Dr. History's Tales of the Old West

Chief Joseph - Episode 1The Nez Perce, a gentle tribe, helped the white men, including Lewis and Clark. Trouble began with the signing of a treaty forcing some to leave their lands and leading to battles and a 1700 mile trek. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America's first train robbery, five Reno brothers, stole a lot of money and set the example for future robbers. John spent 25 years in prison, the others met their fate at the end of a rope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The quest for a river leading to the Pacific Ocean led to half-truths, exaggerations and downright lies. Captain Robert Gray, Alexander Mackenzie and the Lewis and Clark expedition finally established the rivers West. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A river of flowing mud, dead trees, and sand bars, yet thousands traveled by canoes, flatboats, Mackinaws, keelboats and steamboats to reach the Rockies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Real gunfights in the old west were not like those seen in movies. Bat Masterson, Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the gunfight at the OK corral all had their own gunfights. (Previously recorded show from Jan 22, 2013) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1862, The Tonkawa tribe awoke to an attack by the Shawnees, Delawares, Wichitas, Kickapoos and a few other tribes Why? Maybe it was because they acted as scouts for the Army in attacking other Indian tribes, or their tradition of eating their enemies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cattle drives faced a lot of challenges, not always making a profit. Payment to Indians for crossing their land, freezing weather, buffalo, elk and deer mingling with the cattle were just some of the challenges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Weary and starving, the explorers accepted food and a canoe ride only to be ambushed. Heddon packed his wounded companion over thirty miles to safety. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The UP began the Transcontinental Railroad in Omaha. Thousands worked in all kinds of weather, heavy lifting, shoveling, pounding spikes, setting ties and rail, they accomplished the impossible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With picks, shovels, wheel barrows, teams and scrapers, they prepared the grade for ties and rails. The Chinese ate healthy, worked hard and had the most dangerous job of drilling and blasting the solid rock to build the tunnels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They came first to lay out and mark the line for the Transcontinental Railroad, trying to avoid lakes, mountains and rivers. Like Lewis and Clark, they explored the west to find the best route. Grenville Dodge fought Indians, explored and found the route West. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Texas was the cattle raising industry which gave rise to the first cowboys. Armed to the teeth, spurs, long hair covered with a broad-brimmed sombrero was the look of the Texas cowboy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Buffalo Bill's Wild West show began in 1883. Gunfights, outlaws, stagecoach and wagon train attacks, sharpshooters and Cossack Prince Tifto all added to the excitement of a real Wild West Show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Never a Cheyenne Chief, he believed he could not be killed due to his "great medicine". He rode in front of the enemy while arrows and bullets whistled past, with not even a scratch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stray horses caused problems between ranchers, but they usually came to a friendly agreement. Cowboys loved silver on their saddles, bridles, bits and spurs and were the first to give money to poor kids. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

His courageous mother escaped capture, walked 600 miles returning to her native Northwestern Shoshoni tribe. Pocatello hunted buffalo, fought the Sioux, Blackfeet and white men, robbed to feed his people and died in 1884. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Goliad" was the war cry as General Sam Houston led the Texan Militia against Santa Anna. Victory resulted in gaining nearly one third of the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Was there a coward in the Alamo? Moses Rose made the difficult decision to leave rather than face certain death and was branded a coward and a deserter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The War of 1812, "Old Glory" and the signers of the Declaration of Independence. This is one of my favorite shows I repeat every year, so listen now to our rerun of last years show from July 5, 2016. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The hard working Chinese played a big role in settling the Old West. Virginia City, Montana was the site of the trial of two Chinese men accused of murder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Big Springs 120 million gallons of water each day and Johnny Sack's cabin, near Island Park, Idaho. Head West to ghost towns, Nevada and Virginia City, Montana where $30,000,000 in gold was taken. Pan for gold, ride a stage coach, then past Quake Lake and into West Yellowstone to the Playmill Theatre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

