This Week in the West

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 63: Bass Reeves, the Legendary Lawman 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West honors the life and legacy of Bass Reeves, one of the most remarkable lawmen of the American frontier, remembered on the anniversary of his death. Born into slavery in Arkansas in 1838, Reeves escaped bondage during the Civil War and found refuge in Indian Territory, w...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 62: Tom Mix, the Highs and Lows of Hollywood’s First Cowboy Superstar 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West tips its hat to Tom Mix, one of the first true cowboy superstars, remembered on the week of his birth, January 6, 1880. From his towering white Stetson—one example of which lives in the Museum’s collection—to his fearless stunt work and...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 61: Wanda Harper Bush 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West remembers the extraordinary life and legacy of Wanda Harper Bush, one of the most accomplished cowgirls in rodeo history, on the tenth anniversary of her death. The story opens with a rare moment of national attention: Bush’s appearance on the television game show To Tell the Truth, w...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 60: George Catlin, the Artist Driven to Capture Native Culture 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West reflects on the life and legacy of George Catlin, who died on December 23, 1872. Driven by an obsessive sense of urgency, Catlin dedicated his life to documenting Native American tribes at a moment when disease, westward expansion, and U.S. gov...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 59: Jackson Sundown, an Icon of the West  📢 Episode Summary: The iconic cowboy silhouette in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s logo is more than a symbol—it’s a real person with an extraordinary story. That figure is based on Jackson Sundown, a legendary early-20th-century rodeo competitor and a full-blooded member of the Wallowa Band of the Ne...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 58: Jesse Harper, the Kansas Rancher Who Built Notre Dame Football 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West explores the remarkable, often overlooked life of Jesse Harper—a rancher, coach, and member of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Hall of Great Westerners. The story opens in 1931 with the tragic Kansas plane crash that kil...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 57: Bill Pickett, King of The Bulldoggers 📢 Episode Summary: This week’s episode of This Week in The West celebrates the remarkable life of Bill Pickett, born December 5, 1870—one of the most iconic and innovative cowboys in American history. Known for an almost unbelievable act—bringing down steers with his teeth—Pickett captured national attention in the early...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 56: Joseph Glidden and the History of Barbed Wire  📢 Episode Summary: This episode explores the surprising origins and sweeping impact of one of the most transformative inventions in Western history: barbed wire. The story begins in 1873 on a farm near DeKalb, Illinois, where Joseph Glidden searched for a way to keep cows out of his wife Lucinda’s yard. A few wi...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 55: Clark Hulings and the Origin of the Prix de West  📢 Episode Summary: This week’s episode of This Week in The West explores the origins of the Museum’s signature art exhibition, the Prix de West, through the life and legacy of one of its most influential early artists: Clark Hulings. Listeners are reminded that the Prix de West—now more than five decades stro...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 54: 70 Years Celebrating the West at The Cowboy 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West celebrates the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s own story—marking the 70th anniversary of its founding and the 60th anniversary of its building. The episode takes listeners back to November 11, 1955, when 3,000 people gathered northeast of Okla...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 53: Roy Rogers - How Leonard Slye Became the Legendary Cowboy 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West celebrates the life of Leonard Franklin Slye — better known to the world as Roy Rogers — born this week in 1911. Roy’s story began far from Hollywood, in poverty on the Ohio River. After the Depression forced his family west, he worked migrant f...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 52: The Prince and the Painter - the story of Karl Bodmer 📢 Episode Summary: Karl Bodmer may have been born along the Rhine River, but his greatest artistic legacy came from his journey up the Missouri. This episode of This Week in the West follows the young Swiss artist who, at just 23 years old, joined Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied on an ambitious scientif...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 51: The Thrilling Cowgirl Life of Lucille Mulhall  📢 Episode Summary: Lucille Mulhall’s story begins with a legendary encounter involving Theodore Roosevelt and a roped wolf—an act that launched her into Western folklore. Born in St. Louis and raised on the Oklahoma frontier, Lucille grew up on the Mulhall Ranch, where her father’s traveling Wild West shows intr...