The Wild West Extravaganza

In the fall of 1874, about three hundred men of Canada's newly formed North West Mounted Police were lost on the prairie, watching their horses die and searching for a whiskey fort they couldn't find. Their rescue came in the form of a short, bow-legged horse trader named Jerry Potts. The son of a Scottish fur trader and a Blood woman named Crooked Back, Potts lost his father to a bullet meant for...

In July of 1881, Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Pat Garrett in a darkened bedroom at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. He was just twenty-one years old, possibly younger, and had spent the better part of three years among the young women of Fort Sumner, earning a reputation as something of a ladies' man. That same year, rumors swirled that Paulita Maxwell, the teenage sister of the man in whose bedro...

Was the Civil War fought over slavery or states' rights? Today we’ll examine the primary sources: the secession declarations of South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas, the ordinances of the other Confederate states, Alexander Stephens's Cornerstone Speech, Jefferson Davis's own words to the Confederate Congress in 1861, and Lincoln's letters on slavery and the Union. We'll also discuss th...

Did Custer deserve to die at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and did the Lakota steal the Black Hills? In this reaction episode of the Wild West Extravaganza, we’ll dig further into the history behind the Great Sioux War of 1876. Topics include the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, the Black Hills gold rush, Ulysses S. Grant's secret White House meeting, the Watkins report, the December 1875 ultimatu...

In the spring of 1886, two El Paso madams went to war over a young prostitute named Bessie Colvin, and by the time the smoke cleared, one of them was shot in her privates and the other was under arrest for attempted murder. This is the story of Alice Abbott, the six-foot-tall brothel operator known as Fat Alice, and her rival across the street, Etta Clark, better known as Etta the Grasshopper. We...

Dodge City, Kansas, earned its reputation as the wickedest little city in America in just a single year, back when it was still a lawless buffalo camp with no sheriff, no judge, and nothing more than a hole in the ground for a jail. In the years that followed, Texas cattle replaced the buffalo and transformed Dodge into the Queen of the Cowtowns. And the lawmen who kept a lid on the violence, like...

Calamity Jane might be the most famous woman to ever come out of the Old West. According to the legend, she scouted for the Army, rode for the Pony Express, fought hostile natives, and married Wild Bill Hickok. The only problem is almost none of that is true. Join me as we dig into the real Martha Jane Canary. We'll discuss her tumultuous childhood, the truth about her romance with Wild Bill (and...

DISCLAIMER: This video is a historical documentary about medicine, pharmacy, and substance use in 19th-century America. It is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this video promotes, encourages, or provides instruction for the use of any illegal substance. Many of the substances discussed were legal during the period covered but are now controlled substances. They...

John Larn had all the appearances of a respectable man. He owned a ranch, married into one of the most powerful families in Shackleford County, and was even elected as Sheriff. But behind the badge, Larn was a cold-blooded killer and cattle rustler who robbed his neighbors blind and murdered anyone who got too close to the truth. Join me today as we examine the life of John Larn. From his mysterio...

The Battle of the Little Bighorn didn't end when George Armstrong Custer fell. Four miles to the south, the surviving seven companies of the 7th Cavalry, under Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen, were pinned down on a barren hilltop and fighting for their lives. A battle that would result in two days of thirst, sniping, desperate charges, and over two dozen Medals of Honor. We’ll also...

On July 2nd, 1863, a college professor from Maine named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain found himself holding the far left flank of the entire Union Army on a rocky little hill called Little Round Top. Out of ammo, out of options, and almost out of men, he made a decision that would echo through history: fix bayonets and charge. This is the story of that stand and why I keep it in my back pocket for w...

The Battle of the Little Bighorn is one of the most famous and most misunderstood events in American history. On June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and roughly 210 men of his immediate command were wiped out along a ridge in southeastern Montana by a massive village of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho fighting under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. But how did Custer real...

Did the NYPD prove that Brushy Bill Roberts was Billy the Kid using forensic technology? Short answer: no. Not the NYPD, not the FBI, not the CIA, and not Interpol. No official agency has ever conducted a forensic photo comparison or any kind of investigation into whether Brushy Bill Roberts was Billy the Kid. So where does the claim come from? Most of the time, it traces back to the documentary "...

