Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Christmas "Mine has been a stormy life and a perilous one... but incidents like this are like shafts of sunshine." — Buffalo Bill Cody, 1887. Step back in time to Christmas Eve in the Colorado gold fields. Join us as we read a rediscovered 1887 interview where Buffalo Bill Cody describes the time he turned a gang of rough-and-tumble miners into a secret socie...

In this episode of our podcast, we explore the extraordinary lives of Oglala Lakota Chief Iron Tail and Buffalo Bill Cody. Dive into the story of their friendship, the cultural impact they had during their era, and how their legacies intertwine with the American West's history. Join us for an intriguing journey through their lives and the lasting impressions they left on American culture. #His...

Texas Jack Omohundro shaped the American West not just in the perceptions of theater-goers who watched him on stage, but through the lives of the men he took on treks throughout the West, and specifically in Wyoming. In 1878, Texas Jack headed for Rawlins with Count Otto Franc von Lichtenstein and Doctor Amandus Ferber. Both men were wealthy Germans who had earned their fortunes in America; Franc...

Only one general landed by sea with the first wave of troops to brave the beaches of Normandy.  The man who led the 8th Infantry Regiment and the 70th Tank Battalion at Utah Beach was not a young and exuberant West Point graduate–at fifty-six years old, this General was actually the oldest man in the invasion.  He was also the only man to participate in the Normandy invasion whose son wa...

On April 21, I was welcomed by the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma, to talk about Texas Jack, his surprising connection with Will Rogers, and the unlikely path the American cowboy took to its current iconic status.  The museum broadcast and recorded the talk, which is available in video format on their YouTube page . The Will Rogers Memorial Museum is a wonderful museum ded...

Texas Jack and his horses.

This long poem about Texas Jack is from the 1890 book May-Day Dreams, Passion Flowers, Poetic Flights and Prosy Thoughts by Sam Brown Jr., "the Cowboy Poet of the Platte." Reading this one, a couple of lines stuck with me. "He was all that any maiden might wish for in the shape of man. Half cowboy and half scout, he seemed a youthful errant knight.  Poor Texas Jack, how pure thy spirit was! T...

Doctor W. F. Carver went from his dentist office in North PLatte Nebraska to become the world's most accomplished rifle marksman.

Just off a quiet stretch of US Highway 34, just 3 miles east of Trenton, Nebraska, stands a 35-foot tall shaft of Minnesota pink granite.  Near the top of the 91-ton monument is a carving of a Sioux warrior named John Grass facing west, and a Pawnee brave named Ruling His Son stares east.  The quiet prairie that surrounds the monument gives little hint at the events of August 5, 1873—the...

Texas Jack on the “Wide Range”—The History of Lazy Kate (Chicago Field - Saturday, March 19, 1881) By Texas Jack

From The Spirit of the Times , March 24, 1877.  Written by Texas Jack, this piece was included in the show programs for Buffalo Bill's Wild West as an introduction to the cowboy.

There are many names that one might think of when they consider Texas Jack on stage.  The earliest exploits with Buffalo Bill Cody and Ned Buntline, the spark with costar Giuseppina Morlacchi that developed into romance and marriage, drinking fake whisky with Wild Bill Hickok on stage, going through thick and thin with “Arizona John” Burke.  But one fascinating costar that has been large...

Texas Jack in Yellowstone The following article was originally printed in The Boys of the World , a serial printed by Street & Smith, the same publisher that produced Ned Buntline's Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack stories.  This is Jack's account of his 1874 trip into the Yellowstone with Lord Dunraven, George Kingsley, and Captain Wynne. TEXAS JACK’S EXPERIENCE OF Three Months in the Nationa...

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.  It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack,...

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.  It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack,...

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.  It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack,...

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.  It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack,...

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.  It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack,...

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.  It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack,...

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.  It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack,...

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.  It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack,...

Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is.   It was just before the play opened for its run at New York City's Niblo's Garden that Texas Jack starred in his own dime novel, Texas Jack,...

Part 2 of The League of Three; or, Buffalo Bill's Pledge. A story of a trail followed to the bitter end by the three famous scouts, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill and Texas Jack, the "Princes of the Plains" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, author of "Wild Bill, the Pistol Dead Shot," "Merle, the Mutineer," Gold," "Plume, the Boy Bandit," "Bison Bill, Prince of the Reins," "Crimson Kate," "Lone Star, the Cow...

Part 1 of The League of Three; or, Buffalo Bill's Pledge. A story of a trail followed to the bitter end by the three famous scouts, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill and Texas Jack, the "Princes of the Plains" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, author of "Wild Bill, the Pistol Dead Shot," "Merle, the Mutineer," Gold," "Plume, the Boy Bandit," "Bison Bill, Prince of the Reins," "Crimson Kate," "Lone Star, the Cow...

Part 10 of Texas Jack, The Prairie Rattler; or, the Queen of the Wild Riders (A romance in the Life of a real hero—John B Omohundro-—Texas Jack—and a tale of the southwest border. By Honorable William F Cody “Buffalo Bill” author of The Gold Bullet Sport, Kansas King, Deadly Eye, The Phantom Spy, etc etc. Chapters 46 thru 50.