clashing principles of Hickok's commitment to fairness and Tutt’s quick-tempered nature, detailing their dramatic showdown where honor and reputation were at stake. Relive the historic duel on July 22, 1865, with vivid recounts of the events that culminated in Tutt’s death and Wild Bill's rise to legendary status. Feel the intensity and fateful actions that carved an indelible mark on American folklore, solidifying Hickok's place in history.
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Ever wondered how the foundations of America were built on "beef and bread"? Join us for an eye-opening journey into the heart of cowboy culture with Michael Grauer, the McCaslin Chair of Cowboy Culture and curator at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Michael's expertise shines as he previews the unique and exciting 150th anniversary conference in Dodge City, unraveling the immense impact of the Western Cattle Trail on America's economic landscape. His passion for preserving cowboy culture and art is evident as he shares a sneak peek into the robust program planned for this historic celebration.
In this episode, we also delve into the storied past of the legendary King Ranch through the eyes of historian Bob Kennan. Learn about the significant contributions of Richard King and his descendants, as well as the hardworking unsung heroes of the cattle trails, whose stories we celebrate. We honor the efforts of Margaret and Gary Kreisinger, revered Western Trail historians who have meticulously mapped its routes and will be key figures at the upcoming conference. Plus, get insider details on an exclusive exhibition at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. This episode is not just a tribute to the trailblazers of America's cattle industry but an invitation to participate in the sesquicentennial celebration of the Western Trail.
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Why did Dodge City transform from the Buffalo capital to the Cowboy capital, and what did this mean for the American southwest? Join us as we journey through the economic upheavals that shaped this iconic city, tracing the steps of hunters like J. Wright Moore and John Webb as they pursued buffalo herds into the Texas Panhandle. We tackle the controversial notion that buffalo hunters' treaty violations were excused by the economic gains of the buffalo trade, especially during the financial despair following the 1873 stock market crash. Additionally, we uncover how the Western Cattle Trail spurred Dodge City's growth, while acknowledging the relentless struggle of Native American tribes fighting to safeguard their resources and way of life.
Explore the technological divide that escalated clashes between westward-moving Americans and Plains tribes. We illuminate the profound importance of the buffalo to the Plains tribes, comparing it to a one-stop resource vital for their survival. The episode delves into the relentless efforts of these tribes to protect their cherished buffalo, drawing parallels to any society’s instinct to defend its fundamental resources. Join us for a nuanced perspective on this cultural conflict, providing a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics during this transformative period in American history.
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Step back in time to the heart of the Second Battle of Adobe Walls, where 28 brave buffalo hunters faced off against a coalition of Native American tribes in an epic struggle for survival. You'll discover the intricate history behind the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, designed to safeguard Native lands but ultimately undermined by the relentless buffalo hide trade following the Civil War. Find out how pioneers like J Wright Moore and George Hoodoo Brown revolutionized the hunting industry with powerful rifles and new tanning methods, dramatically declining buffalo numbers and reshaping the frontier economy, especially in towns like Dodge City, Kansas.
Join us as we recount the harrowing events of June 26, 1874, at the Adobe Walls Trading Post, where a united front of Native American tribes, led by Comanche medicine man Isetai and Quanah Parker, sought revenge for the buffalo slaughter. We'll unveil the gripping details of the intense battle, spotlighting the bravery of the 28 men and one woman who stood their ground against overwhelming odds. Plus, don't miss our preview of the Western Cattle Trail Association's 150th Anniversary Conference in Dodge City, where we will delve into the profound economic impacts of the buffalo hide trade and the Red River War on the region's cattle trade. Register now for the Western Cattle Trail 150th anniversary conference to commemorate many historical milestones with us and gain deeper insights into the legacy of the American frontier.
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Ever wonder how a modest village transformed into the Wild West's most infamous cowboy capital? Join us as we uncover the electrifying rise of Dodge City, from its economic boom fueled by the Western Trail to its diverse and lively social scene. Feel the pulse of Dodge City's nightlife as we recount the impact of the Can-Can performance that set the town ablaze in 1878. From the Variety Saloon's brief yet impactful run to thrilling altercations involving legends like Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, and Wyatt Earp, the stories are as wild as the West itself. Get ready for dramatic tales of Eddie Foy's interrupted performances and the tragic shooting of George Hoyt. Lastly, we'll connect you with the Western Cattle Trail Association for more insights, and invite you to share your thoughts and subscribe for future episodes. Don't miss our next exploration of the Battle of Adobe Walls and its significant role in the Buffalo trade economy.
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Ever wondered how a modest village grew into the legendary cowboy capital known as Dodge City? Prepare to be captivated as we unravel the vital role of the Western Trail and the economic boom that cattle drives ushered in, transforming this once-quiet town into a bustling hub of activity. With lenient laws allowing gambling, drinking, and prostitution to flourish, Dodge City attracted a colorful mosaic of cowboys, entrepreneurs, and adventurers. We'll toast to the unique whiskeys poured in its infamous saloons and explore how the arrival of the railroad brought new beverages like beer, champagne, and wine to the thirsty masses. Discover the surprising ways this town operated without taxes, relying on revenue from its vices, and the essential contributions of the women who worked in the oldest profession.
But the story of Dodge City isn't just about the men who roamed its streets—it's also about the remarkable women who made their mark. Join us as we spotlight the fierce and influential women who navigated the Wild West's rugged terrain. From the dramatic clash between Wyatt Earp and Miss Frankie Bell to the inspiring tales of Dora Hand and Kate Elder, we'll examine how women found economic opportunities and respect amidst the chaos. Unravel the mysterious circumstances of Dora Hand's burial and reflect on her enduring legacy, as we explore the profound impact these pioneering women had on Dodge City's storied history. Tune in for a fascinating journey through the lives and legends that defined one of the most iconic towns of the American frontier.
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Curious about the incredible transformation of humble villages into booming cowboy capitals? Join us as we uncover the captivating tales of pioneers like John T. Little, who blazed new trails, and how their efforts fueled economic prosperity in towns like Dodge City. Feel the pulse of the late 19th century as we bring to life the rise of the Western Trail, where cattlemen transported their herds to northern markets, revitalizing local economies and turning Dodge City into an iconic symbol of the Old West, complete with its notorious lenient laws on gambling, drinking, and prostitution.
Experience the vibrant and often tumultuous life in Dodge City's famed saloons, such as the Long Branch and Lady Gay Dance Hall. We'll explore the simmering tensions between farmers, ranchers, and business owners over the Texas Longhorns and the Spanish fever, as well as the pivotal role of the Dodge City Council in 1875 in resolving these conflicts. Join us for a deep dive into the debates over ordinances designed to tame the town's rowdy elements and discover how these conflicts shaped the bustling, lawless frontier towns. Let the stories of the people who thrived and struggled on the Western Trail captivate your imagination as we journey through this pivotal chapter of American history.
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How did a young Irish immigrant woman become a pioneering force in Texas's booming cattle industry? Embark on a captivating journey through the life and legacy of Margaret Borland as we trace her family's audacious voyage from Ireland to the untamed landscapes of early Texas. From the Spaniards introducing livestock in the 1690s to the critical role of ranching by the 1730s, we set the stage for Margaret's significant contributions. Experience the Heffernan family's audacious resilience as they adapt to the rugged Coastal Bend region, navigating cultural, environmental, and health challenges that forged their indomitable spirit.
Witness the harrowing trials during the Texas Revolution, from the Battle of Concepcion to the Goliad Massacre, and feel the weight of war on the settlers' lives. Follow Margaret Borland's incredible journey along the Chisholm Trail, highlighting her role in transforming Wichita into a bustling cow town. We delve into key moments like the establishment of the Chisholm Trail in 1863 and the vital Waco Suspension Bridge. Reflecting on Margaret's legacy and her untimely passing in 1873, this episode underscores the immense risks and hardships faced by those who dared to shape the early Texas cattle industry. Join us for an episode rich in history, courage, and the pioneering spirit of the Irish in Texas, and the profound impact of Margaret Borland's contributions.
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Ever wondered how the rowdy buffalo hunters and cowboys of the Wild West spent their leisure time? Well, saddle up partner, because we're taking you back to the gambling halls of frontier towns like Dodge City, where poker and ferro ruled. From the Persian origins of poker to the intricacies of a ferro table, we're dealing you in on the high-stakes world of Wild West gambling. You'll get to know the legendary figures like professional gambler Richard Dick Clark and discover how this risk-filled environment influenced the destinies of many.
Now, imagine being at a poker table in Dodge City, where disputes over the game could even lead to shootings. Get ready to meet quick-shooting gamblers like Bat Masterson and relive infamous games that involved folks like ex-governor Thomas Carney. We'll also let you in on the secrets of the Spanish Monty, a game adored by Texas cowboys. By the end of our journey, you'll not just know the history of these games but also the unique roles of the dealer and casekeeper in a ferro game, and why every bet placed in the Wild West was more than just a game.
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The Wild West podcast proudly presents The Great Bullfight of 1884. This unique American celebration occurred in Dodge City, Kansas, on July 4, 1884. The story, written and produced by Mike King, relays the facts behind the first Spanish bullfight ever held on American soil. Hundreds of visitors came from the East to witness a fight between man and beast. On this magical day, the town was crowded with sightseers from all over the West. Narrator Brad Smalley describes the scene at the Dodge City fairgrounds where men and women are crowded about the stands. The bullfighters from Mexico provided a most explicit display of bravery, entering the arena accompanied by citizens in joyous laughter, all drinking and enjoying the sport of bullfighting. This is a time when, once again, Dodge City excelled in all of her notorieties, holding an event long to be remembered in this country.
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The Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame Committee invites nominations of living or deceased individuals for induction into the esteemed Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame. Nomination forms can be requested through Boot Hill Museum, Inc., or submitted online. The deadline for nominations is August 13, 2024. Inductees will be chosen by the Committee with one award from each category annually. The 2024 induction ceremony will take place on November 2, 2024, coinciding with the 150th Anniversary of the Western Cattle Trail. Join us and be part of history! Visit westerncattletrailassoc.com for more information.
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Embark on a journey to the year 1867, where the grasses of the Plains whispered tales of imminent turmoil. Our episode chronicles the audacious maneuvers of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, as he brandishes the might of the military in a perilous dance with the Plains tribes. We peel back the layers of the government's attempts at peace—efforts that were doomed to fail against the tribes' pressing need for their ancestral grazing lands. The narrative escalates as we trace the footsteps of scouts, the critical intelligence they gathered, and the armed escorts who became the lifeline of wagon trains venturing into the fertile prairies of spring.
As the tension mounts, we find ourselves amidst the politically charged atmosphere of General Hancock's Indian Council Meeting. Listen closely as we recount the tales of Edward Wynkoop and "Wild Bill" Hickok, whose roles in this complex web of frontier relations were fraught with the push and pull of military strategies and diplomatic endeavors. Their stories unveil the intricate dynamics of cultural misunderstandings and political aspirations that brewed beneath the surface of this historic gathering, and the lingering effects that would shape the landscape of the American West.
Finally, we delve into the relentless pursuit led by General Custer, painting a picture of a landscape where every move and countermove edged the U.S. military and Native tribes closer to the specter of war. From the controversial burning of a Cheyenne village to Custer’s personal trials amidst these relentless chases, we leave no stone unturned. Through stirring anecdotes and strategic analyses, we offer a raw glimpse into the heart of the American frontier, a time of conflict and conquest that would forever alter the course of history. Join us as we bring to life the echoes of the past in this gripping episode.
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Don't miss the chance to delve deeper into the history of the Western Cattle Trail. Sign up for a free Western Cattle Trail Newsletter for a limited time. The newsletter will include featured articles by noted Western authors on historical accounts of the cattle drives of the 1880s. Additionally, those who receive the free newsletter will get exclusive updates on upcoming conferences, minutes from the WCTA meetings, legislative updates to trail activities, and announcements of historical events along the trail. So, sign up today for a free, limited-time WCTA newsletter and embark on a journey through the rich history of the Western Trail.
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The Western Cattle Trail Association is delighted to announce that it will be hosting an exclusive 150-anniversary conference in Dodge City, Kansas, on November 1st & 2nd. This two-day gathering, reserved for those truly passionate about the history of the Western Trail, is not just a celebration but also a unique platform to delve into the history of the Western Trail, provide free historical trolley rides of Dodge City, and a round table to discuss the formation of a cattle trails consortium.
The upcoming conference provides a rare chance to learn about the historic trails that played a significant role in shaping America. These trails include the Western, Goodnight-Loving, Chisholm, and Shawnee trails. The conference will take place on Friday and Saturday, followed by the prestigious Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame induction ceremony. On the evening of November 2, Michael Martin Murphey will give a captivating solo performance at the Dodge City Convention Center. Tickets will be sold separately for the Cowboy Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and concert.
Remember to mark your calendars for this momentous event in 2024: the 150-anniversary conference of the Western Cattle Trail, which will be held on November 1st and 2nd in Dodge City, Kansas. We eagerly anticipate your presence as we commemorate 150 years of the Western Cattle Trail in Dodge City, Kansas.
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Embark on a thrilling journey to the raucous streets of 19th-century Abilene with us, where the legends of the Wild West come alive. Get ready to be transported to a world where cowboys, outlaws, and lawmen like Wild Bill Hickok and Tom Smith walked with a swagger, and the promise of prosperity mingled with the ever-present risk of gunfights. Our narration will bring you face-to-face with the hardy saloon keepers, shrewd gamblers, and the notorious sporting women who turned this cowtown into an emblem of the untamed frontier.
As the sun sets on Texas Street, the tales of heroism and chaos await to captivate you. Discover the fine line between civilization and lawlessness that these historical giants tread upon as they sought to impose order in a town brimming with outlaws and dreamers. You'll hear firsthand accounts of epic showdowns and the impact of the cattle drives as we paint a picture of Abilene’s complex metamorphosis from a dusty village into a bustling hub of nightlife and vice.
Conclude this historical adventure with reflections on the lingering spirit of Abilene, as we extend an invitation to continue exploring the dusty trails and tumultuous skies of the Wild West's past. Your engagement means the world to us; every comment and thought could shape the stories we tell next. Subscribe for more episodes that promise to stir the embers of a time when the West was truly wild, and every corner had a saga to share.
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Feel the icy winds and hear the echoes of challenge and survival as we unveil the untold narratives of Fort Dodge's pioneering spirits. This episode promises to transplant you to the heart of a 19th-century military outpost, where Major Henry Douglas and his command contended with more than just the bitter cold. Mike King, a historian who profoundly understands the era, guides us through the Douglas family's trials, the lawlessness fueled by whiskey ranches, and the enduring friction between the military and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Understand the true meaning of solitude and resilience through the eyes of those who braved the remote frontiers of America. From the intimate struggles of a woman determined to maintain a semblance of home to the looming threats of Chief Satanta and the Kiowa tribe, each moment is a testament to the raw human spirit. We navigate the perilous landscape of diplomatic tensions, midnight alarms, and the forbidden whiskey trades that tested the mettle of Fort Dodge's inhabitants, offering you a seat at the fire to witness history like never before.
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Embark on a trek through time as we uncover the remarkable story of Isadore Douglas and her family's poignant journey westward in the aftermath of the Civil War. Imagine braving the unknown frontier, where every step is a dance with danger and every letter home is a testament to survival. You're invited to live through Isidore's eyes, as her correspondence with her mother offers us a window into the raw emotions and harsh realities faced on the plains—from the joy and anxiety of impending motherhood to the looming fears of cholera and financial hardship. As we follow her husband Henry's military ascent, we trace the family’s footsteps from the relative comfort of Columbus, Ohio, to the vast expanses of Kansas, where the promise of new beginnings meets the grit of pioneer life.
Strap in for the second leg of our historical saga, where we join the Douglas clan on a rugged expedition from Elm Creek to the storied Fort Zarah. Venture through the untamed wilds as we experience nature's capricious whims, from storms that ravage encampments to frigid nights under the stars, and confront the wildlife that roams the plains. Alongside Isidore's vivid narrations, we navigate critical lifelines like stage stations and the Barlow-Sanderson coaches that dotted the desolate Fort Riley-Fort Larned Road. Arriving at Fort Zarah, we gain insight into the legends of the Santa Fe Trail and the perils at Pawnee Rock. Prepare for an episode that not only chronicles an epic passage but also immortalizes the indomitable spirit that shaped a nation.
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Step into the dusty boots of Major General Grenville Dodge as we venture into the heart of the post-Civil War American frontier, where securing the wild plains was as treacherous as it was vital. Our episode, guided by an esteemed historian, captures the essence of life at Fort Dodge, the strategic military stronghold pivotal in taming the Western Kansas frontier. Hear about the soldiers' grueling efforts to build safe havens amidst hostile territory, and how these fortifications laid the groundwork for a period of American history rife with conflict and transformation.
Witness the volatile relationship between the US military and the Plains Indian tribes through vivid tales of raids and the powerful leaders who orchestrated them. We unravel the complexities of Indian diplomacy with a spotlight on Kiowa Chief Satanta's influence, his storied battle gear, and the intense negotiations over captive settlers—a sobering reality faced by those like Mary Matthews, whose personal account brings a gripping perspective to these historical standoffs. Each narrative strand weaves a rich tapestry of the struggles and strategies that defined the wild, untamed West, making this episode a must-listen for anyone fascinated by the era where legends were forged on the frontier.
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Step back in time on our auditory trail as we unearth the powerful yet overlooked stories of African American cowboys. Through the unyielding dust of cattle drives and the camaraderie of the trail, we pay homage to trailblazers like Bose Ikard, who navigated the complexities of a post-slavery America to etch their names in the annals of frontier history. Immerse yourself in a narrative that melds bravery with the raw beauty of the Wild West, exploring how these cowboys were instrumental in shaping the cattle industry and, in turn, the fabric of the nation.
Experience the gritty reality of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, where the bond between man and the wild was a matter of survival. Listen to the tales of partnership and perseverance as we recount how Ikard and his peers faced down the elements, wrangled broncs with sheer tenacity, and navigated treacherous encounters. Their odyssey through the unforgiving terrain wasn't just about moving herds; it was about laying down the tracks for future generations, proving that courage and friendship could triumph over the racial barriers of their time.
As the sun sets on our episode, we reflect on the rich tapestry left behind by figures Bose Ikard. His legacies are not just inscriptions on headstones or names in dusty tomes; they are vibrant threads in the American story, urging us to recognize and celebrate the multiplicity of our shared heritage. Join us in this tribute to the African American cowboys whose spirit and stories are as enduring as the landscape they once rode across, forever altering our perception of the legendary American West.
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Discover the unsung heroes of the Wild West as we share the riveting tales of Black American Cowboys, who emerged as skilled drovers and cow punchers in the post-Civil War era. Our journey through history celebrates these trailblazers, whose stories are often overshadowed, despite making up one-quarter of the 19th-century cowboy population. Join us for an episode that promises to enrich your understanding of these men who found autonomy and respect on the open range and left an indelible mark on the cattle industry.
We breathe life into the adventures of the legendary cowboy Nat Love, and travel the demanding paths that led to Montana, exploring the rich tapestry of experiences these cowboys faced. From the hardworking ranch hand to the multilingual trail cook, the episode paints a vivid picture of their indispensable contributions and the resilience they embodied. Saddle up with us as we pay homage to the courage, skill, and spirit of the Black American Cowboys, and celebrate their central role in the story of the American West. Join us at The Western Cattle Trail Association for 150 years of stories.
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Strap on your spurs and hold onto your hats as I, Cranky McCabe, whisk you away to the days when Dodge City was overrun with buffalo hunters, traders, and outlaws. Ever wondered what it'd be like to stand in the midst of a buffalo stampede or face down danger at the turn of a card? Our latest journey into the echoes of the past promises tales of adventure, peril, and the raw edge of survival. Together with Billy Dixon and other frontier legends, we travel back to a time where every decision could mean life or untimely death, and every shadow in the saloon hid a potential enemy.
Feel the grit in your teeth and the tension in the air as we recount the lawless days of Dodge City, through bustling trade and bloody gunfights. We'll share the harrowing experiences of Mr. Rath and Robert Wright, whose buffalo hide trading venture near the railroad tracks led to a hunting frenzy and more than a few close shaves with the native residents of those plains. You'll sit ringside at Tom Sherman's saloon for a shootout that rattled the walls and left its mark on the town's infamous history. It's not just a trip through time; it's an immersion into the unbridled spirit of the Old West, with every word a step down the main street of a bygone era.
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Ever wonder how a legendary Wild West town like Dodge City came to be? Prepare to be transported to the very roots of this iconic boomtown, where the dreams of early settlers flourished alongside the roaring trains of progress. Your ears won't believe the tales of Dodge City's first entrepreneurs, John MacDonald and George Hoover, or the dramatic fate of the Essington House's proprietor that led to the town's first burial in Boot Hill. And just wait until you hear about Frank Hopper, or Norf Mike, whose writings catapulted Dodge City into the national consciousness.
Step right up for a behind-the-scenes look at the gritty beginnings and the enterprising souls of Dodge City. You'll discover the crucial businesses—like Jacob Coller's general store and FC Zimmerman's gunsmith shop—that kept the heart of the frontier beating. And we're setting the record straight on historical figures like George Hoover and John McDonald, unearthing the impact of their actions on the town's legacy. From tales of entrepreneurship to frontier violence, this episode promises a rich narrative tapestry, wrapping you in the very fabric of American Western lore.
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Imagine journeying through a blizzard-stricken landscape in late 1868, alongside General Custer and his men. Intrigued? That's just a taste of the thrilling expedition we embark on in today's episode, as we delve deep into General Sheridan's campaign. We're thrust into the harsh realities of the time - troops scattered across vast distances, severe winter conditions, and the audacious leadership of General Custer. Alongside Custer, we navigate the blizzard, shedding light on the Osage scouts' perspectives and the daring strategy that led to a shift in command.
The thrill intensifies as we march alongside Custer and his cavalry, navigating snow-covered plains in pursuit of an elusive war party. Experience every chill of the snow, the discomfort of melting snow, and the relentless pursuit of securing food, while also tracing the trails of a potential enemy. Hear about the riveting decision to leave behind the wagons to pursue the Indians faster, the heated discussions among officers, and the exciting advance through the darkness. With every moment, we bring the past alive, leaving you on the edge of your seat, eager to discover the aftermath of this daring pursuit.
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Join us on a captivating journey back in time as we unravel the heartwarming traditions of Christmas in the Old West. We've enlisted the help of historian Lucian Ruhl to paint a vivid picture of Christmas celebrations among pioneers, cowboys, and settlers. Sit back and immerse yourself in fascinating stories like Ruhl's family's harrowing journey from Virginia to Kentucky in the late 1790s. Discover how the spirit of Christmas brought joy, hope, and unity to the people fighting against challenging circumstances.
As the episode progresses, we navigate you through the tale of a business meeting on Christmas Eve in Dodge City that surprisingly leads to a town divide. We also shed light on the Kincaid family's humble and hopeful Christmas Eve celebration in the Oregon Territory. These stories reveal the resilience and spirit that existed amidst the hardships of pioneer life. To wrap up this festive journey, we're giving you a nostalgic glimpse into the preparation and feast of a pioneer Christmas. Get ready to be imbued with a remarkable sense of admiration for our forebears!
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Brace yourself for an unforgettable foray into the captivating narrative of Robert Service's poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee." As the icy winds of the Klondike Gold Rush era whip around you, absorb the poignant tale of two friends' perilous quest for gold. Discover the historical significance of the term "sourdough," as we lead you deeper into the frigid Yukon wilderness. Marvel at how Service, like his characters, found inspiration in his surroundings. The chilling scene of Sam's cremation on the frosty expanse of Lake Labarge is brought to life in a dramatic reading of the poem. Illuminating the sacrifices made in the relentless pursuit of wealth, this haunting piece acts as a testament to human fortitude, enduring loyalty, and broken promises.
The raw, stark imagery and grim themes of this iconic poem have forever carved their place in the annals of literature. Delving into the eerie scene of McGee's cremation, we dissect how Service harnesses the potent power of words to paint a vivid picture of the harsh Yukon environment. This immersive exploration of the poem's themes and historical context underscores the tragic consequences of the gold rush. As we uncover the true meaning of "sourdough" and its connection to the Yukon, the poem's profundity unfurls, revealing an intricate tapestry of emotion and human perseverance. Join us on this journey, as we celebrate one of the most memorable poems from the Klondike Gold Rush era.
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Picture this: it's 1858, a rugged miner's camp is bustling with activity, and a piano mysteriously shows up just in time for Christmas Eve. Oh, the chaos and hilarity that ensues! Journey with us as we follow our hearty miners wrestling with setting up the instrument and scrambling to find a player. This isn't just a piano; it's a beacon of camaraderie and festive spirit, shining through their rough and tumble exterior. Tune into our special presentation of 'A Miner's Christmas Carol' by Samuel Davis, edited by Mike King, and let Brad Smalley's narration whisk you away to a comical yesteryear.
But wait, there's more! Can you imagine discovering a long-lost stranger on a Christmas Eve, a man who disappeared with a hefty sum of money? That's exactly what happens to Goskin and Driscoll, our beloved characters from the miner's tale. Embark on a captivating quest with them as they navigate through old grudges and current suspicions, all the while unearthing the essence of Christmas, tradition, and memory. Their Christmas wish extends not only to themselves but to you, our dedicated listeners. So, grab a hot cup of cocoa, find a comfy chair, and get ready to be immersed in a mesmerizing world of twists and turns. Trust us, you won't want to miss the end of this tale.
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Prepare to be transported back to the Kansas plains of 1872! You'll journey alongside Richard Irving Dodge, a soldier stationed at the heart of the Wild West, as he recounts the awe-inspiring sight of a massive buffalo herd numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The vast prairie comes alive as he shares tales of life at Fort Dodge and his interactions with Robert M. Wright.
But life on the plains is not all breathtaking scenery and peaceful coexistence. The episode takes a dramatic turn as we recount the fiery confrontation between Captain Reif and Captain Moore at Fort Dodge, followed by the chaos instigated by a drunken Lieutenant Turner. As we navigate through these tales, we uncover the struggles of maintaining order among soldiers and the controversies surrounding alcohol consumption. The episode concludes with a look at the aftermath as we discuss the decision to establish a township near the fort and the impending court-martial charges. Listeners of Wild West Podcast should tune in for this riveting journey into the untamed life of soldiers in the Kansas plains during the 1870s.
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Settle in, saddle up and join us as we ride alongside George W Brown and Prairie Dog Morrow, two audacious characters who guide us through the exhilarating era of buffalo hunting in the Great Plains of the 1870s. Hear how they mastered the art of buffalo hunting and their thrilling adventures from the Dakotas to Montana. Prairie Dog even reveals his unique prairie dog catching technique, an unexpected skill that surprisingly comes in handy on the frontier.
Our journey doesn't stop at hunting. Just when you think it’s all buffalo hides and prairie dog tales, we introduce the whiskey saga at Fort Dodge. Hear the inside story of why a liquor ban was implemented, how it stirred chaos, and birthed a new underground business just outside the fort’s walls. Thriving despite the ban, these rogue whiskey sellers turned the frontier into the wild west we all know. But remember, every party has a hangover. We'll share the chilling story of a young man named Langford, whose life took a fateful turn after a perilous night of drinking.
Finally, listen to the heart-tugging story of Langford's grueling recovery from five gunshot wounds, an aftermath of a drunken brawl. Through this, we explore the dire repercussions of alcohol use, the role of friendship, and the extraordinary resilience of the human body. This isn't just history; it's an adventure, a cautionary tale, and a celebration of the human spirit all rolled into one riveting episode. So grab your headphones, your favorite drink (responsibly, of course) and get ready for a wild ride through the plains of the 1870s!
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Imagine the southern plains once teeming with 50 million buffaloes, a resource so vast it was considered inexhaustible. Then, picture it transforming into a desolate, putrid desert, the aftermath of a rampant hunting spree fueled by the discovery of buffalo leather by tanneries worldwide, the westward migration of war veterans and the establishment of railroads. This episode takes you on an engrossing journey through this pivotal, and often ignored chapter of American history. We'll discuss how the pursuit of quick wealth led to the unintentional theft of the Indians' livelihood and the severe disruption of natural replenishment, leaving the plains a wasteland and the once-thriving buffalo population in shambles.
Fast forward to 1872, when the big hunt left the Arkansas buffalo herd in ruins, and hunters began encroaching on the Indian hunting grounds in southwestern Kansas. We'll recount riveting tales of their encounters with the military and the shocking scale of devastation through Lieutenant Colonel Dodge's eyes. The devastation was so profound that the plains, once bustling with buffalo life, were now filled with a sickening stench from the myriad of carcasses left to rot. The episode continues with a deep dive into the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 and its implications for the buffalo hunting grounds. Join us as we shed light on this significant period of American history, a time of rapid change and devastating loss.
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Get ready to hitch a ride to the wild frontier with tales from the legendary George W Brown, also known as Hoodoo Brown. Born under the Missouri skies in 1847, he invites us into his past, from fighting in the Union Army to life as a bullwacker, hauling wood for the government. His trailblazing tales are packed with excitement, danger, and the raw reality of frontier life. With every twist and turn, from dodging wild Texas steers to navigating treacherous wagon trips, we're right there with him.
And the journey doesn't end there! The second half of our adventure features Jack Stilwell, a scout handpicked by Colonel George A Forsythe for a special operations unit. He takes us from being recruited at Fort Hays to the throes of intense battles, leaving us hanging on his every word. Jack’s recollections of the Battle at Beecher's Island will make your heart pound and your mind spin. Then, it's back to George Brown as he teams up with Buffalo Bill and other scouts on a mission to clear the Republican region of Indians. These unmissable chronicles from the frontier will have you yearning for the wide open plains and the echo of cattle drives in the distance.
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Strap yourselves in folks, we're about to embark on a thrilling journey through the wild and gritty tales of the legendary Wild West! Ever heard of the infamous Bat Masterson? Well, this episode is all about his equally intriguing brother, James Masterson. We shine a spotlight on his tumultuous life, culminating in his pivotal role in the Battle of the Plaza and the exhilarating Battle of Ingalls. This episode is not just a history lesson, it's a thrilling ride that will transport you back in time, making you feel like you're right in the heart of the action!
Are you ready to face the Doolin-Dalton Gang with us? Fasten your seatbelts as we delve into the notorious lives of outlaws like Bill Doolin, Bitter Creek Newton, Arkansas Tom Jones, Dan Clifton, Tulsa Jack, and George Redbuck Whiteman. Feel the tension rise as we relive the dramatic escape of George Bitter Creek Newcombe from a hostile Comanche band and his subsequent face-off with deputy Dick Speed in Ingalls. The adrenaline doesn't stop there! We intricately weave the narrative of the intense gun battle that ensued, with James Masterson and the townsfolk caught in the crossfire.
Finally, we dissect the heart-stopping gunfight in the tiny town of Ingalls, Oklahoma. Picture the scene - Arkansas Tom, trapped, his comrades escaping amidst a hailstorm of bullets. Experience the desperation of Doolan's frantic search for wire cutters for their escape. Feel the dread as Arkansas Tom watches the dust settle after his friends' escape, left alone in the deafening silence following the chaos. This episode is a wild rollercoaster of gripping narratives, fraught with danger, suspense, and the raw, unfiltered reality of the Wild West. So, hold onto your hats; this will be an unforgettable ride!
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Ever thought about how life was in the Wild West? Imagine, the rawness of survival against the elements, the adrenaline of buffalo hunts, and the intrigue of lawmen and outlaws! I'm inviting you to saddle up and join us on this journey as we live vicariously through the life of our protagonist, Josiah Wright Mooar, a young man discovering the thrills and perils of the frontier.
Our tale begins in Fort Hays, Kansas, where Josiah sets up a buffalo hunting team with a seasoned hunter, James White. From acquiring a wagon and camping supplies to the exhilarating hunt itself, we are right there with them. We encounter the mysterious figure of Thomas Nixon, who offers us an exciting opportunity to buy a buffalo hide business. But as a fierce storm threatens our hunt and a stampede sets off, tension rises. How will Josiah and Jim navigate these sudden threats?
Through this captivating narrative, we uncover the vibrant life of the Wild West, the frontiersman and Buffalo hunters who shaped it and the crucial role they played in frontier survival. Moreover, we delve into the techniques used in buffalo hunting and how these adapted to the changing environment. So, get ready for a riveting exploration of the Wild West's legacy, one that promises to keep you on the edge of your seat!
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Are you ready to step back in time with us to the age of the American frontier? This episode unfurls the tapestry of the life of the renowned Indian scout, Moses Milner, more famously known as California Joe. His tale, as wild and untamed as the frontier he called home, begins with his youthful years of trapping and trading with friendly Indians. We follow his path to the height of his storied career guiding for the US Army. From his service as a trailblazer for the Donovan expedition during the Mexican War, his marriage at the tender age of 21, his explorations to Oregon, and his associations with legendary figures like Kit Carson and Wild Bill Hickok, we delve into the depths of this captivating character.
Our journey through Joe's life marches on through the rugged terrains of Wyoming’s Big Horn Mountain Country where he served under General George Crook, and to the Powder River Expedition against the fierce Cheyenne under General Ronald S McKenzie. His thrilling life, filled with adventure, bravery, and intrigue, drew to a close at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in a fatal confrontation. His legacy, however, lives on, symbolized by his burial with full military honors at Fort MacPherson National Cemetery in Nebraska. Join us as we weave together the threads of California Joe's life and the richness of the frontier era. This is an episode that will leave you with a profound understanding of the scouts who played a pivotal role in shaping the history of America.
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Hold onto your hats as we whisk you away on a wild adventure with the charismatic Luke McGlue! Imagine a hidden backroom in the Lady Gay Saloon, brimming with peculiar jars and the air thick with anticipation. It’s a laughable escapade until the lights go out and bullets start to fly! If that’s not enough to get your pulse racing, we then introduce you to two intriguing doctors from around the globe who’ve arrived to hold a private lecture and examination.
In the second half, things get political with Luke McGlue’s radical program aimed at shifting the balance of power in the town. The Luke McGlue Special High Society Training Program isn't just a mouthful; it's a game changer, designed to hand the City Council and the new sheriff the reins. As we dissect the implications of this, you'll also find out how you, the townsfolk, could make a difference. The final twist? A local minister embroiled in a case of horse thievery! Prepare for a roller coaster of an episode packed with humor, chaos, and a sprinkle of mischief.
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Ever wondered what happens when a charming mischief-maker crosses paths with a hapless cigar salesman in the wild, wild west? Buckle up and get ready for a roller-coaster of an adventure as we follow the delightful exploits of Luke Maglue, our very own Kansas troublemaker, and Saddler, our unwitting cigar merchant, in a town that's as mysterious as it is dusty. We promise you'll be hooked, tickled and utterly enthralled as you navigate a world of stolen cigars, saloon shenanigans, and empty streets.
Our story unfolds in the Lady Gay Saloon, a lively hotspot for those looking for a good smoke and a better tale. Just when Saddler thinks he’s in for a normal day of cigar selling, he’s swept up in a whirlwind of intrigue and hilarity, with Luke at the very center. This episode is a riotous romp through saloons and sheriff offices, filled with suspense, humor, and unexpected twists that’ll keep you guessing. So, pull up a chair, light up a cigar, and join us for this enthralling journey into the heart of the old west. And remember, things aren't always as they seem. Even in the wild, wild west!
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Ever wondered how a man named Luke McGlue transformed the wild west of Dodge City with his infectious laughter and pranks? Or what happens when a pet bear named Patty runs amok in a hotel and ends up as the main course for Christmas dinner? Buckle up, as we take a ride into the humorous and heroic tales of Dodge City, Kansas.
We kick off the journey with the story of Luke McGlue, a notorious jester in the Dodge City gang, who used laughter as an antidote to the grim faces of frontiersmen, doctors, and even gangsters. Hear about his witty exploits, his Illinois roots, and the reason behind his nickname, 'Buster'. Then, we shift gears to a hilarious, yet heartwarming anecdote of Mayor Kelly and his pet bear, Patty. Learn about Patty's disastrous hotel adventure, and how it led to a rather unconventional community feast on Christmas.
The wild west wasn't all laughs though. Sit tight as we narrate a nerve-wracking encounter with a man dressed in a black duster, wielding a bloodied revolver, and the quick-witted actions that saved the day. Marshal Larry Dager, a hero in his own right, swings into action with the force of a pint of whiskey in a poker game. It's a story of courage and quick thinking that will transport you back to the wild days of Dodge City. So, come on, let's saddle up and ride into this adventurous past together!
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Have you ever wondered what pranks looked like in the Wild West? Well, imagine being a naive, greenhorn man stepping into one set up by the seasoned regulars at the Dodge House. This episode whisks you into a wild adventure, spun from the tale of a man who fancied himself a lady killer being played by the cunning men of Buffalo City. Notably, a place where men far outnumber women, sparking a unique dynamic.
Get ready to go further, as we peel back the layers of the intriguing characters we've come across in our books, 'A Man in a Black Derby Hat' and 'Tales of the Frontier Return of the Great Hunters'. Discover the motivations and experiences that shaped these Wild West folks, and how startlingly familiar they might seem, resonating with our own realities. So pour a glass of whiskey, settle in, and let's explore together the gritty, colorful saga of the Wild West. Just don't forget - the tales are thrilling, but the truth is even wilder.
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Prepare yourself for a bone-chilling journey through the unchartered territories of the Wild West! Get ready to feel the sweat on your brow and the grit in your teeth as we traverse from Adobe Walls to Chicken Creek, recounting tales of confrontation, courage, and survival straight from the horse's mouth, Joe Plumber.
We kick things off with the horrifying recount of Dave Dudley and Tommy Wallace's brutal deaths, caused by an unexpected Indian uprising. Listen as Plumber narrates their grim fate, and the admirable strength shown by Hannah Olds, a cook and boarding house owner, in the face of such adversity. The tension escalates as we return to Adobe Walls after burying our fallen comrades, only to discover more trouble brewing. We try to keep our spirits high, but the sound of a loud crack sends chills down our spine, leading us to a precarious situation that needs immediate attention. We wrap up with an intriguing exploration of a Daybreak Settlement before the attack of 700 Indians, offering a detailed look at its unique structures. Join us on this adrenaline-filled ride that will leave you on the edge of your seat!
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Based on true accounts of the first battle of Adobe Walls listeners immerse in a heart-stirring narrative of the Wild West as we sit by the campfire with Joe Plummer, a man as distinctive as the tales he shares. Plummer, a vibrant storyteller adorned with tattoos and piercings, spins a compelling yarn of Kit Carson's surprise attack on the Comanche and Kiowa winter village. We hold our breath alongside Carson's troops, huddled in the bitter cold of dawn, as they face the daunting enormity of their enemy. Plummer transports us right into the heart of the battlefield, as we vicariously experience the tensions, the fears, and the raw courage exposed in the face of a formidable foe.
Reflecting the glow of the campfire, Plummer's storytelling illuminates the bravery of Carson's brigade, the youths who daringly charged into battle even before formal orders were given. Feel the adrenaline rush as he describes Carson's battery of cannons, the unexpected retreat of the Indian army, and the eerie sight of an abandoned village. Plummer's narration culminates in an awe-inspiring image of a thousand warriors rallying under their chiefs, against a backdrop of a sprawling village of lodges. The narrative grips you, pulling you into the vibrant tapestry of a bygone era.
In the aftermath of a grueling battle, we explore the counter-attack led by Chief White Bear and Carson's audacious decision to press on, despite being outnumbered. Plummer's haunting rendition of the First Battle of Adobe Walls serves as a poignant reminder of the human cost of war. This episode is more than a mere retelling of historical events - it's an homage to the power of oral tradition in preserving our past and evoking the deepest human emotions. We invite you to join us on this journey, where valor, strategy, and survival intertwine in a dance as old as time itself.
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Imagine strolling into a saloon and locking eyes with a man whose hatred for you is palpable. Welcome to a tumultuous evening in a Wild West Texas settlement, Mobeetiy, where confrontations brew, and gunfire could break out at any moment. In this high-stakes setting, we revisit my conflicted relationship with the despised Corporal Melvin King, whose return to town sends shockwaves of fear among the locals. Gracing this episode is Billy Dixon, a seasoned buffalo hunter and a friend who unearths a chilling prophecy of King's brewing revenge. This predicament forces me to make a life-altering decision that could either mark me as a victim or a victor.
Brace yourself for a heart-wrenching tale of love and sacrifice that unfolds amid this tension. In this episode, we explore the depth of Bat Masterson's connection with the captivating Molly Brennan, whose actions prove that love knows no bounds or fear. Get ready to be moved by a real-life love story that outshines any fictional romance, where a woman's love is tested against the harsh realities of the Old West. The climax of this episode will rip your heart out, as Molly makes the ultimate sacrifice, choosing to stand in the line of fire for Bat Masterson. This tragic twist of fate binds us forever, leaving Masterson indebted to her in ways words cannot express. Tune in to experience a rollercoaster of emotions as love and danger intertwine in an unforgettable saga of the Wild West.
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Hold onto your hats, folks! Ever wondered how a dance hall girl can set off a chain of explosive events in the Wild West? Let's journey back to 1879 and step into the infamous Lady Gay Dance Hall. It's here, amidst the gamblers and dance hall girls, that we find ourselves in the middle of a deadly love triangle. In this whirlwind of attraction and tension, we'll introduce you to Maddie Loving, the object of desire of two very dangerous men.
The drama unfolds when Maddie's husband, Frank Loving, storms into the Lady Gay dance hall, hell-bent on rescuing his wife from the unwelcome advances of Levi Richardson. The confrontation is averted, but the peace is short-lived when news reaches us of trouble brewing at the Long Branch Saloon. It's in this iconic saloon that the face-off culminates, the air heavy with tension as Richardson and Loving draw their guns. In this deadly dance, friendships are tested, secrets are revealed, and the harsh reality of life in Dodge City comes to light.
We culminate our episode with the infamous gunfight at the Long Branch Saloon, bearing witness to the fatal consequences of this love triangle. Amidst the swirling dust and chaos, Deputy Duffy and Marshal Bassett attempt to restore order, revealing the shocking truth about the relationship between Richardson and Loving. As we wrap up this tale of attraction, betrayal, and gunfire, we leave you with a taste of the grit and drama that shaped the lore of Dodge City. Join us for this riveting recount of a love triangle that turned deadly in the heart of the Wild West.
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Get ready to venture into the gritty underbelly of post-Civil War Kansas with us, as we expose the chilling tales of the state's most notorious outlaws. We're dusting off an article from the Kansas Magazine, a deep-dive into the state's darkest past, co-authored by our very own producer Mike King. Guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat, we lay bare the unfiltered realities of the March Madness-style showdown where each criminal's deeds are weighed, debated, and ranked to identify the worst of the worst.
Stirring up the shadows, we go one-on-one with the chilling narratives of Jim Curry and Henry Brown, two names that struck fear into the heart of Kansas. Discover the lawless journey of Curry, a man whose life of crime even saw him cross paths with Maurice Barrymore, patriarch of the famed Barrymore family. Then, prepare for the gut-wrenching tale of Henry Brown whose shocking betrayal of his badge made him one of Kansas's most despised figures. From their involvement in the Civil War to their own personal demons, we strip back the legends to reveal the men behind these infamous outlaws. Click Here to Subscribe to Kansas Magazine
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Get ready for a chilling walk down memory lane as we take you on a ghostly journey through Dodge City with our mischievous guide, Luke McGlue. Picture this: it's Halloween night, and the usually bustling streets are eerily silent. Luke has a mission - to administer the infamous Keely Cure to a stubbornly intoxicated judge. Sounds simple, right? But things aren't always as they seem in this legendary Wild West town.
In the second act, we take a haunting detour to the city's graveyard with our special guest, historian Brad Smalley. Uncover the tragic tales of Lizzie Palmer and J.M. Essington, victims of the city's lawless past. Ever wondered about the spectral figure of Billy Brooks, the first appointed Marshal of Dodge City? Hear a captivating recount of his life and the mystery surrounding his ghostly presence. And don't worry, we won't leave you in suspense. Stick around after the show as Brad, and I unravel the intriguing blend of truth and tales that make up this riveting episode. So, are you ready for a wild ride through Dodge City's shadowy past?
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Step right up, folks, and time travel with us back to the wild and unpredictable days of Dodge City in the 1870s. Picture a lawless town desperate for order, a vigilante mob, and a tragic tale of an innocent man named William Taylor. Brace yourself as we recount the events leading up to his death, the formation of the vigilance committee, and the notorious Tom Sherman's induction into the vigilante honorarium. You will feel the tension as we explore the aftermath of Charles Burns' shocking death and the pivotal moment when Dodge City recognized its dire need for law enforcement.
Fast-forward to the explosive confrontation between William Taylor and John Scotty Scott. Hear the echoes of gunshots in the dusty streets, feel the palpable fear as Taylor narrowly escapes a deadly altercation, setting off a wave of panic across the town. The drama intensifies as we delve into the conflict between Fort Dodge and the town, the illegal bar run by Mr. Hoover, and the consequential establishment of the town's legal status. Join us on this gripping journey into the past, packed with drama, tension, and a healthy dose of Wild West lawlessness. You won't want to miss it!
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Can you imagine stepping into the frosty plains of the wild west, with just the shimmering moonlight for company and the tales of buffalo hunters, railroad workers, and the occasional gamblers to keep you entertained? And all this through the eyes and trials of a young man named Henry Raymond? Well, you're in for a treat! We're about to take you on a riveting journey that traces Henry's path from Illinois to Kansas in 1872, replete with captivating stories of camaraderie, courage, and wit that were hallmark of the early settlers.
Now picture this - Mike McCabe, our very own lovable rascal, in a saloon, facing off with a dead-eye shot named Kirk Jordan! Sounds dangerous, right? But wait until you hear Mike's impulsively brilliant maneuver that saves the day, or rather, the evening. His quick thinking not only diverts a potentially fatal situation but also turns it into a celebratory event, earning Mike a bullet - a well-earned one, that too!
But that's just a slice of the action. This episode takes you beyond the thrill and the laughter. We explore the harsh realities and beautiful moments that made life in the Wild West fascinating to the core. From the welcoming warmth of the Mastersons, the enchanting tunes from Henry's violin, to the sparkling moonlight on the Santa Fe Trail, we've got it all. Strap in, folks. You're in for a thrilling, laughter-filled, and insightful ride into the wild, woolly west. Join us, won't you?
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Step back in time with us, to the raw, challenging days of the Wild West, as we reveal the captivating narrative of Bat Masterson's return to Dodge City in 1875. This isn't just an echo from the past; it's a living, breathing snapshot of a period when courage was currency, and legends were born. Immerse yourself in the charm and chaos of the frontier life, from Masterson's gambling business, the tragic sacrifice of Molly Brennan, to the pulsating Gold Rush in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Get a front-row view of the complex law enforcement politics of the iconic Dodge City, as saloon keepers pushed for a hard-nosed marshal to maintain order during the cattle drives, while townsfolk were torn between strict handling of Texans and safeguarding their own. Put yourself in the shoes of Masterson as he intervenes in a tense encounter between the harmless Bobby Gill and Marshall Dagger, leading to a dramatic altercation that forever shaped his destiny.
The stakes get even higher, as we discuss the chilling aftermath of this confrontation and Masterson's subsequent decision to run for Sheriff of Ford County. Hear about the nerve-wracking events of the night of September 25, 1877, and the heartrending story of Ed Masterson, Bat's brother, whose encounter with gunplay ultimately led to his tragic end. Join us on this journey and get a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the real Wild West where courage, virtue, and vice intermingled, and where legends like Bat Masterson were born.
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Ever wondered how a woman of privilege found herself dancing wild in a saloon of the Old West? Meet Elizabeth Haley, otherwise known as Squirrel Tooth Alice, as we traverse her thrilling journey from a life of luxury to being a dance hall girl alongside Texas Billy Thompson. As we delve into their story, we'll uncover their life on the frontier, the unexpected paths they took, and their subsequent rise to saloon owners in turbulent Abilene, Kansas.
Hold onto your hats as we enter a dramatic face-off involving Billy, local law enforcement, and a fateful shotgun blast that shatters the peace of the Wild West town. As we wade through the murky waters of conflict and consequence, the death of Sheriff Chauncey B Whitney brings about a shocking turn of events that sends Billy fleeing. This captivating tale, teeming with rich history and intrigue, is bound to keep you on the edge of your saddle!
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Are you ready for an intoxicating journey through the lawless frontier of the Wild West? That's exactly what this episode brings as we find ourselves drawn into a world of gun-slinging chaos and bone-chilling ghost stories. Our adventure begins near Sologue Creek, where we are visited by a lone rider called Bob Shaw who shares an eerie tale of a wrongful lynching that once took place on the very spot where we've set up camp. His chilling narrative sets the tone for the unpredictable and thrilling escapade that lies ahead.
Our journey continues as we traverse the heart of the Wild West and head to the raucous Lone Star Dance Hall. The night unfolds into a high-stakes drama as Bob, now heavily intoxicated, gets into a heated confrontation with the bartender. The situation escalates when Texas Dick, Bob's elusive friend, is thrust into the chaos. With a gunfight looming, we find ourselves in the thick of the action, battling our nerves while trying to diffuse the tension. This episode is a rollercoaster ride of suspense and intrigue, painting a vivid picture of the unpredictability and danger that marked life on the frontier. So saddle up and join us on this Wild West adventure. If you liked this story, you may want to purchase Cattle Drives: The Days That Tried Men's Soul by Mike King.
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Are you ready for a shot of adrenaline? Strap in, as we rocket back through history to the volatile era of the Cheyenne Indian Wars. From the first sparks of conflict in the Cheyenne Campaign of 1857 to the chilling Sheridan Winter Campaign of 1868, we're about to rip the lid off the stories that shaped the American West. It's a wild ride filled with buffalo stampedes, tough negotiations, and gripping battles, so buckle up!
Imagine trudging across the Santa Fe Trail, your heart pounding as a massive buffalo herd stampedes alongside. Envision the terrain under your boots changing from rugged paths to sun-kissed grasslands, the adrenaline rush of the journey pulsating through every fiber of your being. Our guide for this trek is none other than Colonel Edwin Vos Sumner, leading his regiment through raw wilderness, capturing the essence of the era with stark realism.
As our journey nears its climax, we find ourselves caught in a nerve-wracking face-off with a large Cheyenne war party. Listen, as we dissect Bull Sumner's strategic maneuvers during the Battle of Solomon Fork and the aftermath that saw him extending a hand of compassion to his wounded soldiers. This is raw history, up close and personal, as recounted by 17-year-old Robert E. Peck, a recruit in the 1st Cavalry Regiment. Prepare yourself for an unforgettable journey through the past that's as thrilling as it is enlightening!
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Hold on to your cowboy hats as we set off on a galloping journey back to the wild West - the birthplace of the rodeo. We're venturing back to the mid-1800s, where it all began with Spanish missionaries, Vecarro culture, and the early cowboys whose fierce rivalry sparked the creation of what we now know as professional rodeo. Discover how their roping and riding contests for bragging rights transformed into a recognized sport, with a nod to pioneers like William F. Cody and his entertainment shows, and William Pickett's innovative bull-wrestling technique, bulldogging.
We'll also steer you through the various events that have become hallmarks of the professional rodeo - from the rough and tumble of saddle bronc riding and bull riding to the heart-pounding excitement of team roping and barrel racing. Listen as we dissect each event, revealing how their roots lie deep in traditional ranching practices. As we hit the 20th century, join us for a rewind of the first annual Dodge City Rodeo in 1939, and a salute to influential women like Annie Oakley and Mabel Strickland Woodward, who paved the way for women in the sport. Get ready for a wild ride, partners! Purchase Cattle Drives: The Days That Tried Men's Souls
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Get ready for an in-depth journey into the heart of Dodge City's rich history with our special guest, Tim Wenzel, distinguished for his significant contributions to the community and author of the book Historic Buildings and Landmarks of Dodge City. We will peel back the layers of time in this iconic town, from its exclusive heritage to the impressive multi-million dollar project to invigorate the downtown district. Not only will we traverse its architectural gems like the Hardesty House, but we're also dedicated to discussing the preservation efforts that have kept the spirit of Dodge City alive.
Peppered with fascinating stories and insights, our exploration continues as we delve into the history of the Loralock Hotel, the luxury hostelry of yesteryears, and the Chuck Beeson Theater, a notable entertainment hub in the city. As we wander through the Hoover Pavilion and uncover the captivating tales of the Mueller Schmidt House, the Home of Stone, and even the unique Bat Masterson statue, you'll realize that Dodge City is more than just a town - it's a living testament of time. Whether you're a history buff, an architecture lover, or just curious about Dodge City, this episode will keep you intrigued and enlightened. You can tune in now for an unforgettable historical exploration.
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Brace yourself for an exciting journey as we take a riveting plunge into the icy depths of military history, focusing on the winter campaign of 1868 and 1869 in Indian territory. Our adventure begins with the Custer's 7th US Cavalry and the 19th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry’s unyielding march across chilling winds and treacherous rivers, to establish a new supply camp. We paint a vivid picture of their determination, their confrontations with the Native Americans, as well as their recreational buffalo hunts. We even recount General Sheridan's chilling tale of being trapped in a blizzard!
The adventure continues as we delve into the establishment of Camp Supply and subsequent winter quarters, sharing tales of the back-breaking work of cutting trees for building materials and digging trenches. You'll witness the strategic genius of Major Elliot and General Custer as they boost their soldiers' morale with a dash of whiskey! We also recount the construction of Camp Supply, demonstrating the unwavering resolve of the soldiers, and end with a thrilling encounter of what the Osage Indians believed to be the ghost of an Arapaho warrior. Strap in for this frosty ride into the past as we spotlight the tenacity of the brave soldiers who faced the biting cold and relentless battles to carve out fortresses in the wilderness.
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Unearth the shocking details of the Kansas Frontier Conflict as we traverse its harrowing terrain in this riveting discussion with Jeff and Mike. Brace yourself as we delve into the horrifying Solomon raids of August 1868, and the dreadful fate of the little Bell sisters at the hands of Black Kettle's band. The Indian Depredation Claims reveal the chilling accounts of Elizabeth Bell and her young daughter, Ellen - tales that will leave you with a profound understanding of the trials endured by these settlers.
The aftermath of these terrifying raids is no less chilling. We broach the heart-wrenching losses suffered by not only the Bell family, but also the Thompsons and the Smiths. Hear the distressing experiences of Anna Morgan and Sarah White in captivity, and the Bertos family's dreadful ordeal. It's a sobering reminder of the brutality of the frontier, and the grim reality of life in the Kansas plains during this violence-riddled period.
Finally, we sift through Alfred Sully's controversial report from August 19th at the Shermahorn Ranch, a document that had a ripple effect on future military operations within the Indian Territory. We shed light on Mrs. Bacon's sworn statement, and the audacious actions of the three Indians who attacked her cabin on August 10th. Through these stories and accounts, we aim to provide you with a nuanced understanding of this turbulent time in history. Join us, Jeff and Mike, as we walk the path of our Kansas Frontier Conflict series, arming you with insights and perspectives that will reshape your understanding of this tumultuous period.
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Prepare to be transported back to the tumultuous times of 1868 as we bring you the heart-racing tale of two courageous soldiers, Corporal Leander Herron, and Private Patrick O'Boyle. Under the ominous cloak of night, Herron and O'Boyle faced off against a circle of Indians to secure the post mail from Fort Larned, in an encounter that would etch their names in history. This riveting story takes you through their strategic maneuvers, awe-inspiring bravery, and a pulse-pounding escape that led to Corporal Herron being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
But that's not all, folks! The second part of our episode brings history to life as we sit down with the man himself, Corporal Leander Herron, now an 85-year-old war veteran. The only man in Nebraska to hold the Congressional Medal of Honor, Herron paints a vivid picture of that fateful mission with O'Boyle. Listen in as he recounts their daring operation, the choices they had to make, and the valorous act that saved wounded men from attack. This is a conversation that promises to keep you on the edge of your seat, filled with tales of strategy, survival, and courage in the face of overwhelming odds. Don't miss out!
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We're excited to bring you a fascinating conversation with Jeff Broome, a renowned historian recognized globally for his contributions to Native American history. Jeff provides us with unparalleled insights into the Southern Plains tribes and their growing grievances due to the presence of White Settlers, as well as the complex causes of the war, including the discovery of gold in Colorado. Together, we explore the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie on Horse Creek, which granted land to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe, and the impact of settlers following water courses from Casper, Wyoming, all the way down to Pueblo, Colorado.
Join us as we delve into the conflict on the Kansas frontier, examining how the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 predicted the buffalo population would be gone within twenty years, and how treaties like Fort Lyon and Little Arkansas allowed the Indians to continue to hunt the buffalo, sparking further clashes with homesteaders. Jeff Broome also outlines the Indian Depredation Claims process and how they offer unique insights into the actions of Black Kettle, the Cheyenne leader. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in learning about the events that drew General Custer back into active service and the consequences of commercial farming in Kansas on the classic Plains Indian culture.
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There had been reports of gold in the Rocky Mountains since the time of the Conquistadors. John Ralston had found a little in Arvada in 1849. But no one had gotten rich. William Green Russell and some other successful Georgia miners decided to come to the Rocky Mountains and find lots of gold. They left Georgia on February 17, 1858, and after four months on the road, they got to the banks of Cherry Creek on June 24. They came following the Santa Fe Trail to the Cherokee Trail. On July 3rd, most gave up and returned home. Thirteen remained. These people were convinced gold was here and were determined to find it. A few weeks later, James Pierce, Russell’s cousin, found about $400 worth of gold at the mouth of Little Dry Creek in Englewood. On the last day of July, a whisky trader and complete stranger, John Cantrell, a former California 49er himself, rode into the Dry Creek camp and not only visited for a week but, upon his departure to Kansas City, took a bag of Jim Pierce’s gold-bearing gravel and dirt with him. Arriving in Kansas City with his pouch of pay dirt, Cantrell had it assayed and the value attested. On August 26, the Kansas City Journal of Commerce headlines of August 26, 1858, stated: Gold in Kansas Territory!! The Pike's Peak Mines! First Arrival of Gold Dust at Kansas City!!!" Wild West Podcast proudly presents Gold & The Overland Trail, excerpts from Rush to the Rockies, 1859, by Anges Wright Spring.
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Generals Sherman, Sheridan, and Sully had united in an appeal for the remission of the remaining weeks of Custer's sentence so that he might participate in the coming campaign. The reports from the different scouting parties were eminently satisfactory. Large bands of tribes from the north had crossed the railroad and the Denver stage route going south. A body, supposed to be Sioux, was also reported crossing the Platte, going north. The harassment to which these Indians had yielded in the vicinity of their old hunting grounds, along the Republican and its tributaries, had so wholly disbanded their feelings of safety that the northern bands had almost entirely abandoned that section and were searching for new locations for their villages and families. The season was far advanced, and aside from their repeated disasters, their desire to be left alone was now gaining a bastion on the minds of the southern plains tribes. However, as the cold weather approached, Sheridan became more active in his preparations, and the time to strike came nearer.
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In this episode of Trails to the Washita, we invite Dee Cordry, the author of "Children of White Thunder, Legacy of a Cheyenne Family 1830-2020" to provide our listeners with a perspective of the Plains Tribe during Sheridans Winter Campaign of 1868. Here we discuss various topics, including the incident at Pawnee Fork, the Medicine Lodge Treaty, Tall Bull and his Dog Soldiers, and the Cheyenne Tribal Culture, including the peacekeeping efforts of the council of 44. Throughout this episode, Dee Cordry provides many historical researched events to explain why the Dog Soldiers continued their raids on the white settlements in Kansas and why Black Kettle had no authority over the warrior faction of his tribe. For those who would like to further their knowledge of the Legacy of the Cheyenne people, we highly recommend you select the link provided in this podcast to purchase Dee's book "Children of White Thunder, Legacy of a Cheyenne Family 1830-2020."
