This Week in the West

🤠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...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 38: The Groundbreaking Woody Strode 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West highlights the remarkable life and legacy of Woody Strode—an athlete, soldier, actor, and barrier-breaker born on July 25, 1914. Strode was a pioneer in sports, playing on UCLA’s historic football team alongside Jackie Robinson and Kenny Washington, and becoming one of t...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 37: Jim Bridger, Mountain Man 📢 Episode Summary: In this episode of This Week in The West, we explore the adventurous and often unbelievable life of Jim Bridger, one of the most iconic mountain men of the 19th century. Born in 1804 and orphaned young, Bridger’s journey into the wild began early. By 18, he had joined a fur trapping expedition that would lead him...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 36: Jake McClure 📢 Episode Summary: This week on This Week in The West, we dive into the remarkable yet often overlooked life of Jake McClure, one of the first five inductees into what was then called the Cowboy Hall of Fame. While names like Theodore Roosevelt, Will Rogers, and Charles Goodnight are well-known in Western lore, McClure remains a bit of a mystery...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 35: Ralph Doubleday and the Birth of Rodeo Photography 📢 Episode Summary: In this episode of This Week in The West, we take you back to the dusty arena of Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1910, where a single photograph would help define the visual legacy of rodeo in America. Behind the lens was Ralph Doubleday, a tenacious and inventive photographer whose work transfo...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 34: Bettina Steinke 📢 Episode Summary: This episode of This Week in The West celebrates the life and legacy of Bettina Steinke, one of the most influential women in the history of Western art. We take listeners back to 1938, when Steinke was sketching live performances of the NBC Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini at Studio 8H—now known as the home of Saturday Nig...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 33: Bert Geer Phillips, A Broken Wagon Wheel & Taos 📢 Episode Summary: In this episode of This Week in The West, we share the remarkable story of Bert Geer Phillips, whose broken wagon wheel in 1898 led not to a setback, but to the founding of a new American art movement. Alongside fellow artist Ernest Blumenschein, Phillips intended to journey to Mexico for...

🤠 This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 32: John Wayne 📢 Episode Summary: This week’s episode of This Week in The West rides into history with the larger-than-life story of John Wayne and his special connection to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. We take listeners back to 1965, when "The Duke" led a grand opening parade through downtown Oklahoma City, drawing a crowd of more than 10...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️Episode 31: Audie Murphy 📢 Episode Summary: This week on This Week in The West, we saddle up with the extraordinary story of Audie Murphy—a humble Texas farm boy who became the most decorated American combat soldier of World War II and then a bona fide Hollywood cowboy. We share the gripping tale of Murphy’s Medal of Honor heroics on the battlefield, his unlikely rise to...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️Episode 30: Robert Lougheed and Prix de West 📢 Episode Summary: In this episode of This Week in The West, we pay tribute to Western artist Robert Lougheed on the anniversary of his passing in 1982. Known for his authentic depictions of animals and landscapes, Lougheed’s legacy lives on through his contributions to both commercial illustration and fine art—most notably, h...

🤠This Week in the West 🎙️ Episode 29: J.R. Simplot 📢 Episode Summary: This week on This Week in The West, we go to high desert of southern Idaho to remember one of the American West’s most influential—and unlikely—business pioneers: J.R. Simplot, the self-taught farm boy who became the “Potato King.” On the anniversary of his death, we trace Simplot’s incredible rise from a 14-year-old school dr...