How many people were legally hanged for stealing horses in the Old West? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Join me today as we bust one of the most enduring myths of the American frontier. Despite what Hollywood and dime novels would have you believe, there was never a time in the Old West when stealing horses was legally punishable by death. Not in Texas, not in Arizona, not anywhere west of the Missi...

Imagine being wrapped alive in a freshly butchered cowhide, tied to a tree, and left to bake in the Texas sun. The old timers called it the death of skins, and according to legend, it's exactly what Texas cattleman Print Olive did to a pair of rustlers in 1876. But that's nothing compared to his actions a few years later, which earned him the nickname Man Burner. Print Olive was a man of many hats...

Enjoy this encore presentation of Richard "Two Gun" Hart. New episodes continue next week! By the mid-1920s, Al Capone was the undisputed kingpin of Chicago and was feverishly working to expand his empire. The only thing standing in the way of his ambitions was an overzealous Nebraska lawman known as Richard “Two Gun” Hart. The mysterious Hart claimed to be half Native American and appeared like s...

In September of 1899, Constable Burt Alvord deputized a group of his closest friends and rode out in pursuit of a gang of train robbers. The only problem is that the men he deputized were the same ones who pulled off the robbery. Not only that, but the mastermind behind the entire affair was none other than Constable Alvord himself. But that's just the beginning. Once apprehended, Alvord escaped j...

Henry Newton Brown was an orphan from Missouri who rode with Billy the Kid during one of the bloodiest range wars in American history. He helped ambush Sheriff William Brady, fought Buckshot Roberts at Blazers Mill, survived the Battle of Lincoln, and fled New Mexico as a wanted fugitive. And then, against all odds, he became one of the most respected lawmen in all of Kansas. As city marshal of Ca...

Join me as we examine five of the most dangerous and overlooked figures in Old West history. First up is Jesse Evans, the New Mexico outlaw who rode with Billy the Kid, helped spark the Lincoln County War, and then vanished without a trace. Next is Nate Champion, the cowboy who stood alone against fifty hired killers during Wyoming's Johnson County War. After that, we cover Billy Brooks, the buffa...

Rufus Nephew, better known as Climax Jim, was a cattle rustler, serial jail breaker, and possibly one of the most entertaining characters you'll ever come across in Old West history. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1876, he somehow ended up in Arizona as a teenager, riding for the infamous Hash Knife Cattle Company, where he earned his nickname after chewing through 12 pounds of Climax tobacco in und...

Kentucky-born Confederate guerrilla Champ Ferguson used the chaos of the Civil War to settle personal grudges along the Tennessee border, racking up a body count that included his own neighbors and dozens of wounded soldiers. As one of only three people executed for war crimes, Ferguson went to the gallows unrepentant, calling himself a rebel to the last and asking to be buried in "good rebel soil...

The Mason County War, also known as the Hoodoo War, was one of the bloodiest feuds in Texas history. In 1875, a conflict over cattle rustling in the Texas Hill Country escalated into a full-blown war between hill country ranchers and their German immigrant neighbors. Former Texas Ranger Scott Cooley launched a brutal campaign of revenge after the murder of his friend Tim Williamson, scalping a dep...

Hey, Josh here, with the Wild West Extravaganza. I just wanted to touch base and issue a very quick correction. On the most recent episode – The Insane Life of Billy Brooks – I misattributed many of the quotes. My main source for research was not Leon Metz; it was historian Robert K. DeArment and his excellent book, Deadly Dozen, Volume 3. In other words, every time you heard me say Leon Metz, it...

In 1872, the violent cattle town of Newton, Kansas, appointed a twenty-two-year-old buffalo hunter named Billy Brooks as its town marshal. It would prove to be one of the most eventful and short-lived law enforcement careers in the history of the Old West. Join me today as we trace the largely forgotten story of “Bully” Billy Brooks, from his short stint as marshal, to his arrival in Dodge City, a...

On April 9th, 1892, one man stood alone against 50 hired killers in the wilds of Johnson County, Wyoming. His name was Nate Champion, and what he did over the next twelve hours would go down as one of the greatest last stands in the history of the Old West. Champion was a Texas cowboy who had worked his way north, earned a reputation as a top hand, and made the mistake of filing a claim on land th...