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The violence the retaliatory Dog Soldiers unleashed in north central Kansas had but one inevitable consequence. The mutual retribution that followed was harsh, and the war took a terrible toll on whites and Indians alike. One of Sheridan's aggressions was the September intrusion of a fifty-man scouting force under Major George A. Forsyth into the Cheyenne-Sioux country of the Upper Republican River. It resulted in the classic battle of Beecher's Island in which the famous warrior Roman Nose was killed. The Dog Soldiers, under Bull Bear, Tall Bull, and White Horse, were involved in the affair. The combined Cheyenne-Arapaho-Sioux force, however, found it too costly to overrun the scouts who had taken up positions on a small island on the Arickaree branch of the Republican. Less than a month later, Major William B. Royall, with three companies of cavalry, drove along the Beaver River of western Kansas looking for Indians. Instead, Tall Bull found him, hitting his camp and killing two troopers while running off twenty-six horses. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Skirmish on Beaver Creek.
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With the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, thousands of displaced Native Americans from the Great Lakes, forced out west twenty-five years before 1854, were once again forced to relocate from the newly created state of Kansas. Encroaching settlers greatly upset many Indians, particularly young men of the Cheyenne tribe. Some bands of the Cheyenne vehemently opposed the deals their chiefs and the U.S. government continued to make. The plains tribes began forming militias as early as the 1840s, the most famous being the Dog Soldiers. Their name is derived from the French word for dog, “Chien,” since the word sounds similar to “Cheyenne.“ From 1864 to 1868, the Dog Soldiers created multiple atrocities across Kansas, and many of these stories remain to be told. Wild West Podcast proudly presents the Trails to the Washita; The Clara Blinn story with special guest Siobhan Fallon. Watch Video White Captive at the Washita
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The story of The Trails to the Washita is about when civilization in Kansas began traversing the gilded regions of the plains. It was also a time when the Native Americans in this region became alarmed at this new encroachment. They were ready at any moment for a desperate, final effort to drive out the invaders of his hunting grounds. In part one, entitled Custer's Return, we tell many early back stories of Sheridan's campaign against the central plains Indians. These backstories include the Cheyenne raid against the Kanza tribe in Council Grove, Sullys September 1868 expedition in the South, Forsyth's battle at Arickaree River, Custer's arrival at Fort Hays and the October 12 capture of Clara Blinn. If you have any comments or want to add to our series, please write us at wildwestpodcast@gmail.com. We will share your thoughts or questions as they apply to future episodes.
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In this series of "Trails to the Washita,” Wild West Podcasts will endeavor and combine helpful information on Sheridan's winter campaign with an engaging narrative of the circumstances leading up to and beyond the Battle of the Washita. During this series, we also hope to bring you a plethora of special guests who will bring light to the historical prospectives of various events supporting the original narrative of this series.
Join us in April of 2023 in this six-part podcast as we provide information with first-person accounts on (1.) the chain of events pulling Custer back into active service, (2.) Major Carr’s skirmish on Beaver Creek, (3.) the preparation for war at Camp Sandy Forsyth, (4.) the establishment of Fort Supply, (5.) the Nineteenth Cavalry’s winter march to Camp Supply, and (6.) the attack on Black Kettles camp.
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In May 1883, Mysterious Dave returned to Dodge City, Kansas, maintaining his reputation for making poor choices. Mather arrived during the so-called Dodge City War, a dispute between saloon owners who were friends of the mayor of Dodge City and Luke Short, owner of the Long Branch Saloon. Several gunfighters, including Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp, gathered to support their friend Short. However, Masterson and Earp's presence and other gunslingers in town were enough to cause Short's enemies to back down to avoid violence; fortunately for him, Dave did not get involved in the Dodge City War. Wild West Podcast proudly present The Life and Times of Dave Mather Part Three: Return to Dodge City.
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In this podcast, we will reveal how saloons, over time, became a wide range of entertainment and pleasure facilities that offered gambling and drinking, depicting an image of saloons that early temperance movers would have apprehended. Early saloons in Dodge City were dark and cheaply built and set to take all the money of the early buffalo hunters and cattle drivers. As a result, violence sometimes transpired due to the mix of guns, whiskey, girls, and the isolated life on the prairie. Throughout the podcast, we will discuss how the Dodge City saloon culture developed after the railroad arrived on September 12, 1872. The Dodge City Saloon's story demonstrates how the public opinion of the saloon changed as the world they found themselves in changed. Wild West Podcast is proud to present Early Saloons in Dodge City with our special guest Mr. Keith Wondra the newly appointed curator at Dodge City Museum.
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From 1878 to 1879, Mathers rode on both sides of the law. From Ogallala to El Paso to Dodge City, the phantom-like Mysterious Dave Mather hunted buffalo, rustled cattle, played at the gaming tables, bore a wound in a knife fight, wore a law badge, and sometimes even been brought into court as a defendant. He crossed the fence between law and outlaw like a ping-pong ball. There were times when he was credited with being a proficient and courageous badge toter: other times, Mysterious Dave couldn't have cared less. He had served under renowned and respected lawmen: but he had also ridden the back trails with the worst of the lawless element. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Part 2 of "The Life and Times of Mysterious Dave Mather: The Las Vegas New Mexico Years."
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He was known as "Mysterious" Dave or sometimes as "New York Dave." During his lifetime, he became noted for many professions in the Old West as a horse thief, buffalo hunter, train and stagecoach robber, law officer, prospector, farmer, gambler, and hotel employee. Little is known today of Mather's life; the gaps in his personal history and his taciturn personality earned him the moniker "Mysterious Dave.” Join us now as Wild West Podcast takes you back to the history of the old West as we present The Life and Times of Mysterious Dave Mather.
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On February 15, 1879, Bassett, Sheriff Masterson, and others were at Fort Leavenworth to pick up seven Cheyenne prisoners from the military authorities. The Indians, members of Dull Knife's band, were accused of committing atrocities during their September 1878 flight across Kansas and were to be taken to Dodge City for trial. Wild West Podcast proudly presents “The State of Kansas vs. Wild Hog.” Stay tuned after the show for a special announcement. Resource for Podcast
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Legend has it James “Spike” Kenedy was just as much a victim as the woman he killed in cold blood. Though all agree Dora Hand was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was not Spike’s intended target, there is some disagreement as to why mayor James “Dog” Kelley was Spike’s target. Some speculate that Spike tried to kill Dog because Dog was his rival in love with Dora. That would have been more than ironic – ending up killing the object of his adoration rather than winning her. For whatever reason, there was bad blood between Kenedy and Kelley. Things got out of hand in the summer of 1878 when Dog threw Spike out of his saloon. Spike vowed to bring vengeance upon Dog. Wild West Podcast proudly presents “The Beautiful and Lovely Dora Hand.”
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At roundup time or on a five-month trail drive that covered 1500 miles, the chuck wagon was an essential piece of equipment in the cattle industry, and the cook was the most important person. More than any other man, the cook ensured the men were happy and productive. Without good food, men would quit, and the work would not get done. So it was well said among the cowboys before mealtime. Wild West Podcast proudly presents The Chuck Wagon with …
"Bacon on the pan
Coffee in the pot;
Get up, get it -
Get it while it's hot
Stay with us after this episode as Mike and I further explore; The Importance of the Chuck Wagon on a Cattle Drive.
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In 1858 there was a little camp about ten miles from Pinoche, and the winter months had tiptoed in as if dancing to a timid harp, as if it takes time for those colder months to gain the certainty that their time has arrived. In this camp occupied by three hundred miners, every one of whom might have packed his prospecting implements and left for more inviting fields any time before sunset. But, instead, when the day was over, these men did not rest from their labors, like the honest New England agriculturist, but sang, danced, gambled, and shot each other as the mood seized them.
Christmas eve was fast approaching, and a feeling of unease came with it. Yet the miners in town wanted to make Christmas Eve special, to take time to see souls and their level of wellness or need. They planned to rest in a quiet moment to observe the spiritual rather than the hard labor of the mines allowing the world's business to put friendship first rather than in the dark moments of the mines. Wild West Podcast proudly presents “A Miner's Christmas Carol” by Sameul Davis, edited by Mike King & narrated by Brad Smalley.
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As much as we like to romanticize cattle drives, they were more complicated than we imagined. Hours were long, food was monotonous, horses were bad, cattle were worse, and sleep was hard to come by. Yet, despite the hardships, many young men during the second half of the 19th century answered the call for trial hands. The allure of trailing thousands of cattle over wild lands and visiting far-off cattle towns like Abilene, Dodge City, and Ellsworth was too much to resist. Like most adventures, the extended drive had a mix of hot sun, dust storms, thunderous rain, treacherous river crossings, and merriment and peril. While these cowboy experiences cannot give us a complete look at every threat the cowboy faces, they should paint a general picture that will help us understand the known hazards. Regardless of the direction the drives took, they all faced roughly the same perils: stampedes, river crossings, and Indian attacks. Follow us now as we look at cowboy tales describing a cattle drive's hazards. Part 2: Stampedes, Jayhawkers, & Indian Troubles.
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Driving cattle over the various trails was by no means an easy or unassailable task. The cowboy was forced to cope with the perils of the frontier. These perils included terrible roads, rough weather, cattle stampedes, and requiring men to pass through Indian Territory to reach their destinations. In addition, the Indians encountered often demanded tributes from the cowboy as compensation for being allowed to traverse their lands. Wild West Podcast proudly presents. Hazards on the Trail Part 1: Big Blue, Firefox, and River Crossings. Make sure you stay with us after today's podcast as Mike and I discuss the unwritten rules of the cowboy on the trail.
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A herd on the trail moved about ten miles a day. Leading the way were the trail boss and the cook with his chuck wagon. To the side of the herd rode most of the cowboys, who kept wandering cattle from separating from the rest of the herd. Bringing up the rear, and eating the dust of several thousand shuffling cattle, were the drag men. Cowboys joked that the drag was where a cowboy learned to curse. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Cattle Drives, Cowboys, and Cattle Towns, Part 5: The Cattle Drive.
Soraya -Be Convinced! Sharing Lifechanging Stories of Hope
Host Soraya Diase Coffelt is a lawyer, former judge, entrepreneur, children's author,...
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Search the world for manly noblemen, who scorned to do an underhand trick to gain an advantage over an adversary, making the price of honor so high that dishonor forfeited the life of the betrayer, and you may have created an impossible ideal. But go to the real old-time ranchman, who now perhaps is a banker or dealer in high finance, and ask him to tell you the characteristics of those bold, reckless dare-devils that he used to employ on the range. Those who could laugh while they fought the robbers and Indians, and he will tell you that nowhere on God's footstool were women and children safer than under the protecting care of the cowboys. They never failed to respond to an appeal for help when the lives and homes of the early settlers were in danger. The cowboy placed his life at their service with his pony and arms and boldly marched forth to victory or death. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Cattle Drives, Cowboys & Cowtowns, Part 4: "The Culture of the Cowboy.” Stay with us after this episode as Mike and I further explore; cowboy attire.
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From 1867 to 1889, the two most prominent cattle trails in Texas were the Western Trail, also known as the Fort Griffin-Dodge City Trail, and the Eastern Trail, also known as the Chisholm Trail. To confuse matters further, the Chisholm Trail has also been historically referred to as the Abilene, Caldwell, Cattle, Great Texas Cattle, Kansas, and McCoy's Trail. Still, Texas historians acknowledge that the names of these trails do not resonate as loudly within American history or attract as much tourism as Chisholm Trail. The first cattle trail is named after Jesse Chisholm, a Scotch-Cherokee fur trader who forged a route from Wichita, Kansas, to the North Canadian River. To follow the history of the cattle trails, Joseph G. McCoy, a businessman, and entrepreneur, is credited with the extension of the trail as far south as Brownsville, Texas. The Chisholm Trail became popularized in American history through songs, stories, mythical tales, radio, television, and movies. To this day, historians and enthusiasts debate various aspects of the Chisholm Trail's history, especially the route and name. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Cattle Trails and the Men who Founded Them.
The Daily Dad
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In 1867 an Illinois cattle shipper named Joseph G. McCoy arrived upon a plan to revitalize the cattle industry. This young man conceived the idea of opening an outlet for Texan cattle. Being impressed with the knowledge of the number of cattle in Texas and the difficulties of getting them to market by the routes and means then in use, and realizing the significant disparity between Texas values and Northern prices of cattle, he set himself to thinking and studying to hit upon some plan whereby these great extremes would be equalized. The goal was to establish at some accessible point a depot or market to which a Texan drover could bring his stock unmolested, and there, failing to find a buyer, he could go upon the public highways to any market in the country he wished. In short, it was to establish a market at which the Southern drover and Northern buyer would meet upon an equal footing and both be undisturbed by mobs or swindling thieves... Wild West Podcast presents Cattle Drives, Cowboys, and Cattle Towns: Part 2 Joseph G. McCoy and the Cattle Industry of the 1800s. Stay with us after this episode as we explore the plausibility of the cattle trade and ask the question, what would have happened to the westward expansion if the cattle trade industry had never existed? Join us next time as we explore the Making of the Cattle Trails. Subscribe to Wild West Podcast at: Apple Podcast
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1 podcast for diverse smallbiz owners to go from unknown to legendary without ads or $$$
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"All over the land are vast and handsome pastures, with good grass for cattle . . .” A grass that moved as a heaven-weaved quilt of the earth, as if by root and stem, stood in protection of a hardy breed of livestock known as the Longhorn. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Trails, Cattle Drives, Cowboys, and Cattle Towns, Part 1: The Longhorn. Please join us at the end of the podcast as we review some interesting facts about the characteristics of the longhorn.
In this episode, buffalo hunters Jim White, Hoodoo Brown, Prairie Dog Morrow, and Josiah Wright Moore are camped along the Salina River, preparing hides to take to the market. During the evening, just before mealtime, a hunter by the name of Hoodoo Brown tells his account of the aftermath of the Washita battle on November 27, 1868. The battle is best remembered when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Southern Cheyenne camp. Custer's forces attacked the village because scouts had found it by tracking the trail of an Indian party that had raided white settlers. Black Kettle and his people had been at peace and were seeking peace. On that day, Custer's soldiers killed women and children in addition to warriors. They also took many captives to serve as hostages and human shields. The aftermath is the December 7, 1868, story of Custer's return to the battlefield to claim the remains of the fallen and boast of his accomplishments to General Sheridan. Wild West Podcast proudly present’s - "The Aftermath: Battle of the Washita." Subscribe to Wild West Podcast on Apple Podcast
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Theculture, history and traditions podcast where Gullah Geechee culture lives!
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In the fall of 2021, Wild West Podcast will proudly present an all-new series entitled Trails, Cattle Drives, Cowboys, and Cattle Towns. This new series will explore the early cattle trade, relive the challenges of a trail drive, describe the character of the cowboy, and retell the stories of individuals who endured the hardships of the cattle trails of the 1800s. The podcast series will provide Interesting Sketches of Early Cowboys and their Experiences on the Range and on the Trail during the Days that Tried Men's Souls. In addition, the podcast provides true narratives told by real Cowboys and the men who fathered the cattle industry.
So make sure you subscribe to our podcast listed at the end of the description text of this podcast to receive notification on all new episodes. You can also join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ WildWestPodcast to review excerpts and historical accounts of this new series entitled Trails, Cattle Drives, Cowboys, and Cattle Towns. Subscribe to Wild West Podcast at .... Wild West Podcast
In this episode of the Life and Times of Bat Masterson, Bat, a few of his hired hands travel to Colorado to settle a dispute between two railroad tycoons who have engaged in a war for the right of way to lay track along Colorado’s Royal Gorge. This episode concludes with Bat Masterson’s final years, including his resignation as sheriff of Ford County, his marriage to Emma Moulton in 1889, and his career as a sports writer for the New York Morning Telegraph until his death on October 26, 1921. Wild West Podcast is proud to present the final episode of the Life & Times of Bat Masterson: The Royal Gorge War and the Final Years. Please stay tuned after this episode for some concluding thoughts on Bat Mastersons’ overall contributions to settling the Western frontier.
Even though a Town Company had organized the small settlement in August 1872, the city was still unincorporated. The town had no elected or appointed officials. A county government had not yet been organized; consequently, there were no courts, jails, or official law enforcement in the region. The closest known law was located in Hays City, over 100 miles away. Initially, there was no law enforcement in the burgeoning settlement, and Dodge City quickly acquired its infamous stamp of lawlessness and gun slinging. As the many buffalo hunters, railroad workers, drifters, and soldiers streamed into the town after long excursions on the prairie; they quickly found the saloons and the inevitable fights that ensued. The men who set up the business decided they would hire protection, and when they did, they found Billy Brooks. Wild West Podcast is proud to present The Return of Billy Brooks: The Lawman who Turned Bad.
After the gunfight in Sweetwater, Texas, and the killing of Mollie Brennan and Melvin King, Masterson settles in Dodge City. He soon becomes embroiled in a wrestling match with the city marshal over the arrest of Bobby Gill. Masterson is arrested and given a fine of $25.00 for disturbing the peace. The incident motivates Masterson to run for sheriff of Ford County, and he is awarded the vote of victory over Larry Deger. The following years are the portion of Mastersons’ life that not only makes him a famous lawman but also where he suffers a more significant loss; the death of his brother Ed. Wild West Podcast is proud to present The Life & Times of Bat Masterson: Part 3: Gunfighters, Gamblers, Jokers & Saloon Girls.
The story of Charles Rath describes the beginning of the fur trade in Kansas and how the expansion West over this vast prairie becomes a slaughtering ground of the American Bison. The story conveys how one hide dealer by the name of Charles Rath becomes one of the first speculators for securing hides for the development of factory belts. Through the speculation of the hide trade Charles Rath a future citizen of Dodge City establishes himself as a habitués to the birth of the industrial age.
On September 11, 1874, the John German family, consisting of his wife and seven children, were attacked by a band of Cheyenne east of Ft. Wallace, Kansas. Only four of the children, Catherine, Sophia, Julia, and Adelaide, were spared and taken captive. The two youngest, Julia and Adelaide (aged 7 and 5), were subsequently abandoned on the prairie in what is now the Texas panhandle. Catherine and Sophia were kept by their Cheyenne captors. Wild west Podcast proudly presents the story of the German Family ambush with our special guest afterwords - Mr. Scott Dean.
A score of battles and running skirmishes raged across the plains and canyons with some 3,000 soldiers engaging up to 700 Indian warriors. Several pivotal battles took place in the Texas Panhandle during the summer and fall of 1874.
Outnumbered and outgunned, native warriors and their families spent months running and fighting. After decisive Army victories, Southern Plains Indians gave up their free-roaming way of life and by June of 1875, began new lives on the reservation. Wild West Podcast proudly presents “Bat Masterson and the Red River War.”
“God did not make all men equal," Westerners were fond of saying, "Colonel Colt did.” When it came to the use of shooting irons, however, some men were more equal than others, a fact gunfighters knew well. So, to improve the odds of landing on the right side of this equation, they exercised meticulous care in selecting their firearms from among the weapons available. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Gunfighters and Guns in the Old West, including excerpts from "Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshall" by Stuart N. Lake.
As a boy, William Barclay Masterson had a great love for hunting which, according to his good friend Alfred Henry Lewis, earned him his nickname, Bat, after Baptize Brown or "Old Bat." When William became engaged in buffalo hunting in the early seventies, the name descended to him. William Barclay Masterson would be known as "Bat" Masterson for the rest of his life. Henry Hubert Raymond recollects the following story about Bat Masterson's early life. Wild West Podcast proudly presents The Life and Times of Bat Masters: Part One; The Early Years.
This episode covers three phases of Bat Masterson's life, the early years when Bat was a boy growing up in Illinois, his teenage year's buffalo hunting on the Kansas plains, and Indian fighting at Adobe Walls. Order Book Buffalo Days & the Battle of Adobe Walls
H. L. Sitler constructed the first building on the town site of Dodge City in 1871. The location of the sod house was five miles west of Fort Dodge. The spot was near a lone cottonwood tree standing near the entrance of Wright Park that marked a long-used ford across the Arkansas River. The first business that opened on the site of Dodge City was George M. Hoover and John McDonald's saloon. The story produced by Mike King tells the account of how Hoover, a Canadian at age twenty-four, carefully measured out the distance of five miles west of Fort Dodge jurisdiction. On the morning of June 17, 1872, Hoover and McDonald's erected a tent and unloaded a wagon full of whiskey, and by 8:00 a.m., the first saloon in the area was open. He then moved his business establishment, the Hoover & McDonald Wines and Liquors, in 1874 to No. 36, Front Street.