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 50: Reg Kelser and the Invaluable Stock Contractors   📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West spotlights Reg Kesler, one of rodeo’s most versatile and influential figures. Born in Alberta in 1919, Kesler grew up immersed in ranch life and quickly took to rodeo, competing in nearly every event imaginable—from bronc and bull riding to tie-down rop...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 49: Ty Murray, All-Around Rodeo Greatness  📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in the West celebrates Ty Murray, one of the most accomplished rodeo cowboys in history. Born in Arizona on October 11, 1969, Murray grew up surrounded by rodeo culture—his parents were both accomplished riders, and his mother was even a two-time bull riding champion. From a...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 48: Gene Autry, the Hollywood Cowboy Who Did It All 📢 Episode Summary: Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy, was born in Texas in 1907 and grew up in Oklahoma, where his love for music was nurtured while working as a telegraph operator. Encouraged by Will Rogers, Autry began performing on radio, eventually landing record deals and breaking into film with a persona tha...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 47: Cowboy poet Badger Clark 📢 Episode Summary: Charles Badger Clark was the first poet laureate of South Dakota and one of the most enduring cowboy poets of the American West. Born in 1883, his life took him from Iowa to Dakota Territory and eventually to the deserts of Arizona, where a battle with tuberculosis set him on the path of writing. His time working o...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 46: The Legendary Record-Breaking Career of Bull Rider Don Gay 📢 Episode Summary: In this episode, we pay tribute to rodeo legend Don Gay, whose name surfaced repeatedly when fans were asked to name the greatest bull rider of all time. We take listeners through Gay’s extraordinary life and record-breaking career, timed with Gay’s birthday week, September 18. Bor...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 45: This Week in the West: The Origin of the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association 📢 Episode Summary: The Traditional Cowboy Arts Association (TCAA) was born out of a simple conversation in Elko, Nevada, in 1998, when craftsmen like Mike Beaver and Cary Schwarz dreamed of elevating cowboy gear—saddles, spurs, rawhide, and silverwork—from utility to recognized fine...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 44: Tad Lucas, the First Lady of Rodeo 📢 Episode Summary: Tad Lucas, remembered as the “First Lady of Rodeo,” rose from humble beginnings in Nebraska as the youngest of 24 children to become the most celebrated trick rider of her time. Nicknamed “Tadpole” for her size and spirit, she quickly made a name for herself in rodeo competitions and joined California Fra...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 43: This Week in the West, Episode 43: Eight Bears - Edwin Willard Deming's Native Art & Connection 📢 Episode Summary: This week’s episode of This Week in The West honors the life and legacy of artist Edwin Willard Deming on the 165th anniversary of his birth. Known to the Blackfoot as Eight Bears, Deming earned this name through years of respect, friendship...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 42: Charles Colcord at the center of Oklahoma history 📢 Episode Summary: On this week’s episode we tackle the life of Charles Colcord. Colcord’s life reads like a frontier epic. Born in 1859, his early years were marked by illness, forcing his family to send him to Texas to recover. That move set him on a path toward cowboy life, the cattle trails, and eventuall...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 41: When Henry Fonda Became a Western Bad Guy 📢 Episode Summary: In the newest episode of “This Week in the West” we tell the story of Henry Fonda, one of Hollywood’s most enduring actors, who left a lasting mark on the Western genre through roles defined by quiet strength and moral clarity. His breakout Western, The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), drew on his memory of...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 40: Rodeo Cowboys on Strike? The Story of Herman Linder 📢 Episode Summary: This week on This Week in The West, we turn the spotlight on rodeo legend Herman Linder, remembered during the week of his birth on August 5. Known as the “King of the Cowboys,” Linder wasn’t just a champion in the arena—he was a driving force in reshaping the sport of rodeo itself. From...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 39: Lane Frost, Bull Riding Legend 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West honors bull riding legend Lane Frost on the anniversary of his tragic death in 1989. We tell the story of Frost’s early life, raised in a rodeo family and already winning events as a child. With a magnetic personality and unstoppable talent, Lane quickly rose through the...