The Wild West Extravaganza
The Wild West Extravaganza is a weekly history podcast exploring the real-life people and events of the Old West and the American frontier. Each episode explores the true stories of outlaws, gunfighters, lawmen, cowboys, Native Americans, and frontiersmen (and women) who shaped the Old West. From famous legends like Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, and Geronimo to forgotten tales of shootouts, cattle drives, and frontier towns, this show delivers the grit, drama, and truth behind Western history.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 46 minutes
- Episodes
- 193
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
Bigfoot Wallace: Texas Hero or Villain?
Bigfoot Wallace is one of those figures who looms so large in Texas history that it can be tough to separate the facts from the tall tales. Born in Virginia and hardened by tragedy, Wallace headed to…
00:27:10 |
Tue 16 Sep 2025
The Widow's Secret: Was Billy the Kid's Death a Hoax?
Did Pat Garrett’s widow really claim that her husband helped to fake the demise of Billy the Kid? What about Garrett’s daughter, Elizabeth? Did she really give an interview in the 1980s saying the sa…
00:24:00 |
Fri 12 Sep 2025
John Tornow | Wild Man of the Wynoochee
John Tornow, also known as the Wild Man of the Wynoochee, became one of the most feared and hunted men in the Pacific Northwest during the early 1900s. Born in Iowa in 1880, he grew up in Washington’…
00:20:58 |
Wed 10 Sep 2025
Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton
Frank “Pistol Pete” Eaton was more than a mascot. He was a real man who claimed to have lived one of the most violent and extraordinary lives of the Old West. Born in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, E…
00:20:29 |
Mon 08 Sep 2025
Young Guns 2: Fact vs Fiction
If you grew up watching westerns in the late 80s and early 90s, Young Guns II was probably on your list, but how much of what we saw on screen was true? Today, we dig into the real history behind Bil…
01:32:04 |
Wed 03 Sep 2025
Archie Clement's Bloody Last Stand
Archie Clement was one of the most notorious guerrilla fighters to emerge from Missouri during the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Barely over five feet tall and weighing around 130 pounds, Clement…
00:20:52 |
Mon 01 Sep 2025
Jack Hinson: Civil War Sniper
Jack Hinson, known as “Old Jack,” began the Civil War as a wealthy Tennessee planter with no intentions to enlist in the Civil War. That changed in 1862 when Union troops executed his sons and displa…
00:20:49 |
Sat 30 Aug 2025
Chief Joseph & the Nez Perce War: The Fight Begins
The Battle of White Bird Canyon was one of the most lopsided defeats the U.S. Army ever suffered in the American West. On June 17, 1877, Captain David Perry led roughly one hundred soldiers and scout…
00:32:02 |
Wed 27 Aug 2025
Elfego Baca & the Frisco Shootout (Encore)
In October of 1884, 19-year-old Elfego Baca made history during the legendary Frisco Shootout. After pinning on a fake badge and arresting a drunken cowboy named Charlie McCarty, Baca found himself s…
00:38:16 |
Wed 20 Aug 2025
They're Remaking Lonesome Dove!?
Teton Ridge has snagged the film and TV rights to Larry McMurtry’s legendary Lonesome Dove series, promising a fresh take on the Pulitzer Prize-winning saga of retired Texas Rangers on a perilous cat…
00:47:36 |
Fri 15 Aug 2025
Chief Joseph & the Nez Perce War: Genesis
The Nez Perce War erupted in 1877 after decades of broken
treaties, stolen land, and violent confrontations between settlers and the Nez Perce people. At the center of this struggle was Chief Joseph,…
00:41:19 |
Wed 13 Aug 2025
Mysterious Dave Mather: The Gunfighter Who Vanished Without a Trace
Mysterious Dave Mather was one of the Old West’s most elusive figures. Born in Connecticut and orphaned at a young age, Mather drifted west, where his life became a blur of gunfights, gambling halls,…
00:23:18 |
Fri 08 Aug 2025
Tom "Bear River" Smith: Abilene's Forgotten marshal
Tom “Bear River” Smith tamed one of the wildest towns in the Old West without firing a single shot. Armed with nothing more than a badge, a banjo, and a pair of fists that made even the toughest cowb…
00:21:52 |
Mon 04 Aug 2025
King Fisher: Outlaw, Sheriff, Dead Man
King Fisher was no ordinary Texas gunfighter. This is a man who once killed a circus tiger so that he could make a pair of chaps from its hide. He boasted of killing 37 men, and at the height of his …
00:22:19 |
Wed 30 Jul 2025
The Battle of Lovelock Cave
For centuries, the Northern Paiute have told of the Si-Te-Cah, a mysterious tribe said to have lived on tule rafts across Nevada’s Lake Humboldt. Described as fierce warriors with red hair and even c…
00:23:55 |
Mon 28 Jul 2025
The Lost Dutchman's Mine
The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is one of the most enduring legends of the American Southwest. Said to be hidden somewhere in the Superstition Mountains east of Apache Junction, Arizona, this mythical …
00:39:09 |
Fri 25 Jul 2025
Clay Allison vs Wyatt Earp (Part 2)
Clay Allison was one of the lesser-known yet deadlier of the Old West gunslingers. Join me today as we follow Allison on his adventures in
Dodge City, his encounters with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday,…
00:29:30 |
Wed 16 Jul 2025
The Reign of Terror: Osage Nation Murders w/ Crimes of the Centuries
This is a special bonus episode from the excellent Crimes of the Centuries podcast. When members of the incredibly wealthy Osage Nation started dropping dead of mysterious ailments in 1920s Oklahoma,…
00:44:17 |
Fri 11 Jul 2025
Clay Allison & the Colfax County War (Part 1)
Clay Allison might not be as famous as Billy the Kid or Jesse James, but he was every bit as deadly. He was also just a tad bit insane. Clay got his start riding for Nathan Bedford Forrest during the…
00:45:14 |
Wed 09 Jul 2025
Stagecoach Mary
Stagecoach Mary Fields worked hard, she drank hard, and if the situation called for it, she fought hard. And despite being born a slave, Mary lived to become one of the freest souls ever to draw a br…
00:21:34 |
Wed 02 Jul 2025
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