Gambling played a significant role in the lives of the buffalo hunters and cowboys who drove America's Westward movement during the nineteenth century. Whether it was a game of poker played on a blanket or a Faro bet placed in a saloon, the game of chance was dear to the heart of the early frontiersman who spun the wheel on liquor, lust, and luck. Like most frontier towns, Dodge City started with a small clump of tents, including a general store, livery stable, and the saloon. However, it did not take long for the settlement to expand, and entertainment came with the games of chance with this expansion. This episode is an expansion of the original recording remastered to include Faro. The story of Early Gamblers of Dodge City is about the history of cowtown gambling and how these games are played.
In episode three of Bat Masterson in Tombstone entitled "Doc Holliday's Silver Dollar," Masterson finally arrives after his long journey from Dodge City. Holliday greets Masterson at the stage station, and they take a stroll along Allen Street. During their walk, Masterson inquires about the whereabouts of Big Nose Kate. Holliday extends this opportunity to provide Masterson with the ongoing troubling affirmations and differences between Kate and himself. Finally, Holliday concludes his conversation with Masterson about the history and founding of Tombstone.
In this episode of Bat Masterson in Tombstone Part II: The Man Who Swallowed a Wagon Wheel, Masterson takes a stagecoach to Tombstone with a driver named Bob Paul. On their journey tooled south from Benson along the San Pedro River, Bob Paul describes the political climate in Tombstone while telling the story of William Whitney Brazelton. Bob concludes his story by warning Masterson how Tombstone has become a town divided between Democrats and Republicans with the potential outbreak of a gamblers war.
In this episode, we explore the history of the wild west variety shows, including Dodge City in 1878 and beyond. The podcast is based on the work provided by the Kansas Historical Society and the research of Dr. James C. Malin, along with our producer and historical writer Mike King. The first part of the podcast, narrated by Brad Smalley, tells how Variety was a popular form of American stage entertainment in the mid-1800s. First conceived as saloon shows, these revues were anything but refined. Instead, circus acts, singers, dancers, chorus girls, and bawdy comics were presented in whatever proportion each bar owner preferred. The second part of the podcast presented by director Doug Austen provides a historical account of the Dodge City Variety Show from 1878 to its present day.
In December of 1880, Bat Masterson takes a train from Kansas City to Dodge City. During Mastersons travels, he reminisces back on a time when he and his brother Ed worked grading track for the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Rail Road. While in Dodge City, he visits with friends, spends time gambling, and reflects back to 1878, when Dodge City featured an entire vaudeville show headlined by the Eddie Foy and Jimmie Thompson team. On February 2, 1881, Bat Masterson receives a Western Union Telegraph from Wyatt Earp asking him to join him in Tombstone, Arizona. This podcast is the true story of Bat Masterson's travel to Tombstone as George T. Buffum recorded it. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Bat Masterson in Tombstone, Part I: Western Union, Signed Wyatt Earp.
The following is a narrative poem written by Robert Service, composed during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896–1899. It is the story of two friends mushing their way along the Dawson Trail, scavenging for gold. Even though the story in poetic terms starts to be a grim tale, it leads to a wonder - something that sparkles to the disparity of hope on the eve of a Christmas Day. Service like his stories was a wanderer who rarely settled for long in one place. In 1895, he made his way to British Columbia, worked as a store clerk in Cowichan Bay, and wrote poems and published them in the Daily Colonist, a Victoria newspaper. By 1903, he was working at a bank in Victoria. Head office sent him off to the new small town of Whitehorse, established in the frenzy of the Klondike Gold Rush and now in need of a bank. This is where he found the words to a ballad you are about to hear. Wild West Podcast proudly presents "The Cremation of Sam McGee" which is dedicated to Penny the producer's sister in law.
The exciting and unique story of early Dodge City is told daily along Front Street at Boot Hill Museum. The area’s rich history dates back to the Native Americans who thrived off the land and the buffalo. The establishment of the Santa Fe Trail brought settlers to the area and introduced the potential of what is known as Dodge City. Law and order was soon recognized, and Dodge City became a civilized frontier town and a center of commerce on the prairie. Wild West Podcast proudly presents the History of Boot Hill Museum. At the end of this episode, we will have Lyne Johnson, Assistant Director of Boot Hill Museum, to talk about the progress the museum has made over the years.
To receive additional information on Boot Hill Museum you can join the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BootHillMuseum. In addition, you can learn more about your upcoming visit to Boot Hill Museum at www.boothill.org. Links to these Websites are provided in the description portion of this Podcast.
Mayor Kelley's: Bear Meat for Christmas is posted once a year during December. The story takes place in 1877, when Dodge City, Kansas, was full of pranksters. The script written and produced by Mike King tells of a mischief-maker named Luke McGlue, who meets up with James Dog Kelly of Dodge City. Mayor Kelly had a tame bear that he called "Paddy," which for a time became the town pet in Dodge City. As the animal grew more substantial and rowdier, the cowboys often tormented Paddy resulting in the bear taking refuge in the bedroom of a local hotel. What happens next can only be described in the title of this podcast. There are intended touches of humor in this story written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley. For more stories from Luke McGlue, go to "The Machiavellian of Dodge City."
The William Taylor Incident is the story of the killing of an innocent man by self-appointed Dodge City vigilantes. The story is told from the first-person perspective of Herman Fringer, one of the early settlers of Dodge City. No one knows the exact truth about how William Taylor got himself into the trouble that led to his killing. Some say his story could have been told in many different ways. The fact is that William Taylor was executed by a drunken mob who called themselves vigilantes, and someone would need to be held accountable.
Some say Taylor's murder led Governor Osborn to appoint the first Commissioners of Ford County so a sheriff could be appointed. Others say the first county commissioners came into being, so the Kansas law would not be violated when selling liquor without an organized county. No matter the reason for the formation of the Ford County commission, whether to sell alcohol legally or to obtain a sheriff, William Taylor's murder needed to be resolved through the acts of civil order in a lawless town.
As Dodge City was made by the Santa Fe Railroad, Fort Dodge was made by the Santa Fe Trail. Fort Dodge, established in 1865, was a part of the series of early frontier forts that made the settlement of the west possible by protecting travelers along the Santa Fe Trail. Thus, Fort Dodge has historical significance but has never been comprehensively evaluated for its eligibility to be placed on the National Historic Register.
Of the three military installations in Kansas established to protect the Santa Fe Trail (including Fort Leavenworth established in 1827 and Fort Larned established in 1859), Fort Dodge remains the only fort not protected by Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Unfortunately, this means that Fort Dodge buildings and cultural resources still lie unprotected. It is time for Fort Dodge to have its place in history and be protected by the National Parks Service as a National Historic Site. This show features Connie Penick, who currently serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Ford County Historical Society and is the Committee chair of the Preservation of Fort Dodge Focus group.
To receive updated progress on developments for the preservation of Fort Dodge, you can join the Facebook page at PreserveFtDodge. In addition, you can learn more about the history of Fort Dodge by going to The History of Fort Dodge.
The loss of horses and supplies at Punished Woman's Fork left the Indians in need of replenishment. Their path of flight took them through the Republican and Solomon River tributary system in northwest Kansas. The area which the Cheyenne crossed in Northwest Kansas had a dense settler population. There were slayings and robbery in southwest Kansas during September, but the raids on the settlements in northwest Kansas, primarily in present-day Rawlins and Decatur Counties, were mortifying. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Cheyenne Exodus Part III: Raids on Sappa Valley.
After the Northern Cheyenne departure from the Darlington Reservation on September 9, and the battle of Turkey Springs, they traveled north into Kansas territory. They customarily convoyed as a tightly formed military group with 92 men, 120 women, 69 boys, and 79 girls. They could find no Buffalo or game to hunt, so they relied on stealing. Raiding parties fanned out across the flatlands pillaging ranches, pirating food and horses. The pursuit was on from settlers to military personnel, yet this small band was never surprised, traveling through defensible terrain. They were a military society on the move under disciplined leadership and masterful strategies to thwart attackers who would stop their journey north. Wild West Podcast proudly presents Cheyenne Exodus Part II: The Battle of Punished Women’s Fork.
In episode one, the Northern Cheyenne are escorted to the Darlington Reservation in Indian territory by way of Fort Dodge to Camp Supply, reaching the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation on August 5, 1877. After reaching the reservation at Fort Reno, they were placed under the supervision of superintendent John Miles. The Northern Cheyenne noticed how poverty-stricken it was, and began to fall sick in the late summer of 1877. As a result, the Cheyenne chiefs started the organization to move north, and on September 9, 1878, Little Wolf, Dull Knife, Wild Hog, and Left Hand told their people to organize to leave. This episode ends with the Cheyenne ambushing the military at Turkey Springs and a special interview with Greg Heller on Frontier Forts.
In remembrance of the September 16, 1868 battle between the Forsyth Scouts and the Native American Dog Soldiers Wild West Podcast proudly presents the Schlesinger Account of Beecher Island. This podcast is an excerpt from Mr. Sigmund Schlesinger diary. It contains an original account of Beecher's Island's defense from one of the participants' standpoint and is a unique document in our Western historical records. Following the Schlesinger story of the Battle of Beecher Island Mr. Greg Heller will provide a historical account of the battle. Greg Heller is a retired Texas Peace Officer with 26 years of service. After moving home to Kansas, Greg started researching the Texas Cowboy. During this time, Greg became a founding member of The Kansas Alliance of Professional Historic Performers.
Fort Dodge was a pivotal fort during the Indian campaigns of 1867-69 and 1874-75. The Wet and Dry Routes of the Santa Fe Trail met here; the Fort Hays-Fort Dodge Trail ended here, and the Fort-Dodge-Fort Supply Trail began here. Millions of pounds of armaments and supplies were shipped south in trains of as many as 270 wagons. Fort Dodge was considered the most important of all the forts along the Santa Fe Trail. It was in the heart of Indian country. In this podcast we will bring you "Building A Permanent Post" the story of the early construction of Fort Dodge in 1867. The show will first present a historical narrative. Shortly after that, we will invite a special guest Doug Austen to join us in an in-depth discussion of some stories related the permanent buildings currently existing at Fort Dodge.
In part two of Trail to Medicine Lodge provides a first-hand experience of a young freighter named Billy Dixon. Dixon describes his journey southward from Fort Harker to Fort Larned and across the Arkansas River to Medicine Lodge. During the trip, Dixon describes the sights along the Santa Fe Trail while traveling with the peace commission and a caravan of one hundred and sixty wagons, carrying food and clothing for the Indians. Once the procession crosses the Arkansas River, they encounter over ten thousand buffalos, only to be interrupted by an escort who rushed out to the peaceful grazing bison and began to shoot them. Finally, after four days of travel, when arriving at Medicine Lodge, Dixon witnesses an encampment of five thousand Indians covering the landscape of different tribes making ready for the Medicine Lodge Treaty. Click here to purchase the book Trails, Forts Treaties & Indian Wars.
Welcome to Wild West Podcast, a time in early Kansas history when forts were the sentinels along the Santa Fe Trail to protect onward travelers of a westward expansion. In this new series entitled Fort Dodge the Sentinel to the Cimarron, we will explore the historical timeline of the Forts along the Arkansas River Valley. In today's podcast, we will bring you the story of early forts along the Arkansas River to include Fort Mann, established in 1846, and Fort Atkinson, established in 1850. The show will first present a historical narrative. Shortly after that, we will invite a special guest Deb Goodrich to join us in an in-depth discussion of some stories related to the early forts along the Arkansas River. Books by Deb Goodrich
Part one of "Trail to Medicine Lodge" describes the reasons behind forming a peace commission to end the war with the Plains Indians while describing the Medicine Lodge location in Kansas. The story progresses as Billy Dixon, a hired freighter for the Medicine Lodge expedition, explains firsthand what it was like to move freight from the trailhead forts to the Medicine Lodge location. While on this journey from Fort Harker, Dixon experiences a cholera epidemic and then joins a train of wagons from Fort Hayes to Fort Wallace. While at Fort Wallace, Dixon and his friend Frickie meet a journalist named Henry M. Stanley. Stanley, then working as a special correspondent for the Saint Louis Daily Democrat, provides a character description of each Medicine Lodge Peace Commission member.
Wild West Podcast proudly presents Hancock's War, The Edmund Guerrier Story an unprecedented season of violence on the plains of Kansas. Settlers, overland travelers, and railroad construction crews in post-Civil War Kansas were becoming increasingly uneasy due to numerous Indian raids. The Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho, and Kiowa warriors had become so defiant in the early months of 1867 that they informed certain army officers that as soon as spring came, travel on the various overland routes must cease.
Although the Indian agents insisted that the Kansans were overreacting to the situation, Major General Winfield S. Hancock, commander of the Department of the Missouri, decided to do something about the alarming situation. He informed the various Indian agents that he was organizing an expedition to convince the tribes that he could punish any of them who may molest travelers across the plains or commit other hostilities against the whites. The following story is based on David Dixon's article entitled "A Scout with Custer: Edmund Guerrier on the Hancock Expedition of 1867.” You can purchase the book Trails, Forts, Treaties and Indian Wars at Amazon.com
The Tale of Two Gunfights and One Crazy Mule is an authentic story base on the first-person account of Emanuel Dubbs. Emanuel Dubbs's story takes place on August 20, 1871, when he arrives in Newton, Kansas. The story opens when Dubbs and his wife enter town-witnessing excitement in the streets. Dubbs takes it upon himself to explore a recent Hyde Park gunfight between Mike McCluskie, a burly local man who had worked in Newton as a night watchman, and a Texan named Billy Bailey. Dubs and his wife do not stay long in Newton, and Dubbs takes a job grading track for the Santa Fe Railroad. Then, during the spring of 1872, Dubs traveled with Mr. Wiley to the Arkansas River.
Mr. Wiley, a head contractor, and Dubbs were to scout out a location for a new supply depot. Dubbs riding on his favorite mule named Marie, travel up the line from Fort Larned over what was then known as the Dry Ridge trail. They came off the trail in sight of the beautiful Arkansas valley about two miles above where old Fort Dodge stood. Dubbs describes the panorama view just minutes before he charges down an embankment to shoot a buffalo.
After completing his work for the railroad, Dubbs decides to take in buffalo hunting, and while in Dodge City, he encounters a lawless character by the name of Billy Brooks. During this encounter, he witnesses a revenge gunfight between two Berry brothers from Hayes City over the killing of their brother.
Wild West Podcast proudly presents "Texas Billy and Squirrel Tooth Alice." This true story begins in Abilene, Kansas, when Billy Thompson arrives after a long cattle drive from San Antonio, Texas. Billy Thompson, known as "Texas Billy," decides to take in an evening of entertainment and meets up with Elizabeth Haley, a young lady of 15 who has chosen a dancehall life. A relationship builds between them, and Billy helps run the Bull's Head Saloon, co-owned by his brother Ben Thompson and Phil Cole. However, after a gunfight ensues between Bill Hickok and Phil Cole leaving Cole, dead Billy leaves Abilene on a cattle drive back to Oklahoma. Elizabeth and Billy soon join up with Ben Thompson, Texas Billy's brother in Ellsworth, Kansas. However, the story spins out of control after Billy Thompson is arrested on June 30, 1873, by John Morco for carrying a weapon in town limits. Soon after Billy's arrest, a disagreement breaks out between Marco and Billy Thompson, leaving Sheriff Chancey Whitney dead in the streets of Ellsworth, Kansas.
The story written by Mike King provides the actual accounts of a twenty-five-year relationship between a gambler and a well-known prostitute as they travel through Dodge City and into a new settlement named Hide Town, Mobeetie, Texas, where Bat Masterson is shot.
In part five “The Gathering Tribes” the Indians become aware of the Adobe Walls settlement and gather under the leadership of Quanah Parker to form a war party. Quanah Parker a Comanche war chief seeks the advice of a spiritual leader by the name of Isatai who holds a Sundance. Two members of the war party gathering escape to Fort Sill to warn of a possible Indian uprising. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier.
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In Part four “Prairie Thunder” the Buffalo Hunters from Dodge City establish a new settlement along Adobe Creek called Adobe Walles. The hunters are waiting for the big herds to arrive while Billy Dixon explores the territory for the movement of the spring buffalo herds. As the hunters are returning back to camp from a long days hunt they encounter a fierce thunderstorm. The story narrated by Brad Smalley describes how the lightning is so intense that it starts a buffalo stampede. The story concludes by unfolding how the hunters escape the running buffalo and how Billy Dixon losses his mules in the river.
Wild West Podcast proudly presents Utes Revenge, the First Battle of Adobe Walls in part three of Return of the Great Hunters. Forty buffalo hunters from Dodge City are camped out along the stake plains in the Texas Panhandle when George Plummer is invited to retell the story of the First Battle of Adobe Walls. In Episode Three: Utes Revenge the First Battle of Adobe Walls is retold in its entirety of the November 25, 1864 battle between the United States Army and American Indians. Plummer tells how the Kiowa, Comanche, and Plains Apache tribes drive from the battlefield a United States Expeditionary Force lead by Kit Carson. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
Billy Dixon and a company of fifty hunters travel south on the Jones and Plummer Trail past the Cimarron River and out into Indian Territory. When the expedition reaches Adobe Walls Creek, Billy Dixon, Tyler and Masterson decide to explore an old abandoned trading post. When the three explorers reach the old trading post they discover an old Ute drawing to help them unearth the story of the Battle of the Adobe Walls. The story written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley becomes the first lesson in engaging warfare with the Plains Indians.
In 1843, the trading firm of Bent, St. Vrain & Company established a log structure trading site on what is now known as Bent Creek in Hutchinson County Texas. In 1845, they replaced the log structure with an adobe brick 80 feet square single-entrance fort, with walls that rose 9 feet. The fort was closed in 1848 due to Indian depredations. In 1849, William Bent blew up the remains of the fort and departed the panhandle of Texas.
You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
The Jones and Plummer Trail was established in the fall of 1874 when two former buffalo hunters turned merchants and freighters. These two men Charles Edward (Dirty Face) Jones and Joseph H. Plummer, established a store at the head of Wolf Creek. Jones marked the trail, and the partners' trips to and from Dodge City to deliver hides and buffalo meat and purchase goods cut ruts into the sod deep enough for others to follow. From Dodge City, the trail angled southwest, paralleling Crooked Creek, to cross it and the Cimarron River near the Oklahoma-Kansas line. From there, it continued to Beaver, Oklahoma. At Beaver, the Dodge City Trail branched off to the southwest.
"The Jones and Plummer Trail" is the story of a group of 50 buffalo hunters who left Dodge City in early March of 1874 to travel south to Texas panhandled to hunt the last of the buffalo herds. The Jones and Plummer Trail is an excerpt from the book Return of the Great Hunters.
Buffalo Days, Legends of Dodge City, is about outfits of buffalo runners who traveled in and out of the Arkansas River Valley from 1870 to 1872. The book is a collection of individual stories of how men became legends of their experiences, founded at times by luck, but mostly on their skills to survive. These are the stories of personal legends established out of solid character and the will to endure, making them unique to American lore. Here are the hunters such as Charles Rath, Josiah Wright Mooar, Jim White, Thomas Nixon, HooDoo Brown, Bill Tilghman, and Billy Dixon. Many of the stories captivate the adventure, excitement, and experience of the Old West, tell the facts behind the individuals who were the founders of Dodge City and the events for which they participated in a less dramatized way. It is also the story of the greatest slaughter of any animal history: the great Bison herds of America. To purchase the book go to: Buffalo Days (See Video Trailer Here)
This is the story of Moses Embree Milner, one man's life on the frontier as an Indian Scout. By the late 1860s the Army had been involved in the Indians Wars for 20 years and because of the vast, challenging land to the west, the Army needed more manpower. To offset the vastness of the territory the Army employed Indian Scouts to performed reconnaissance and combat duties. These scouts helped to subdue the last warring tribes. There were several types of scouts: those who enlisted as Indian Scouts for brief terms and those hired as scouts by the U.S. Army. Sometimes an individual may have served at different times as a hired scout and an enlisted scout, but never at the same time. In addition to enlisted and hired scouts, some scouts not of native American descent served in Regular Army infantry and cavalry regiments in short-lived Indian campaigns in the 1800s. To read more about early frontier history you can purchase the book Trail, Forts, Treaties and Indian Wars at Amazon.
