Looking for Shiprock Leonard Wilcox

Born in 1801, Thomas Long 'Peg Leg' Smith was a fearless mountain man with undeniable courage and and strong wilderness skills; but he was also an accomplished horse thief that liberated horses from California ranches and sold them to traders in Santa Fe. But more, he was such a famous liar that a contest created over 100 years ago still seeks the best tall-story-tellers of today.   Come meet one of the most colorful characters ever to cross the Colorado River.




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The Shoshone and Paiute Natives watched as Spanish Traders brought horses to the Valley. American mountain men were early explorers who also passed through on their way to the southern settlements or back to Santa Fe and the United States.  It was the 49er gold and silver seekers that changed the valley forever, and a lost wagon train that sealed the identity of this odd expanse of land, so deadly dry it earned the name Death Valley.  


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Wildly beautiful, strange, remote, awe-inspiring - Death Valley deserves these accolades, and more. Nothing is on a small scale here; extreme is the name of the game.  Colors are brighter . The mountains are higher, the valleys are deeper, the temperature is hotter, the vegetation is sparser - whatever a desert can do, Death Valley does it better, bigger, and more passionately.  The human story of Death Valley is just as intense.   Part 1 of 2 parts - come explore with us!




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The ghost town of Bodie is one of the best preserved western boom towns left.  It's the bones of history kept in a state of arrested decay by the park rangers and volunteers.  In its time, it was one of the most exciting mining camps in the west, but a dangerous place with a violent history of gunfights and gamblers, ladies of the evening, and all the trappings of western lore.  Come explore the history of this town with us.




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The story of Bass Reeves, an African-American born in slavery, that became a federal Marshal who brought in 3,000 outlaws to meet justice in Judge Isaac Parker's court (the famous hanging judge).  His unique abilities and exploits make him a hero of the old West.  She. historians have suggested he was the model for the mid-20th century radio and TV show, The Lone Ranger.  


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With this podcast we shift gears - we learn about some of the characters that made up the West. And were they ever characters!  Strong minded, willful, determined men and women, they were Native Americans, Englishmen, Spanish, Africans - the American west, perhaps surprisingly to some, was a very democratic place.  First up is Shorty Harris, a prospector that wandered the Mojave Desert and Death Valley to find gold and other valuable minerals.  


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