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Wild West PodcastAuthor: Michael King/Brad Smalley
Welcome to the Wild West podcast, where fact and legend merge. We present the true accounts of individuals who settled in towns built out of hunger for money, regulated by fast guns, who walked on both sides of the law, patrolling, investing in, and regulating the brothels, saloons, and gambling houses. These are stories of the men who made the history of the Old West come alive - bringing with them the birth of legends, brought to order by a six-gun and laid to rest with their boots on. Join us as we take you back in history to the legends of the Wild West. You can support our show by subscribing to Exclusive access to premium content at Wild West Podcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/64094/subscribe or just buy us a cup of coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/wildwestpodcast Language: en-us Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Iron Trail Across Kansas
Thursday, 12 March, 2026
Send a textA railroad with no rails, no spikes, and barely any money somehow convinces a frontier to bet on its future. We tell the origin story of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe as Cyrus Kurtz Holliday tries to turn Kansas from a bruised battleground into a connected, growing state, using a charter, political leverage, and sheer persistence to keep the dream alive through drought and the Civil War. If you love railroad history, Kansas history, and the real mechanics behind westward expansion, this is the moment where the myth meets the math. We walk through what a “paper railroad” really means, why early pledges can’t touch the true cost of building track, and how one signature in Washington changes the entire game. Lincoln’s 1863 land grant turns prairie into capital and creates a relentless paradox: the rails must be laid to make the land valuable, but the land must be sold to pay for the rails, all under a hard deadline of March 3, 1873. The stakes are financial, political, and moral, because every mile raises the question of who pays and who loses. From the first sod turned in Topeka to the practical choice to chase coal at Carbondale, we follow the Santa Fe’s early strategy and its push toward the cattle trade, challenging rival monopolies by reaching closer to the Chisholm Trail. We also spotlight the people who do the backbreaking work, from Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans to Mexican railroad laborers, and we don’t look away from the cost to Native lands as the iron trail cuts west. Subscribe, share the show with a friend who loves the Old West, and leave a review with the detail that hit you hardest.Support the showIf you'd like to buy one or more of our fully illustrated dime novel publications, you can click the link I've included.