Even though a Town Company had organized the small settlement in August of 1872, Dodge City was still unincorporated. The town had no elected or appointed officials. A county government had not yet been organized, and consequently, there were no courts, jails, or official law enforcement in the region. The closest known law was located in Hays City, over 100 miles away. From August 1872 to July 1873, there were approximately thirty killings in Dodge City.
Dodge City's privately hired lawmen like Billy Brooks were not up to policing the settlement, and by February of 1873, a Vigilance Committee had to be created. Most of the business people that formed the Vigilance Committee brought in hired guns to protect their holdings. Within four months, the vigilance committee killed two men, ran five others out of town, and brought in a buffalo hunter named McGill who had been shooting up the town. Wild West Podcast presents The Vigilantes of Dodge City, written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley.
Throughout the American West, regular troops delivered state-sanctioned violence to execute United States law and policy. To accomplish this task the US military established multiple forts to supply military troops to punish Indian plundering, drive specific tribes onto legitimate reservations, or force Indians to the treaty table.
The Wild West Podcast proudly presents Military Forts, part five of Trails, Forts, Treaties, and Indian Wars. In part five narrated by Brad Smalley, a description is provided on how the US military maintained its presence in Kansas through a chain of forts. The establishment of these forts along the heavily traveled trails were part of a practice that often expanded randomly over the nation's frontier. Six forts were located in the central and western portions of the state. They were established to render defense to the frontier as both the Indians and the settlers came in contacted with each other. Featured in part one are Fort Leavenworth, Harker and Wallace. To learn more about Kansas Military Forts you can purchase the book, Trails, Forts, Treaties and Indian Wars at Amazon. To review more books by Mike King go to the Legends of Dodge City Website.
Dodge City was founded on June 17, 1872 as makeshift bar setup five miles west of Fort Dodge. The Founding of Dodge City tells the story of when George Brown meets George Hoover who has set up a makeshift whiskey bar in the middle of the plains. Hoover explains to Brown how he had an obligation to feel the needs of railroad workers and buffalo hunters by opening up a bar. Opening a bar was a simple process, he only needed two things: a place to sell it and the barrels to supply it. The story narrated by Brad Smalley and written/produced by Mike King is a part of a historical series describes how Hoover settled on the location of his makeshift bar, "The western border of the reservation was five miles from the Fort itself. So I decided to mark off five miles from the Fort. To take a true measurement of the distance traveled, I tied a rag to a wheel on my wagon.” At the end of the conversation Hoover convinces Brown to go into the whiskey business by opening a bar next to his tent.
Soon after Brown sets up the second saloon in Dodge City a make shift town is created of crude framed buildings, half wood, and half dugout. Brown provides a first hand look at then Buffalo City soon to become Dodge City during the months of July and August of 1872. One week after Brown sets up his saloon gamblers and women start to arrive in big bowed, mule-driven wagons. What comes next from those wagons begins to play out as bad whiskey business - as one of the first gunfights erupts in the street between gambler Moorehouse and ruffian by the name of Langford. You can purchase the book by clicking on Buffalo Days. Learn more about Kansas and the early west by visiting Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
Dave Morrow mustered out of the Military in May 1866. He drifted into Hays City, Kansas, where he lived for several years. David Morrow might be considered typical of many Easterners who came to the Kansas buffalo range about 1870. Dave quickly gained a reputation as an excellent shot and first-class hunter. Dave Morrow was known as "Prairie Dog Dave" in Dodge City. He had many roles in western law enforcement and served with Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. This is the story written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley about how Dave Morrow got his moniker of Prarie Dog Dave. The story of Dave Morrow is an excerpt from Buffalo Days, now available on Amazon.
In the Death of an Endless Resource, the great buffalo slaughter is on, and in 1873 the herds became harder to find. In the southern prairies, the buffalo completely vanished. To prosper in buffalo hides, the buffalo hunters sent two men to Fort Dodge, Kansas. The hunters asked the commander of Fort Dodge what the penalty was if the skinners crossed into the Texas Panhandle and onto reservation land. The Medicine Lodge Treaty said no white settlers could hunt there, but that’s where the surviving buffalo had gathered. Lieutenant Colonel Richard Dodge met with the two men, and one remembered the colonel say, “Boys, if I were a buffalo hunter, I would hunt buffalo where buffalo are.” Then the colonel wished them good luck. To learn more about the Great Buffalo Slaughter of 1873 purchase Buffalo Days.
In May of 1872, Richard Irving Dodge takes a wagon to a high point above the Kansas plains called Pawnee Rock. The story written and produced by Mike King provides a clear description of the great southern herd coming north for the summer grass. This herd of buffalo was no less than four hundred and eighty thousand in number as they cross the Kansas plain. While on Pawnee Rock, the future commander of Fort Dodge reflects on a time when he and his men held off a massive buffalo charge along the banks of the Arkansas River Valley. The production narrated by Brad Smalley provides nine layers of sound effects, which are best, experienced with a set of headphones. The listener will experience the sounds of a night camp along the riverbanks of the Arkansas River and the sounds of buffalo hoofs shaking the ground during a massive charge.
The Wild West podcast presents the Gunfight at the Plaza the retelling of the gunfight between Bat Masterson, A.J.Peacock, and Al Updegraff. The story begins on April 15, 1881, after Bat Masterson living in Arizona is telegraphed by an unknown informer, notifying Bat that his brother Jim was about to be assassinated by the co-owner of the Lady Gay, Jim Masterson's partner. Purchase the book A Man in a Black Derby Hat at Amazon. Bat takes a train to Dodge City and arrives on the April 16 noon train but decides to get off early suspecting he might encounter resistance at the train depot. The Battle of the Plaza written and produced by Mike King takes the listener deep into the conflict surrounding the feud between Jim Masterson and A.J. Peacock over the Lady Gay Saloon. The story narrated by Brad Smalley gives a first-person account as the gunfight begins to unfold the night before at the Long Branch Saloon when George a local cowboy inquires about the ongoing conflict between Jim Masterson and A.J. Peacock. During the twenty-minute podcast, many legends of the old west are revealed to include the characterization of Bat Masterson, A.B. Webster, Tom Nixon, Pat Sughrue, Fred Singer, A. B. Webster, and Jim Masterson
Dodge City, Kansas founded in 1872 from its very beginning’s was a lawless town. Many newspaper accounts during the early days proclaimed the town to be as “rough a community as ever flourished under one flag.” Some have claimed the reason for the town’s recalcitrant reputation is that the majority of the businesses at the whistle-stop catered at first to the buffalo hunter and then to the rowdy drovers. The economic growth of this makeshift community standing at the edge of the flat Arkansas River bottom depended in large part on the trail hands and their immoral conduct. To learn more about the legends of Dodge City go to A Man In A Black Derby Hat.
Ham Bell of Dodge City Kansas, is a notable legend. He is recognized for his frontier spirit, and his ability to create. He was an entrepreneur; a person who was defined by his willingness to risk loss in order to improve the quality of life for others. Ham Bell had been born July 31, 1853 Hannibal Boettler Beltz in Washington County, Maryland. When he was nine, he and two siblings became orphans. Five years later, after living with an uncle, he set off on his own. Ham Bell made Dodge City his headquarters and it would be home for the rest of his life.
The purpose of this podcast is to tell the story of Bill Tilghman, and his Buffalo Days. Tilghman was among the first white men to locate a buffalo hunting camp on the extreme southwestern border of Barbour County, Kansas. The camp was only a few miles north of the boundary line between Kansas and the Indian Territory. An Indian uprising lasting more than a year had been put down the year previous by General Custer, and, as a natural consequence, the Indians who had taken part in the uprising entertained for the white man anything but a friendly feeling. Billy Tilghman, like the others in that country at the time, became a buffalo hunter and was working along nicely until the Indians got after him. The following story is based on an article written by Bat Master from chapter 4 of his book entitled Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier.
Emanuel Dubbs has an encounter with Billy Brooks. Among the many lawless characters, who in the beginning drifted into Dodge City, was Billy Brooks. Brooks was a shabby character sporting a narrow mustache with a long rounded face trimmed out with a Van Dyke goatee. Brooks roamed about the town in a dark cloth coat. He brandished two revolvers well insight of those he chose to intimidate. He wore a tall circular crowned black hat supported by a collarless linen shirt. This slipshod dress gave the appearance to everyone who regarded him as dangerous.
Wild West Podcast proudly presents Treaties chapter four of Trails, Forts Treaties, and Indian Wars. For the Southern Plains tribes, the Comanche, the Kiowa, the Southern Cheyenne, and the Arapahoe, there were three major peace agreements. These agreements attempted to keep Indians off the immigration and rail routes along with the cattle grazing lands in Texas and Kansas settlement areas. This is the story of those agreements leading up to the Plains Indian Wars of 1868.
ALSO BY MICHAEL KING
The Machiavellian's of Dodge City
Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier
A Man in A Black Derby Hat: Bat Masterson: Selected Short Stories
Wild West Podcast proudly presents The Battle of Beecher Island, Part II. (You can purchase the book Trails, Forts Treaties, and Indian Wars now on sale for a limited time at Amazon.com.) In part two of the Battle of Beecher Island, Jack Stilwell tells the story of how Roman Nose leads the second attack against a small force of military scouts at the Arickaree fork of the Republican River. The mission was under the command of Major Forsyth, who received information that Indians had attacked a freighter's train 13 miles east of Ft. Wallace, near the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The mission was to counter the Indian attack by trailing and punishing the raiding Party.
ALSO BY MICHAEL KING
The Machiavellian's of Dodge City
Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier
A Man in A Black Derby Hat: Bat Masterson: Selected Short Stories
Join George Hoodoo Brown and Jack Stilwell in the retelling of the Battle of Beecher Island, also known as the Battle of Arikaree Fork. The battle was an armed conflict between the United States Army elements and several of the Plains Tribes in September of 1868. (You can purchase the book Trails, Forts Treaties, and Indian Wars now on sale for a limited time at Amazon.com.) In part one of the Battle of Beecher Island, George Hoodoo Brown arrived in Hays City on September 29, 1868. George enters a saloon where he meets Jack Stilwell, an army scout at the Battle of Beecher Island. Over a few drinks at the bar, Stilwell describes how he and 50 other scouts participated in a special mission out of Fort Harker. The mission was under the command of Major Forsyth, who received information that Indians had attacked a freighter's train 13 miles east of Ft. Wallace, near the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The mission was to counter the Indian attack by trailing and punishing the raiding Party.
Wild West Podcast proudly presents Trail, Forts, Treaties, and Indian Wars a new book by Mike King. You can purchase the book and play the audio version through Wild West Podcast or by scanning the QR code below each chapter. Trails, Forts Treaties, and Indian Wars are based on true accounts in early Kansas history. The illustrated book offers 149 pages and is narrated by Brad Smalley. The book is now on sale for a limited time at Amazon.com.
The railways pushed westward across buffalo country and the Texas cattle drives came up from the South. The Texas cattlemen drove their cattle to the railheads in Kansas and overnight cattle towns like Abilene sprung civilization, profit, and vice out of the Kansas prairie. The following is a first-person account of George W. Brown and what it was like in western Kansas as a freighter, drover, buffalo hunter, and Indian scout. George W. Brown tells how he joins the times' growing commerce, traveling along the military routes in 1868.
The Wild West Podcast proudly presents the second of a five-part series on the early Cheyenne Indian wars from 1857 to the Sheridan winter campaign of 1868. Part two of the series “Early Kansas Trails” is the historical timeline of the westward expansion of the Kansas Territory. The podcast begins with the founding of the Santa Fe Trail and the formation of multiple transportation routes across the plains.
The Wild West Podcast proudly presents the third of a five-part series on the early Cheyenne Indian wars from 1857 to the Sheridan winter campaign of 1868. In part three of the series, “The Cheyenne Campaign of 1857” is the historical accounts of the first actual campaign against the Plains Indians - known as the Battle of Solomon Fork. This little-known clash with the Cheyenne Indians took place in northwest Kansas, near present-day Penokee, in Graham County, Kansas.
Wild West Podcast proudly presents part two of the “Early Kansas Trails.” Kansas probably has more frontier trails than any other state, being the jumping-off point during westward expansion. In addition to the emigrant trails to the West, including the Santa Fe Trails, Smoky Hill Trail, and the Cannon Ball Stagecoach Road. Kansas also provided several military trails that connected the many Forts. One such trail was the Butterfield Overland Dispatch established in 1865.
Wild West podcast proudly presents "The Battle of Ingalls," a September 1, 1893 gunfight betweenUnited States Marshals and the Doolin Dalton Gang. At the closing years of the old west, the citizens of Ingall’s unwittingly entertained outlaws and where the Doolin-Dalton gang had found safe harbor until thirteen marshals formed a posse to capture the gang. What unfolds in this historical account is one of the most protracted gun battles ever fought in the old west resulting in the death of three marshals and several residents of Ingall’s.
This is the true historical account of the second battle of Adobe Walls. On June 5, 1874, Hanrahan and a party of hunters departed Dodge City for Adobe Walls. The Indians on the Texas plains did not like the occupation of the hunters in the area, especially when they began killing off their buffalo for the sale of hides. The Battle of Adobe Walls fought on June 27, 1874, between the Comanche force of 700 and a group of 28 bison hunters defending the settlement. Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, son of a captured white woman, Cynthia Ann Parker, led the Indian contingent. Some of the hunters, who were present at Adobe Walls, included James Hanrahan, 20-year-old Bat Masterson, William "Billy" Dixon who on the third day of the battle made a famous long-distance rifle shot effectively ending the siege. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier.
The Wild West Podcast proudly presents the first of a five-part series on the early Cheyenne Indian wars from 1857 to the 1868 Sheridan winter campaign. In part one of the series “The Ways of the Cheyenne People” is a depiction of the Cheyenne culture. Part one will provide the listener with a quick overview of the Cheyenne way of life on the Southern Plains.
In Chapter eight, Buck Laramie scrambles to think of ways to hold off the gang before reinforcements can arrive. Buck running out of cartridges and taking a bullet to the arm is saved by Slim, who appears on the scene to help hold off the approaching gang. Slim and Buck make a gallant stand above the valley where the group tries to fight their way out through the pass as reinforcements arrive.
In chapter seven, Buck Laramie, under cover of night, returns to the foothills of the Diablos. Buck uses the Yaquis Indian tactics to overcome the guard leading through the escape tunnel, hoping to distract the gang's ride into San Leon. Buck quickly covers the entry of the escape tunnel to hold off a band of twenty-five riders. The outlaws converge on the tunnel entrance, with Buck being sub come to a fuselage of fire from the approaching gang. The only hope Buck has is for the arrival of the townspeople.
In chapter six, Buck Laramie rides hard to escape the bandit hideout and arrives at the Box W Ranch only to find out Waters has gone into San Leon to see the doctor. Buck has no choice but to return to San Leon to warn the townspeople of the upcoming plan of the gang. It did not take the townspeople of San Leon long to spot Buck on his return, and they give chase to the fugitive as Buck nearly escapes with the help of Judy Anders. Buck plans to lead the pursuing townspeople to the gang's hideout.
In chapter five, while Buck is escaping the bandit's hideout, he encounters the sentinel. Buck ducks low among the rocks as he comes under fire from the sheltered guard. Buck returns fire with a wild aim and finds his victim to be a young boy. The boy under his dying breath tells his story and how the gang plans to clean up in San Leon. To download this chapter go to Legends of Dodge City.
In chapter 4 Buck rides to the fake gang's hideout, and during the night, climbs the side of the rocky cliffs to sneak past the sentinel only to be captured by the gang. While a prisoner tied up in a chair Buck remembers a hidden knife concealed in the chair and manages to get the drop on the gang. To download this chapter go to Legends of Dodge City.
In chapter 3, Buck Laramie kicks up the dust and rides hard out of Sera Leon to elude a fast approaching posse. While under the cover of darkness, Buck approaches the Waters' ranch to meet his old friend and gets protection from his pursuers. There at Old Man Waters place, Buck tells the stories of each of his brother's demise while Waters unveils the motives of the newly formed Laramie gang. To download this chapter go to Legends of Dodge City.
In chapter two, Buck Laramie full-fills his promise and returns to San Leon only to find a gang of robbers invading the Cattleman's Bank. The same bank his brothers robbed six years earlier. A mystery arises during the gunplay when the townspeople insist that the robbers are the returning Laramie brothers. To download this chapter go to The Legends of Dodge City Website
The producers of Wild West Podcast present a special reading of Robert E Howard’s public domain novel Boot Hill Payoff. The production is for all of those stay at home western novel lovers who need a little entertainment to break the boredom. So join us as we take you on a ride in the slumbering heat to San Leon as five brothers enter the doors of the Cattlemen's Bank. This story was originally published in the October 1935 issue of Western Aces. Starting life as an unsold submission written by pulp author Chandler Whipple, popular writer Robert E. Howard offered to rework and improve the tale. Later published in book form and in other places as The Last Ride, Wild West Podcast produced the audio version of the original transcript as it was first published. This story is in the public domain.
Starting on Wednesday, April 29 and for eight more Wednesdays thereafter the producers of Wild West Podcast will present a special reading of Robert E Howard’s public domain novel Boot Hill Payoff. This special production is for all of those stay at home western novel lovers who need a little entertainment to break the boredom. The e-book can be downloaded by using the link provided in the description section of this podcast. (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD E-BOOK) So join us on April 29, as we take you on a ride in the slumbering heat to San Leon as five brothers enter the doors of the Cattlemen's Bank.
Become an associate member of Boot Hill Museum. Watch the Membership Drive Video and signup today at Boot Hill Association Membership.
The William Taylor Incident is the story of the killing of an innocent man by self-appointed Dodge City vigilantes. The story is told from the first-person perspective of Herman Fringer, one of the early settlers of Dodge City. No one knows the exact truth about how William Taylor got himself into the trouble that led to his killing. Some say his story could have been told in many different ways. The fact is that William Taylor was executed by a drunken mob who called themselves vigilantes, and someone would need to be held accountable.
Some say Taylor's murder led Governor Osborn to appoint the first Commissioners of Ford County so a sheriff could be appointed. Others say the first county commissioners came into being, so the Kansas law would not be violated when selling liquor without an organized county. No matter the reason for the formation of the Ford County commission, whether to sell alcohol legally or to obtain a sheriff, William Taylor's murder needed to be resolved through the acts of civil order in a lawless town. The story you are about to hear is sponsored by Boot Hill Distillery of Dodge City.
In part 2 of Gunfight at the Long Branch givesthe Ford County Globes account of the conflict between Cock-eyed Frank Loving and Levi Richardson along with individual testimonies of those who witnessed the shooting. Following the program, a characterization is provided of the four main personalities of the story to include William Duffey, Levi Richardson, Frank Loving, and Charles Bassett.
There is seldom witnessed in any civilized town or country such a scene as transpired at the Long Branch saloon, resulting in the killing of Levi Richardson, a well-known freighter, of Dodge City, by a gambler named Frank Loving. This is the true story of a gunfight between Cock-eyed Frank Loving and Levi Richardson. There was nothing remarkable about it except one man had been killed over the jealousy of a woman by the name of Mattie.
In part 2, The Buffalo Hunters, five characterizations from the book Return of the Great Hunters; Tales of the Frontier. The first two characters presented portrays a look at Josiah Mooar and a partnership created with Jim White in the opening of the Buffalo trade in 1872. The next two hunters by the name of Hoodoo Brown and Prairie Dog Marrow are told when Dodge City is first established. A time when Dodge City was founded through lucrative whiskey businesses that open up on the Southwestern Kansas plains. The final character discussed in this episode is Billy Dixon and his role at the second Battle of Adobe Walls.
In this two-part episode of Whiskey & Westerns on Wednesday’s we first characterize the legend of Bat Masterson while sipping a little whiskey. In part one of the “Characterization of Legends,” we will take you into the first chapter of the book “A Man in a Black Derby Hat.” Brad Smalley will break down a few additional characters like Ben and Billy Thompson along with Squirrel Tooth Alice.
I can say with the lack of any contention that the proclaiming of a greenhorn has many setbacks in achieving credibility. They are among those who are not well served through experience. Whatever the reason, a greenhorn is firmly embedded in the language of the frontier. They are the young, naive, or inexperienced person who is likely to get into trouble - that is, until that person gets a little seasoning. This is the story of the greenhorn joining the Dodge City Gang and the lady-killer prank. To purchase our newest book go to Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Join us on our YouTube channel at Whiskey & Westerns on Wednesday.
This is the story of Mayor Kelley and a local prankster of Dodge City by the name of Luke McGlue. Mayor Kelly had a tame bear that he named "Paddy," which for a time became the town pet in Dodge City. As the animal grew more substantial and rowdier, the cowboys often tormented Paddy resulting in the bear taking refuge in the bedroom of a local hotel. What happens next can only be described in the title of this podcast. There are intended touches of humor in this story written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley.
The following podcast is an introduction from the book Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. The presentation outlines the early history of Kansas with the start of the fur trade to the establishment of travel routes, making way for the railroads. The introduction sets the stage for the rapid expansion of Kansas after the Civil War, along with the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier.
Wild West Podcast proudly presents "Ad Astra per Aspera" a tribute to the American frontiersmen and the early history of Kansas. The podcast written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley portrays the characteristics of the American frontiersman and how our early pioneers served as an important part of the development of our country's values and customs. The second part of the podcast provides a condensed timeline of the early history of Kansas. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier.
Part One, tells the story of one of the largest gunfights to ever take place in the American West fought in Newton, Kansas on August 20, 1871. In Part two, of the Emanuel Dubbs story takes you back to the late spring of 1872. Emanuel Dubbs with Mr. Wiley a head contractor scout out a location for a new supply depot. Dubbs riding on his favorite mule named Marie travel up the line from Fort Larned over what was then known as the Dry Ridge Trail. They came off the trail in sight of the beautiful Arkansas valley about two miles above where old Fort Dodge then stood. Dubbs describes the panorama view just minutes before he charges down an embankment to shoot a buffalo. Emanuel Dubbs has an encounter with Billy Brooks. Brooks was a shabby character sporting a narrow mustache with a long rounded face trimmed out with a Van Dyke goatee. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier.
The story you are about to hear is fictitious, but portions of the story are based on factual accounts.
This is the story of a mischief-maker by the name of Luke McGlue. The Luke McGlue character transcends from the perceptiveness of his personality; the way this fictitious character might have perceived Dodge City through the realization of his times.
In the mid-1800s, the people of Dodge had a legendary person in which they could blame all sorts of mayhem. His name was Luke McGlue. He was credited with many devious deeds. Many individuals within the community would pull a prank, then pass it off on another individual or on to a fictitious person by the name of Luke McGlue.
The story takes place in 1877, a time when Dodge City Kansas was full of pranksters. In the story, Luke visits the Boot Hill resting grounds and meets up with a few unknown characters to administer the Keeley Cure.
In Part Two of Boardwalks from Hell Bat Masterson is elected as Sheriff of Ford County as he continues to protect his brother Ed from evil doings. Yet, tragedy strikes quickly, at the Lady Gay Dance Hall. Purchase the book A Man in a Black Derby Hat at Amazon. At the end of this episode, Bat Masterson has a reflection on death while attending his brother’s funeral. He reflects on his inability to control a destiny of life and loss so easily taken in the wake of the frontier. Gallantry is never a replacement from a quickly distorted ending in life - as death will always take its toll on the living. “Boardwalks from Hell” is based on true accounts in Dodge City History and at the conclusion of this show, Brad Smalley will provide the second versions of The Killing of Ed Masterson.
What you are about to hear is an individual historical account of Bat Masterson's return to Dodge City, Kansas. The motive for Masterson's return is being prompted by both his concerns for his older brother and an economic opportunity being made possible through various insiders who want to promote the cattle trade of 1877. The story is built around the foundational meanings of courage on the frontier - for civilization comes with a cost. It is the harshest cost of all, revealing every flaw to what a man knows about courage in plain sight. Purchase the book A Man in a Black Derby Hat at Amazon.
The Saloon War written and produced by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley is an account of a bloodless conflict that took place between Luke Short and the Dodge City mayor. The "HQ Audio" podcast documents the founding of Dodge City Kansas and the political factors leading up to up to the Saloon War of 1883. The story of Mayor Degers attempt to try and force Luke Short to close the Long Branch Saloon is an accurate account of the corrupt political factors supporting the take over of the whiskey trade in Dodge City. The event is best remembered for the Western gamblers and gunfighters who played roles in the history of the Wild West. To view, the Documentary go to http://worldfamousgunfighters.weebly.com/saloon-war.html
This is the story of Boot Hill Distillery which was Born from a barrel and forged in the dust. Crafted by artisan distillers, from soil to sip. Dodge City’s legacy was built on the ashes of the campfire and the footprints of a bar. With a craftsman’s eye for the highest quality ingredients, the grain is grown themselves, and a dedication to ethically sourcing ingredients Boot Hill Distillery brings new meaning to sustainability and transparency in craft distilling. Boot Hill Distillery is proud to be part of the spiritual revolution of Dodge City, western Kansas, and the Old West.
The story that is about to be told undertakes one of the darkest days in Dodge City History. It is the story of a gifted entertainer who was born on August 23, 1844, as Isadore Addie May. Isadore at an early age showed signs of being a gifted vocalist. This gift prompted her to change to her stage name to become know as Fannie Keenan and become an entertainer traveling first in Europe then to the Western frontier. In 1878 she arrived in Dodge City, as Dora Hand divorced her husband Captain Hand and settled in at Dodge City as a popular entertainer. Dora became popular among many, which led her to become involved between two suitors who were in conflict for her affection, ultimately resulting in her death on October 4, 1878.
Isom Prentice Olive fought with the Texas Volunteers during the Civil War and then returned to his father’s ranch in Williamson County, Texas. After the Civil War, Texas was in the days of the maverick: thousands of head of wild cattle, untended during the war, roamed the thickets. Many Texans considered that any unbranded steer was fair game and belonged to the man who roped it. The big ranchers did not agree and considered these beasts ‘by right’ theirs. It was not long after these disputes over unbranded cattle that the Olive family became a brand of their own. This is the story of Print Olive from Texas to the Western Cattle Trails to Nebraska range and his final resting place in Dodge City.
To learn more about Kansas and the Civil War Join us at https://www.facebook.com/WildWestPodcast/on May 18, 2019, at 6:00 P.M. Central Standard Time for a special presentation entitled Civil War Day. The Civil War Day production utilizes a full day of video experience from April 27, 2019, Cowtown Civil War Day. The shoot is edited into a sixteen-minute documentary about the cause and effect of the American Civil war – applying a wide range of events into a single message. “A nation divided in social beliefs is subject to multitudes of lives left on the battlefield.” The message gained from the production supports the historical outcomes behind a nation divided from constitutional beliefs, which had an everlasting impact on the fate of one nation.
On this special episode of Whiskey & Westerns we will be discussing with Laura Tawater the upcoming Boot Hill Museum, Boots and Beer Auction. You can get your Boots & Beer tickets TODAY! $60 per person or a discount of $450 for a table of 8 at boothill.org or 620-227-8188. Tickets include food, beer, cocktails, games, friends, and FUN!! Friday, May 3rd at the Boot Hill Casino & Resort Conference Center in Dodge City. Benefitting the museum's exhibit expansion project.
On this episode of Whiskey & Western’s on Wednesday’s, Mike King and Brad Smalley tell the story of George M. Hoover. During the show, Mike & Brad talk about gardening safety, introduce the world’s highest rated whiskey, discuss the legal definition of bottle and bond, and tell the story behind one of the legends of Dodge City. The show will transition the listener back to June of 1872 and the history of whiskey sales along the Arkansas River Valley to the formation of a new township named Dodge City. To view this episode of Whiskey & Westren's on Wednesday you can check us out on Facebook @ Wildwestpodcast. You can also get all of our episodes of Whiskey & Western's on Wednesday's at our Legends of Dodge City Website.
On June 5, 1874, Hanrahan and a party of hunters departed Dodge City for Adobe Walls. The Indians on the Texas plains did not like the occupation of the hunters in the area, especially when they began killing off their buffalo for the sale of hides. The Battle of Adobe Walls fought on June 27, 1874, between the Comanche force of 700 and a group of 28 bison hunters defending the settlement. Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, son of a captured white woman, Cynthia Ann Parker, led the Indian contingent. Some of the hunters, who were present at Adobe Walls, included James Hanrahan, 20-year-old Bat Masterson, William "Billy" Dixon who on the third day of the battle made a famous long-distance rifle shot effectively ending the siege. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier.
In Part five of the Return of the Great Hunters, Billy Dixon returns to Adobe Walls after losing his wagon and one mule in the Canadian River. Dixon finds the Adobe Walls settlement is in an uproar over the rumor of Indian attacks. Dixon, Plummer, and Masterson agree to travel to the Plummer camp to bury his partners Dudley and Wallace. They return to the Adobe Walls settlement on the night of the full moon to seek protection. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier.
Ham Bell of Dodge City Kansas, is a notable legend. He is recognized for his frontier spirit, and his ability to create. He was an entrepreneur; a person who was defined by his willingness to risk loss in order to improve the quality of life for others. Ham Bell had been born July 31, 1853 Hannibal Boettler Beltz in Washington County, Maryland. When he was nine, he and two siblings became orphans. Five years later, after living with an uncle, he set off on his own. Ham Bell made Dodge City his headquarters and it would be home for the rest of his life.
Ham Bell of Dodge City Kansas, became a legend noted for his frontier spirit, he had the ability to create. He was an entrepreneur; a person who was defined by his willingness to risk loss in order to improve the quality of life for others.
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The Indians become aware of the settlement and gather under the leadership of Quanah Parker to form a war party. Quanah Parker a Comanche war chief seeks the advise of a spiritual leader by the name of Isatai who holds a sun dance.
Wild West Podcast proudly presents Utes Revenge, the First Battle of Adobe Walls in part three of Return of the Great Hunters. Forty buffalo hunters from Dodge City are camped out along the stake plains in the Texas Panhandle when George Plummer is invited to retell the story of the First Battle of Adobe Walls. In Episode Three: Utes Revenge the First Battle of Adobe Walls is retold in its entirety of the November 25, 1864 battle between the United States Army and American Indians. Plummer tells how the Kiowa, Comanche, and Plains Apache tribes drive from the battlefield a United States Expeditionary Force lead by Kit Carson. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
Billy Dixon and a company of forty hunters travel south on the Jones and Plummer Trail past the Cimarron River and out into Indian Territory. Along the trail Billy Dixon strikes up a story about Dirty Face Ed Jones. When the expedition reaches Adobe Walls Creek, Billy Dixon, Tyler and Masterson decide to explore an old abandoned trading post. When the three explorers reach the old trading post they discover an old Ute drawing to help them unearth the story of the Battle of the Adobe Walls. The story written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley becomes the first lesson in engaging warfare with the Plains Indians. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
The story “The Return of the Great Hunters” written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley is Part I of an eight-part series-taking place in March of 1874. The buffalo hunters have returned to Dodge City in preparation to travel 150 miles south deep into Indian Territory. Their purpose is to kill off the rest of the southern herd. The expedition is organized by A.C. Myers a Dodge City general merchandising owner who recruits a forty-man team, which ultimately leads to the second battle of Adobe Walls and the Red River War. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
A Cowboy's Tale begins at the end of a trail drive just outside of Dodge City at Saw Log Creek on November 3, 1877. A man by the name of Bob Shaw enters the Saw Log Creek campsite looking for a man by the name of Texas Dick. Shaw not finding Texas Dick at the drover camp stays for an evening meal and tells the story of the lynching of an innocent man. The next day Bob Shaw finds Texas Dick in the Lady Gay Saloon ending up in a stand off with gunplay between Ed Masterson and Bob Shaw. The story is a true account based on an article from the Dodge City Times entitled Frontier Fun. For more information on the Legends of Dodge City you can join us on Facebook @ Wild West Podcast. To order one of our books go to Boot Hill Productions or visit the Legends of Dodge City Website.
Join Brad Smalley and Mike King for another Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesdays. This episode will focus on the story behind Boot Hill from the past to the present. The Podcast will also feature Boot Hill Distillery as we take in a little Red Eye Whiskey. The story of “Boot Hill Past to Present” tells the history behind how Boot Hill was established and when it was relocated along with the individuals who found it as their finale-resting place. Join us on Facebook @ Wild West Podcast. To order one of our books go to Boot Hill Productions or visit the Legends of Dodge City Website.
During the first two decades after the Civil War, Texans drove herds north into Kansas and points beyond. In 1867, they began bringing them to Abilene, Kansas on the Chisholm Trail. As the frontier moved west, the railheads shifted to the southern Kansas towns of Newton and Wichita, as well as the western Kansas town of Ellsworth. Later, a branch of the Chisholm Trail, known as the Eastern Trail, forked into Dodge City.
What is redemption other than the act of making something better or more acceptable? Learn the true meaning of redemption on this week's Whiskey & Westerns on Wednesday. Brad Smalley and Mike King will take Redemption to the test and talk about Law and Order in Dodge City. The year is 1875. Dodge City Kansas prepares in the provisions for becoming a cattle town, bracing for the impact through the employment of the first police force. Learn about the personalities and character of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Joe Mason, Larry Deger, and Jim Masterson.
On this episode of Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday, Brad Smalley and Mike King take Ten Cup whiskey to the test and discuss the topic of the Dodge City Vigilance Committee.
Part three begins on a quiet January morning in 1876 in the town of Mobeetie, Texas where Bat Masterson and Mollie Brennan are enjoying time together. The enjoyment between them becomes broken when seeing Melvin King enter Charlie Norton’s Saloon the place where Mollie works. The real and tragic love story between Bat Masterson and Mollie Brennan narrated by Brad Smalley is a story once conveyed will be everlasting in memory of a courageous act of ones sacrifice in the name of love.
From the writer and producer of “A Sportsman’s Paradise” brings you the story of “Bartholomew and the Fair Maiden.” Part two begins with Bat Masterson and Ben Thompson entering the Lady Gay Saloon in Mobeetie, Texas where Bat Masterson meets Mollie Brennan for the first time. The story narrated by Brad Smalley conveys Mollie's first-hand account of the assassination of Phil Cole by Wild Bill Hickok when she was in Abilene Kansas.
From the writer and producer of “A Sportsman’s Paradise” brings you the story of “Bartholomew and the Fair Maiden.” Part one is the introduction of three-part series into the real and tragic love story between William Masterson and Mollie Brennan. The story narrated by Brad Smalley tells how William Masterson after leaving the buffalo hunting fields takes a job as a teamster hauling supplies between Fort Dodge and Fort Supply. It is at Fort Supply where Masterson first meets his nemeses a Corporal Melvin King. King is chased out of Fort Supply while William Masterson and 106 freighters lead by Billy Dixon move provisions to the new fort cantonment located along Sweetwater Creek. During their travel on the Jones and Plummer trail, Masterson ruminates the “Battle of Buffalo Wallow.” Masterson’s story is interrupted by the fierce winter storm of December 16, 1874. Only a few freighters make it through the storm, forcing Masterson to spend the remainder of the winter at Fort Elliot where he meets Ben Thompson. Purchase the book A Man in a Black Derby Hat at Amazon.
During the month of September, we will give away 50 free Gamblers of Dodge City iBooks. That is right, we are giving away 50 iBooks during the month of September. This is our way to say thank you to all of our listeners. All you need to do is to email us at wildwestpodcast@gmail.com and tell us why you like our show or give us a suggestion for a Wild West podcast topic. We will then send you a redeemable iBook code for the Gamblers of Dodge City and the Games they played. Remember we only have 50 free iBooks in this months giveaway so be the first to write us. To learn more about how to use your redeemable code go to boothillproductions.com and select publications.
Dodge City, Kan., started out in 1872 as a wild outpost of buffalo hunters and soldiers, small in numbers, but marked by many violent deaths. It only took ten-years for Dodge City to build the wild and wicked reputation it had held since the town’s beginning. The city's population of 500 that first year was due almost entirely to the buffalo trade. The buffalo hunters and the soldiers from Fort Dodge came to the makeshift settlement to buy supplies, drink, and to get away from their boredom.
Even though a Town Company had organized the small settlement in August of 1872, the city was still unincorporated. The town had no elected or appointed officials. A county government had not yet been organized, and consequently, there were no courts, jails, or official law enforcement in the region. The closest known law was located in Hays City over 100 miles away. From August 1872 to July 1873, there were approximately thirty killings in Dodge City.
Deadly Politics in Beautiful Bibulous Babylon is written and produced by Mike King tells the story of how law and order were first started in Dodge City. The story narrated by Brad Smalley relives the time in Dodge City where vigilantes roamed the streets and how the city became divided over political differences when trying to establish six ordinances under the new township laws.
Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday are proud to present the story of Mysterious Dave Mather’s. In this pod show, Brad Smalley introduces Knob Creek the selected Whiskey of the week and takes the trail of the life and times of Dave Mather’s. The show is a humorous edition of the ends and outs of the ambiguities of Mather’s lifestyle in the old west and recounts how he addressed the creeds of Dodge City.
The story narrated by Brad Smalley describes how the lightning is so intense that it starts a buffalo stampede. The story concludes by unfolding how the hunters escape the running buffalo and what happens after they fulfill their contracts with Charles Rath.
“Trained to be a Perfect Killer ” is episode five of a six-part series entitled “Hide Business.” Episode five Jim White teaches JOSIAH WRIGHT MOOAR how to set up a stand to kill buffalo. The story takes place on the plains when Josiah and Jim spot a herd of buffalo drinking from a stream. Jim teaches Josiah how to approach a herd, and gives him tips on buffalo behavior. The story narrated by Brad Smalley provides detailed descriptions of how the hunter skinned the hides and smoked the meat in a hide-constructed smokehouse. At the end of part five, Josiah is given the test of becoming a buffalo runner. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
“Campfire Confessions ” is episode four of a six-part series entitled “Hide Business.” Episode four written and produced by Mike King describes the life of a buffalo hunter from the time they leave a settlement and arrive at their campsite on the prairie. The story narrated by Brad Smalley establishes a route to a Buffalo hunting ground along the Saline River Valley. Along the way, Jim White tells a humorous account of the Battle of the Saline River. The four hunters make camp preparations by starting a campfire when Josiah explores the truth with Nixon and persuades Jim to reveal how he lost his wife to another man.
“A Suspicious Offer ” is episode three of a six-part series entitled “Hide Business.” Episode three written and produced by Mike King conveys how Josiah Mooar becomes suspicious of Thomas Nixon when he offers to sale him a wagon and camp supplies for $350.00 less than the asking price. The story narrated by Brad Smalley explains how Josiah Mooar get’s into an unexpected offer and ends up having to fulfill a contract for 500 hides for Charles Rath. Josiah counters his suspicion of Nixon and Rath by writing his brother John in New York City. Josiah’s request in the letter is for his brother to explore a possible market for Buffalo hides.
The “Instigation of the Hide Trade” is part one of a six-part series entitled “Hide Business.” episode one written and produced by Mike King provides a partial background of what leads up to the Buffalo Hide Trade. The story narrated by Brad Smalley describes the beginning of the fur trade in Kansas and how the expansion West over this vast prairie becomes a slaughtering ground of the American Bison. The “Instigation of the Hide Trade” conveys how one hide dealer by the name of Charles Rath becomes one of the first speculators for securing hides for the development of factory belts. Through the speculation of the hide trade Charles Rath a future citizen of Dodge City establishes himself as a habitus to the birth of the industrial age.
“Coincidence ” is episode two of a six-part series entitled “Hide Business.” Episode two written and produced by Mike King describes how a man’s desire for fortunes on the frontier is sometimes circumstantial. The story narrated by Brad Smalley describes how by coincidence a team of buffalo hunters is formed to strike up a new enterprise of buffalo hide hunting. “Coincidence” introduces the four soon to be legends of the buffalo hide trade from the first person perspective of Josiah Wright Mooar. Mooar tells how he meets Jim White and forms a partnership with soon to be citizens of Dodge City A.C. Myers, and Tom Nixon.
The story begins on April 5, 1865, when Captain Henry Pearce leaves Fort Larned, Kansas, with a company of Kansas volunteers to establish the new post. Captain Pearce's mission was to engage and discourage the large bands of Comanches, Apaches, and Kiowas. They were encamped on the Cimarron and Crooked Creek regions of the Arkansas valley. Pearce selected a site located 6 miles east of Fort Atkinson that guarded the Santa Fe Trail and stood midway between the two major Indian crossings on the Arkansas River. Captain Pearce officially established the post on April 10, 1865, and was named in honor of the departmental commander, General Dodge. The podcast is about the founding and construction of Fort Dodge. Excerpts from a manuscript by Leo E. Oliva are edited and revised for the purpose of these narratives. Narrators include Sheralyn King as Isadore Douglas, the wife of commanding officer Major Henry Douglas and Brad Smalley for the construction of Fort Dodge.
To our listeners around the world to include England, Australia, Japan, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Brazil, Finland and the United States of America the Wild West Podcast proudly presents Hell Cat Maggie and Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday’s. Join us as we explore the Hell Cats of the American West retold from Dodge City Kansas during the time when It was known as the Wickedest City in the West.
The Wild West Podcast is proud to conclude our four-part series on the famous prankster of Dodge City – Mr. Luke McGlue. Part three and four of the series written and produced by Mike King will take you on a comical adventure of Dr. Meredith’s Specialized Treatment of Private Diseases and the Urge for Revenge – the reverend Ormond W. Wright story. "This Yarn is on You Luke McGlue” is narrated by Brad Smalley who takes you into the life of the fictitious charismatic character of Luke McGlue the hilarious 1877 mischief maker of Dodge City, Kansas.
This pod show is pleased to bring you Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday direct from Dodge City Kansas, featuring rich topics on the legends of the old west as we deliver you our favored Whiskey on Wednesday. The Fourth of July show features Leadslingers Bourbon, a company owned by seven combat veterans out of Moore Oklahoma. We will also relive the West from one of our selected stories of Dodge City – “The Great Bullfight of 1884.” This unique American celebration took place in Dodge City, Kansas on July 4, 1884.
The story of The Buffalo Herds of 1872 takes a wagon ride with Richard Irving Dodge to a high point above the plains called Pawnee Rock. The story written and produced by Mike King provides a clear description of the great southern herd coming north for the summer grass. This herd of buffalo was no less than four hundred and eighty thousand in number as they cross the plains of Kansas in June of 1872. While on Pawnee Rock the future commander of Fort Dodge reflects back on a time when he and his men held off a massive buffalo charge along the banks of the Arkansas River Valley. The production narrated by Brad Smalley provides nine layers of sound effects, which are best, experienced with a set of headphones. The listener will experience the sounds of a night camp along the riverbanks of the Arkansas River and the sounds of buffalo hoofs shaking the ground during a massive charge.
This pod show is pleased to bring you Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday direct from Dodge City Kansas, featuring rich topics on the legends of the old west as we deliver you our favored Whiskey on Wednesday. Tonight’s show will feature Ardbeg Ten, a Scotch Whiskey revered around the world. We will also relive the West from one of our selected stories of Dodge City - the story of Luke McGlue.
A Traveling Salesman from St. Joseph, Missouri, is the second story in the Luke McGlue series. The story written and produced by Mike King is about a cigar salesman who came to Dodge City to display samples of some superb cigars. The story narrated by Brad Smalley gives the accounts of how a cigar salesman's fine cigars go missing in a smoked filled room. When the sheriff inquired about who had stolen the smokes all replied in unison, the name of Luke McGlue.
Mayor Kelly and The Animal Stories, narrated by Brad Smalley is a humorous tale on how caring for animals may put a man on a path to risky adventures.
Colonel Richard Irving Dodge was given command of Fort Dodge on June 3, 1872. He arrived at Fort Dodge the next day. Upon his arrival, he found the post in an influx of an unruly population. His orders were to ensure Fort Dodge became an oasis of peacefulness and to establish the rule of law amid conditions that verged on chaos. The story written and produced by Mike King gives the historical accounts of the motivation behind the organization of a town company to be called Dodge City Kansas. Brad Smalley provides the listeners with a first-person narrative of the conflict between Captain Moore and Rife as the story concludes with the Lieutenant Turner incident forcing Colonel Dodge's decision to lay out plans to organize a township five miles west of the Fort. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
H. L. Sitler constructed the first building on the townsite of Dodge City in 1871. The location of the sod house was five miles west of Fort Dodge. The spot was near a lone cottonwood tree standing near the entrance of Wright Park that marked a long-used ford across the Arkansas River. The first business that opened on the site of Dodge City was George M. Hoover and John McDonald’s saloon. The story produced by Mike King tells the account of how Hoover a Canadian at age twenty-four carefully measured out the distance of five miles west of Fort Dodge jurisdiction. On the morning of June 17, 1872, a tent was erected, and with the whiskey unloaded by 8:00 a.m. the first saloon in the area was open. He then moved his business establishment the Hoover & McDonald Wines and Liquors in 1874 to No. 36, Front Street. Brad Smalley narrates the story of George M. Hoover.
The Wild West podcast proudly presents the Fighting Mayor of Dodge City. The story of Alonzo B. Webster. The Fighting Mayor of Dodge City narrated by Brad Smalley brings to life one of Dodge City’s legends from the time Webster enlisted as a private soldier during the Civil War and when he reaches a crossroads in his life. Webster story first takes place when he travels west to Hays, Kansas where he opens a general store serving as an assistant postmaster. Hayes is where Webster gained the reputation of being tough, but cool-headed. In 1869, when he was threatened by a group of bad characters in his store, Webster shot a man dead. The bullfight of July 4, 1884, was Webster's brainchild. It was the only traditional bullfight held in the United States. Join us as we take you back in history to the story of the Fighting Mayor of Dodge City, Kansas.
The Battle of the Plaza written and produced by Mike King takes the listener deep into the conflict surrounding the feud between Jim Masterson and A.J. Peacock over the Lady Gay Saloon.
The Wild West Podcast proudly presents the story of Richard Irving Dodge. Travel with Richard Irving Dodge as he explores the great southwest plains of Kansas. Richard Dodge a naturalist tells his experience of seeing one of the last great buffalo herds twenty-five miles wide and fifty miles deep from the top of Pawnee Rock. In this episode narrated by Brad Smalley will take you deep into a buffalo stampede five thousand strong. The story of Richard Irving Dodge written and produced by Mike King takes place in May of 1872 just two months before Colonel Dodge takes command of Fort Dodge located on the North banks of the Arkansas River five miles West from the place where Dodge City will soon be born. The story transpires during the time Colonel Dodge was stationed at Fort Larned, a disbursement point for Indian annuities and a base for troops guarding workers on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad against an Indian attack in the 1870s. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
The greatest excitement ever caused in Dodge was the advent of an Indian, one of the principal chiefs of the Cheyennes. In the winter of 1872, W. D. Lee, of the firm of Lee & Reynolds, doing a large business at Supply as freighters, government contractors, sutlers and Indian traders combined, brought this Indian to Dodge City to show him the wonders of the railroad and impress upon him how civilization was advancing. There happened to be several hunters in town at that time, driven in by a heavy storm and snow. No sooner did the Indian make his appearance on the street than the excitement began. The story of Chief Spotted Tail is narrated by Brad Smalley and produced by Mike King.
The Wild West Podcast proudly presents the life and times of Chalkley “Chalk” Beeson the owner of the Long Branch Saloon and founder of Dodge City’s beloved Cowboy Band. Part one of this podcast, narrated by Brad Smalley describes Chalk Beeson as an active citizen of Dodge City arriving 1875 as a stagecoach driver. Brent Harris a noted Boot Hill Museum historian narrates the conclusion of the podcast presenting Chalk Beeson as the primary reason the Boot Hill Museum exists today. Check out the full story of Chalk Beeson with video at Legends of Dodge City.
Dora Hand narrated by Brad Smalley is an account of an unfortunate incident played out on the streets of Dodge City in the fall of 1878. The night of October 4 brought with it a strange ominous feeling when two men’s love for one young maiden ended in a tragic shooting leaving behind a fascinating frontier tale. The next day thunder rang over the prairie as the legendary lawmen—Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Charlie Bassett and Bill Tilghman—chased the would-be assailant leaving the killer trapped under his prize horse and brought back to Dodge for justice. The story of Dora Hand is credited to Boot Hill Museum and produced by Mike King.
The Wild West podcast proudly presents the story of Hoodoo Brown. The story begins in 1886 when Hoodoo takes his first job as a Bullwacker taking supplies to Fort Wallace Kansas. Hoodoo Brown’s adventures on the plains of Kansas, written and produced by Mike King takes the listener to a time when Kansas was settling lands along the overland routes of the Santa Fe, and Smokey Hill trails. Narrator Brad Smalley will take you to Abilene, were Hoodoo joins a cattle as a drover and then on to Hays City right before Hoodoo meets up with Jack Stillwell a famous Indian scout. At the conclusion, Hoodoo gives up on the hide-hunting business when he sees prosperity in starting a saloon business in Dodge City, the second business in the new town. Brown hauled plank wood from Fort Hays to construct his small building, a shack on the south side of the tracks and near the bank of the Arkansas where it was handy to get water to cut his whiskey with, as well as for the Texas men to water their livestock.
The Wild West podcast produced by Mike King is proud to present the story of Ormand W. Write narrated by Brent Harris of Boot Hill Museum. Reverend Wright was born in Acworth, New Hampshire in 1850, arrived in Dodge City in early 1877 at the age of 26. Though he had graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York in 1873, he was not ordained when he got to Dodge. Rev. Wright stayed in Dodge City as Presbyterian pastor until 1882, when he finally “burned out” and was placed in a private institution for health reasons. Within a couple of years, he recovered and continued his ministry in Barnegat, New Jersey for thirty years. He died around 1936 at the age of 86. A summary of Ormond Wright’s life is narrated by Brad Smalley at the end of this podcast.
The Wild West podcast proudly presents The Great Bullfight of 1884. This unique American celebration took place in Dodge City, Kansas on July 4, 1884. The story written and produced by Mike King relays the facts behind the first Spanish bullfight, ever held on American soil. Hundreds of visitors came from the East to witness a fight between man and beast. The town on this magical day was crowded with sightseers from all over the West. Narrator Brad Smalley describes the scene at the Dodge City fairgrounds where men and women are crowded about the stands. The bullfighters from Mexico provided a most explicit display of bravery entering the arena accompanied by citizens in joyous in laughter all drinking and enjoying the sport of bullfighting. This is a time when once again Dodge City excelled in all of her notorieties as holding an event, long to be remembered in this country.
The Wild West podcast presents the Man in a Black Derby Hat the retelling of the gunfight between Bat Masterson, A.J.Peacock, and Al Updegraff. Purchase the book A Man in a Black Derby Hat at Amazon. The story begins on April 15, 1881, after Bat Masterson living in Arizona is telegraphed by an unknown informer notifying Bat that his brother Jim was about to be assassinated by the co-owner of the Lady Gay, Jim Masterson's partner. Bat takes a train to Dodge City and arrives on the April 16 noon train but decides to get off early suspecting he might encounter resistance at the train depot. The story of the Man in the Black Derby Hat written and produced by Mike King takes the listener deep into the conflict surrounding the Battle of the Plaza. The story narrated by Brad Smalley gives a first-person account as the gunfight begins to unfold the night before in the Long Branch Saloon when George a local cowboy inquires about the ongoing conflict between Jim Masterson and A.J. Peacock. During the thirty-minute podcast, many legends of the old west are revealed to include the characterization of Bat Masterson, A.B. Webster, Tom Nixon, Pat Sughrue, Fred Singer, and Jim Masterson.
In Kicking About on the Prarie listeners will travel with Hoodoo Brown as he becomes a Bullwhacker to Fort Wallace and joins a cattle drive from Abilene Kansas. Learn what it was like to be a drover and a bullwhacker in 1868 exploring the overland routes of the Santa Fe, and Smokey Hill trails. The story written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley will take you to Hays City right before Hoodoo meets up with Jack Stillwell a famous Indian scout. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
In the fall of 1872 Billy Dixon and Mike McCabe, both buffalo hunters enter a newly established community called Dodge City. The streets were lined with wagons bringing in hides, and getting supplies. The railroad station was not a station at all but a boxcar serving as a temporary depot. The town was swarming with hide buyers and sellers. Workers along the rail line unloaded dozens of railroad cars full of grain, flour, and provisions. Join us now as we take you back into history to a sportsman's paradise. The year is 1872.
In most of the county-seat wars the fighting, that is the real killing, commenced before, at, or immediately after, the alleged election, but in the case of Gray County, the bloody finale was postponed for more than a year. There was a growing disposition to depend more on courts to settle the controversies and rather less on guns in the hands of hired killers. So the tragedy was delayed while motions for rehearings were filed and argued. In this case, Cimarron had the advantage of possession; the docket of the Supreme Court was crowded with more business than the three judges could dispose of promptly, and Cimarron was taking advantage of this delay. Meantime, the Ingall's crowd had captured most of the county offices, among them the coveted office of sheriff, and the bolder spirits decided that it was time to quit fooling with their rival and take the law in their own hands. This is the story of an attempt to remove the remaining records from the Cimarron county clerks office on the morning of January 12, 1889. Purchase the iBook The Battle of the Cimarronat the iBook store.
One of the last of the county-seat wars was that of Cimarron vs. Ingalls. The stories of the different county-seat wars that marked the history of the development of western Kansas differed each from the other, but there was one point of resemblance common to them all. All of them were distinguished by a disregard of honor and a willingness on the part of both parties to the contest to violating every civil and moral law in order to win. The county-seat war in Gray County did not differ in that respect from the others, but it had wider ramifications and elements of almost-romance that distinguished it from all the rest. This story produced by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley are the events leading up to the Battle of Cimarron.
On January 12, 2020, the anniversary date of the Battle of Cimarron will be retold on a special Wild West Podcast. Join us as we take you back in history to 1889 as we relive the Gray County Seat War. A time where the citizens of Cimarron bound together to defend and raise havoc on those would be intruders who came to take what was rightfully theirs.
On January 12, 2018, the anniversary date of the Battle of Cimarron will be retold on a special Wild West Podcast. Join us as we take you back in history to 1889 as we relive the Gray County Seat War. A time where the citizens of Cimarron bound together to defend and raise havoc on those would be intruders who came to take what was rightfully theirs.
Part five takes you into the streets of Dodge City, then named Buffalo City - at the first look of crude framed buildings, half wood, and half dugout. The streets were populated with freighters, hunters, and soldiers. Brown describes how he becomes the second saloon owner by constructing a fourteen-foot wood structure. It only took a week for entertainment to reach the small makeshift town. The gamblers and women started to arrive in big bowed, mule-driven wagons. What comes next from those wagons begins to play out as bad whiskey business - as one of the first gunfights erupts in the street between gambler Moorehouse and ruffian by the name of Langford. The story narrated by Brad Smalley and written/produced by Mike King is a part of a historical series about the early buffalo hunters in Kansas. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
In part four Brown meets George Hoover who has set up a makeshift whiskey bar in the middle of the plains. He explains to Brown how he had an obligation to feel the needs of railroad workers and buffalo hunters by opening up a bar. Opening a bar was a simple process, he only needed two things: a place to sell it and the barrels to supply it. He convinces Brown to go into the whiskey business by opening a bar next to his tent. The story narrated by Brad Smalley and written/produced by Mike King is a part of a historical series describes how Hoover settled on the location of his makeshift bar, "The western border of the reservation was five miles from the Fort itself. So I decided to mark off five miles from the Fort. To take a true measurement of the distance traveled, I tied a rag to a wheel on my wagon." You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
We begin our story in early June of, 1872 two hunters are tracking a large herd of buffalo along the Smoky Hill River and its tributaries, between Fort Hays and Fort Wallace. The region was well known by experienced hunters as the special hunting grounds for the Cheyenne Indians. As hunters Hoo Doo Brown and Dave Morrow travel south to the Arkansas river Morrow an adventurous fellow begins to tell how he became an entrepreneur by raising prairie dogs – thus giving him his nickname "Prairie Dog Morrow." The story narrated by Brad Smalley and written/produced by Mike King is a part of a historical series about the early buffalo hunters in Kansas. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
In part two of the story, Hoo Doo Brown travels further up the old Santa Fe freight road and meets up with a dark-haired man stacking hay. The man named Thomas Nixon along with another man by the name of Masterson had killed over 204 buffalo in one day. What Hoo Doo Brown did not know at the time, was the place he was having a conversation with Nixon was soon to become a boomtown called Dodge City. The story narrated by Brad Smalley and written/produced by Mike King is the first introduction of Thomas Clayton Nixon. He was one of the first pioneers of Dodge City and by the 1870’s he was a successful buffalo hunter, as well as a ranch owner. You can purchase the book by clicking on the link Return of the Great Hunters: Tales of the Frontier. Learn more about this episode at Wild West Podcast Facebook Page.
In part three Hoo Doo Brown without the company of Dave Morrow decides to find the nearest whiskey establishment. He travels to Fort Dodge only to find out the new commander of the post has stopped the sale of whiskey. To Brown’s surprise, the blame for the halt of whiskey sales on the premises is due to a lieutenant Turner who had knocked Colonel Dodge to the floor. The story narrated by Brad Smalley and written/produced by Mike King is a part of a historical series about the early buffalo hunters in Kansas.
This is a true story based on the book “Pioneer Days in the Southwest” rewritten by Michael King and narrated by Brad Smalley. The three-part podcast is a first-person account of Emanuel Dubbs found in Chapter 2 entitled Personal Reminiscences p 30 – 38.
Part one of the Emanuel Dubbs story takes you back to August 11, 1872, to Newton Kansas. The story opens when Dubbs and his wife enter town-witnessing excitement in the streets. Dubbs takes it upon himself to explore the true accounts of the Hyde Park Gunfight between Mike McCluskie, a burly local man who had worked in Newton as a night watchman and a Texan named Billy Bailey
Part two Emanuel Dubbs story takes you back to the late spring of 1872. Emanuel Dubbs with Mr. Wiley a head contractor scout out a location for a new supply depot. Dubbs riding on his favorite mule named Marie travel up the line from Fort Larned over what was then known as the Dry Ridge trail. They came off the trail in sight of the beautiful Arkansas valley about two miles above where old Fort Dodge then stood. Dubbs describes the panorama view just minutes before he charges down an embankment to shoot a buffalo.
In Part three Emanuel Dubbs has an encounter with Billy Brooks. Among the many lawless characters, who in the beginning drifted into Dodge City, was Billy Brooks. Brooks was a shabby character sporting a narrow mustache with a long rounded face trimmed out with a Van Dyke goatee. Brooks roamed about the town in a dark cloth coat. He brandished two revolvers well in sight of those he chose to intimidate. He wore a tall circular crowned black hat supported by a collarless linen shirt. This slipshod dress gave the appearance to everyone who regarded him as a dangerous.
Probably the most unique celebration in America took place in 1884 in Dodge City Kansas. The chief feature of the first day was the Spanish bullfight, the first-ever held on American soil. Hundreds of visitors came from the East to witness the fight, and the town was crowded with sightseers from all over the West. The scene at the fairgrounds was a strange one for the United States. This podcast produced by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley tells the story of the men and women who were crowded about the stands and amphitheater drinking and smoking together and enjoying the sports. The events were most sensational and will long be remembered in this country. On July 4, 1884, Dodge City excelled in all her past notorieties. Click here to learn more about the Great Bullfight of 1884.
Gambling played a major role in the lives of the buffalo hunters and cowboys who drove the Westward movement of America during the nineteenth century. Whether it was a game of poker played on a blanket or a Faro bet placed in a saloon the game of chance was dear to the heart of the early frontiersman who spun the wheel on liquor, lust, and luck. Like most frontier towns Dodge City started with a small clump of tents including a general store, livery stable, and the saloon. It did not take long for the settlement to expand and with this expansion, entertainment came with the games of chance. The story of Early Gamblers of Dodge City is written by Mike King and narrated by Brad Smalley.