Dr. History's Tales of the Old West

Buffalo migrated north in summer and south in winter from New Mexico to Central Canada. Native American hunters defended what they considered their hunting ground from other tribes. It was a rite of passage for a young Native American to kill a buffalo on another tribe's land. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He was eager to explore Glacier Bay, take notes and map the coastline 200 miles north. They pushed through ice floes in a dugout canoe. He explored Taylor Glacier, nearly falling to his death in a crevasse, but proved that the glacier was growing and later helped create Sequoia, Mount Rainier and Grand Canyon national parks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

General George A. Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills as the government was trying to buy the land from the Sioux and move them to a reservation. Gold was discovered which led to the Black Hills gold rush. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hired by Western Union to prepare a telegraph route from Canada across Alaska in an attempt to connect with Europe across the Bering Strait. His crew worked mostly in the dark in sub-zero weather with little food, Kennecott died before learning that a cable had been laid across the Atlantic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Outlaws learned to avoid any Wells Fargo stage that was guarded by expressman, Eugene Blair. He not only guarded express, he also tracked down outlaws and escorted prisoners. He was considered a man of "courage and prompt action." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If purging, blistering, sweating or bleeding didn’t work, the patient didn’t have much hope. Homeopaths, hydropaths, botanic doctors, bonesetters and inoculators, Indian healers and midwives had their place. But rest, fluids and tender loving cured most illnesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before he killed Billy the Kid, he killed Joe Briscoe. Billy and Pat were great friends. Billy bought Pat clothes, gave him a horse and saved him from a gunfight. They ate, drank, double dated and played cards together and were known as "Big Casino" and "Little Casino." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who knows the truth? Was his grave marker shot to pieces, made from a fence post, in a museum or washed away by a flood? And his coffin, filled with a saddle bag and rocks, a side of beef or just dirt? The exact location of the grave is anybody’s guess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Newspapers sell papers with exciting headlines, true or not. Was his finger cut off, his body dug up and bones held together with wires, body parts on display at county fairs, his skull owned by an Albuquerque man? Not according to Pat Garrett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthony Blum outwitted a priest. Cyclone Bill claimed a cyclone took him, his mules and wagon in Arizona and dropped them in Kansas. George and Wheeler destroyed an express car with dynamite. Amateur cattle thief “Russian Bill” ended up on the end of a rope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Frank “Shorty” Harris spent his life in search of the big bonanza. From Idaho, Montana, Arizona and California he found good mines, but not fortune. Buried in a national park, a bronze plaque reads, “Here Lies Shorty Harris, a single blanket jackass prospector." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jim Beckworth became a war chief of the Crow, trapped for the Rocky Mountain and American fur companies. Trappers struggled to survive severe cold, Indians, dysentery, smallpox, tetanus, bears and rattlesnakes. A good year could net him as much as $2000 at the rendezvous to buy supplies for another perilous year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

William Ashley formed the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In 1822 he hired Jed Smith, Jim Bridger, Tom Fitzpatrick, Hugh Glass and the Sublette brothers. He organized the first rendezvous at Henry’s Fork on the Green River, each year moving to other locations, Fort Hall, Pierre’s Hole, Jackson Hole and others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Colter was returning to St. Louis with Lewis and Clark when he returned to the wilderness to guide and trap beaver. He traveled through Idaho, Wyoming and Montana searching for beaver and working with Indians. He was chased for six miles by Blackfeet Indians, running naked he survived by hiding in a river. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mail carriers began carrying express, cash, bank drafts, gold and silver resulting in the first stage robbery. Wells Fargo contracted with existing companies to carry their express. First class mail sometimes eventually made it, second class mail might be found along the trail or thrown under wagon wheels to help cross mud bogs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mail service from Missouri to Sacramento faced 2500 miles of freezing weather, snowstorms, Indians and waterless deserts. Many companies had no coaches, they used wagons, mules and even on foot to deliver the mail that many times never reached their destinations.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thousands of papers started between 1846 to 1890, many were short lived. People were hungry for news. Papers printed speeches, sermons, poetry, murders, war news, ads, legal notices and even printed in some foreign languages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Music was very important in the lives of Native Americans. It tells their history, education, medicine and was sacred for special ceremonies. They used drums, flutes, whistles, rasps, rattles and chordophones. Singing was considered the most important part of their music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There may have been as many as 300 Native American languages with only 175 remaining. They were complex and there was a tremendous variety among tribes. Navajo is the most difficult to learn and the most commonly spoken in the U.S. and was used in World War II. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They had a rich culture and organization. Some were nomadic, others were farmers who traded between tribes. Many cooperated to maintain peace. Marriage and raising children involved the whole family. Men and women had their roles. They believed in a spirit world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A first cousin to Chief Joseph, he followed the famous chief and the Nez Perce. He fought at White Bird Canyon, the Clearwater River and in the Battle at the Big Hole. They nearly made it to join Sitting Bull in Canada but surrendered and ended up on the Colville Reservation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dueling was considered the gentlemen's code of honor. Dueling was illegal, so a small island in the Mississippi became the ideal site . The challenged party chose weapons, distance and volleys. One of the most famous was Abraham Lincoln, he chose the cavalry broadsword. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Windolph gives his first person account at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. At age 97 he was the last survivor of the troopers who fought there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Wyatt and his wife moved to San Diego. He invested in real estate, had three saloons, owned race horses, harness horses and refereed boxing matches. Wyatt acquired a small fortune while living in San Diego, he died January 13, 1929 in Los Angeles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thousands waited for the starting gun to begin the race to stake their claim on 160 acres or townsite lots in several million acres. Each lot had been surveyed and the coordinates left on a pile of rocks they then rushed to town to file their claim. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices