Wild West Podcast

Send us Fan Mail 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 Victori...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 fe...

Send us Fan Mail 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 wi...

Send us Fan Mail 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 immedia...

Send us Fan Mail 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 tell...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 fro...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 nurser...

Send us Fan Mail 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,...

Send us Fan Mail 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 I...

Send us Fan Mail 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 h...

Send us Fan Mail 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 crim...

Send us Fan Mail 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), w...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 o...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 deli...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 i...

Send us Fan Mail 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 c...

Send us Fan Mail 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 repres...