She was a "thorn" in the side of Denver society, but the rest of the world fell in love with this somewhat crude illiterate woman. She was reported to be the last woman off the Titanic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Toothache? Try alcohol, heroin, or an "electric toothbrush". Mix boiled spiders, eggs, oil and apply to the sore tooth or spit into the mouth of a frog. To clean teeth, mix ground antlers, hooves, crabs, eggshells and lizard livers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indians knew about tonics, astringents, antiseptics, and many natural remedies. They performed amputations, treated fractures and removed arrows. In some ways they may have been superior than the Europeans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cooking, sewing, cleaning, doctoring, even harnessing and driving wagons, these women had to be strong. Wagon trains didn't stop long for women giving birth, or for burying the dead. 2400 miles with hopes and dreams for a better life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don't trifle with a woman's affections, steal her cattle, horses or oxen. Don't "steal" her daughter, her husband's rifle or shoot her ranch hand. Indians found a "defenseless" ranch wife was pretty good with a rifle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Conestoga, Studebaker, Espenshied, Murphy or a converted farm wagon, and, are you going to use horses, mules or oxen? Decisions that determine if you will make to Oregon or California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Was Simpson a horse thief? A peculiar man with a reputation for being honest, yet evidence indicates he was a horse thief. A hasty trial with a rope around his neck, was this the end? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nat Love and Bill Picket were among the most famous African American cowboys. They made their name by being the best when it came to riding, roping, branding and herding cattle. Pickett was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1971. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a cattle drive, a stampede was feared the most. Usually at night, lightning, thunder, a horse falling, and sometimes for no reason, a herd could be thrown into a wild panic. Most herds stampeded at least once. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cattle drives depended on a good foreman and cook. Coffee, sourdough biscuits, bacon, steak, beans, pot roast, short ribs and son-of-a-(gun) stew, cowboys were well fed. They also obeyed strict chuck wagon rules. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A cattle drive began with receiving cattle, in this case from Mexico. From receiving, swimming across the Rio Grande, counting the herd, picking your horses, all part of a six month trail ride. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1868, General George A. Custer led the 7th Cavalry in a surprise winter attack against Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and his village. Custer reported a victory, yet there were only a dozen warriors killed and 23 soldiers killed. 1876, another attack along the Little Bighorn river, with much different results. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

George Miller didn't like his neighbors cows eating his corn. He shot some cows and his neighbor, but partnering with Red Buck was his worst mistake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blonde, blue eyed, fair skinned Indians? Tall, powerful and courageous with their "skull crushers", they were feared by the Sioux. The 1362 Kensington Stone and Viking graves may hold the answer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dinah, the three-wheeled steam tractor, set out to replace the 20 mule teams hauling borax across the Mojave desert. When the dust cleared there was just one winner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The winter of 1864 found the mining town of Alder Gulch with a serious lack of flour as supply trains were unable to make it through the deep snow. Flour, also called, “Dumpling Dust”, sold for as much as $110 a sack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

George W. Skinner discovered a huge treasure but disappeared. His skeletal remains were found, but not the treasure, even with written directions discovered by his brother. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Doc Middleton stole mules and horses from friends, neighbors and emigrants, but would turn around and give horses to poor stranded emigrants. A Robin Hood of sorts, but still ended up in jail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Famous for a knife, he fought against General Santa Anna at the Alamo, with Davy Crockett and Colonel William Travis. These brave defenders died fighting for Texas independence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A treasure hunters paradise, Mustang and Padre Islands. Miles of buried treasure, sunken ships, coins, artifacts, military relics waiting to be found, but watch out for snakes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He carried 50 pounds of gear, marched 10 to 20 miles a day in all kinds of weather, often without enough food or clean water. At the end of a campaign, clothes were rags, boots worn out, hair and beards long and shaggy, yet they played an important role in protecting early pioneers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After three months driving cattle, the cowboys were ready for fun. A haircut, new clothes, a photo and money to spend. Wild Bill Hickok patrolled Abilene with a sawed-off shotgun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Buffalo herds were being slaughtered for their hides. Indian tribes attacked the trading post at Adobe Walls, but the hunters held them off with sharpshooting and Billy Dixon's mile long shot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He explored most of the West, fought in the Mexican and Civil wars, discovered gold, ran for President and died poor. One of the West's greatest explorers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A pioneer Christmas was a combination of traditions and songs from around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even in times of war, there can be moments of peace. During WW II Elisabeth Vinckens, a German, opened her home to some unusual guests and for a short time, there was peace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christmas morning, in a blinding snowstorm, 19 year old Charles Walgamott rode the horse drawn sled carrying passengers, mail and freight. They met the stage coming from the Oakley (Idaho) stage station, then returned to the City of Rocks stage station for a great Christmas feast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Armed with a .44 Colt pistol, Pearl Hart robbed a stagecoach and was immediately arrested. The last stage robbery resulted in 18 months in jail for the beautiful bandit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A young miner was having a great time drinking with his friends until he challenged fellow drinkers to a contest. The results were not what he wanted as he went home bloodied and battered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices