Bandit Lore with Sylvester & Mortimer

🦝 BANDIT LORE — A Short: The Flood

The Boys cover the flood that hit Omaha — real rainfall numbers, one very dry studio, and a word for the animals who still need somewhere to stay. 🦝 Check on your neighbors.

AS IMAGINED BY TWO RACCOONS — the flood and its numbers are real; the Boys' newsroom is not. (AI-assisted, and it says so on screen.)

📺 Also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-7gN7PY-uTg

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New stories as the Boys dig them up — follow so you don't miss one.

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Bandit Lore with Sylvester & Mortimer — every story told two ways: what the record proves, and what the locals still swear.

🦝 BANDIT LORE — Episode No. 2: The Big Springs Train Heist

In 1877, six men stopped a Union Pacific express at a tiny Nebraska water stop and rode off with $60,000 in freshly minted gold — the biggest robbery the UP ever suffered. The Boys follow the gold.

🗂️ Documented: On September 18, 1877, Sam Bass and five others robbed Union Pacific express No. 4 at Big Springs, Nebraska — roughly $60,000 in brand-new $20 gold pieces from the San Francisco Mint.

🗣️ Passed down: The gang split the gold under a lone tree on the open prairie — and folks around here still swear some of it never left the county.

📍 The place: Big Springs, Nebraska — the Sam Bass historical marker and the Phelps Hotel (National Register of Historic Places).

Plan your visit: history.nebraska.gov/marker-monday-sam-bass-and-the-big-springs-robbery/

📺 Watch the full video episode: https://youtu.be/zLyPSsncDuU

🖼️ Historical gang photograph — Photo courtesy Robert G. McCubbin, Jr.

📚 Sources & further reading:

- History Nebraska — Sam Bass and the Big Springs Robbery: history.nebraska.gov/marker-monday-sam-bass-and-the-big-springs-robbery/

- Nebraska Life — "Legendary 1877 Train Heist at Big Springs" by Ron J. Jackson, Jr.: nebraskalife.com

- Texas State Historical Association — Sam Bass: tshaonline.org

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New stories as the Boys dig them up — follow so you don't miss one.

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Follow @thebanditlore on YouTube · TikTok · Instagram · Facebook · X · Bluesky · Threads · Pinterest

Bandit Lore with Sylvester & Mortimer — every story told two ways: what the record proves, and what the locals still swear.

🦝 BANDIT LORE — Episode No. 1: The Walgren Lake Monster

In 1923, Walgren Lake had a monster — 40 feet, a single horn, and a roar that emptied the shoreline. Documented, or the best small-town hoax in Nebraska history? The Boys settle it.

🗂️ Documented: In the early 1920s, Nebraska newspapers ran real eyewitness accounts of a monster in Alkali Lake — today's Walgren Lake — reports that traveled far beyond Hay Springs.

🗣️ Passed down: Folks still tell of the 40-foot beast with a single horn, whose roar emptied the shoreline and whose story never quite died.

📍 The place: Walgren Lake State Recreation Area, near Hay Springs, Nebraska.

Plan your visit: outdoornebraska.gov/location/walgren-lake/

📺 Watch the full video episode: https://youtu.be/qSI1HL6VIu0

🖼️ "The Monster of Big Alkali" — Courtesy of Nebraska State Historical Society

📚 Sources & further reading:

- History Nebraska — history.nebraska.gov

- Walgren Lake SRA — Nebraska Game & Parks: outdoornebraska.gov/location/walgren-lake/

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New stories as the Boys dig them up — follow so you don't miss one.

🌐 banditlore.com · 💛 Support the tip jar: ko-fi.com/banditlore

Follow @thebanditlore on YouTube · TikTok · Instagram · Facebook · X · Bluesky · Threads · Pinterest

Bandit Lore with Sylvester & Mortimer — every story told two ways: what the record proves, and what the locals still swear.

Folklore from the place you're standing on — true, strange, half-forgotten stories told by Sylvester & Mortimer, two Great Plains raccoons digging up the legends, hoaxes, and buried-gold stories of small-town America.

Every story comes in two layers: what the record shows, and what the locals pass down.

Episode 1 — "The Walgren Lake Monster" — premieres Friday, August 7.

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