An epilogue. Or interlude? Well, we aren’t done with the Gilded Age, but we have too much behind-the-scenes HTDS evolution to discuss! So here we are. Zach is moving up from intern to writer status. Longtime HTDS team member Kelsi gets behind the mic for the first time. Meanwhile, Greg discusses doing a second edition of older episodes. 

But of course, we won’t ignore the Gilded Age. We’ll still have some good old-fashioned chit-chat about recent episodes.

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“Vive l’entente fraternelle des deux républiques !”

This is the story of the Statue of Liberty. In 1865, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (or “Auguste,” as his friends call him), claims to have attended a dinner at which his French colleagues and friends feted the United States’ victory over the Confederacy and slavery. With hope for a restoration of republican government and greater liberty at home, these Frenchmen living under the rule of Napoleon III spoke of the United States and France’s shared sense of liberty. There was even a suggestion that the nations should jointly build a monument to American independence.

Years later, Auguste will undertake such a project. But is he really inspired by this dinner and the idea of liberty? Or is he just an ambitious sculptor looking for any excuse to build a colossus statue? And can he really raise funds in both countries, manage a massive workforce, handle the death of colleagues, and overcome the engineering challenges? Whatever his motives, Auguste’s life will ultimately be defined by his unlikely journey to create a monument unlike any the world has ever seen.

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“John Roebling has not the leisure to wait upon any man.”

This is the story of a bridge and a family.

John Roebling is weary of the oppressive, bureaucratic Prussian government. He’s heard from his professor–Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel–that the United States is a land of opportunity. Those factors combined lead the driven über productive German to immigrate, where he introduces wire rope to his new adopted homeland and takes bridge building to another level.

But can he span the great East River–in reality, a saltwater tidal strait full of hazards–that divides the separate and distinct cities of Brooklyn and New York? He has an idea. But as he moves forward, this bridge will quickly become a deadly and life-altering family affair.

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“What is the chief end of man? A: To get rich.”

This is the story of the Gilded Age and its first three presidents: Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and Chester A. Arthur.

Mark Twain calls this era a “Gilded Age”–that is, a time of great greed covered with a thin veneer hiding the nation’s decadence. Is it? We’ll assess and define this oft-forgotten time. In doing so, we’ll meet three oft-forgotten presidents. Rutherford (or Rutherfraud?) Hayes, who receives the presidency through a Reconstruction-ending compromise, is fighting for reform in the civil service. His successor James Garfield doesn’t want to be president but holds great promise. Sadly, an assassin will end his life before this last log-cabin president can even put his agenda into play. Can his compromised, spoils-system-created VP Chester “Chet” Arthur rise to the occasion? 

Strikes, assassination, reform, unlikely presidents: welcome to the Gilded Age.

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This is the end of the West! Meet two new researchers, Ryan Griffith and Zach Weaver, as they join Greg to discuss the latest inner workings of HTDS, the Transcontinental Railroad, Buffalo Bill, and industrialization. As they wrap up, Greg then discusses the Golden Spike Ceremony with National Park Service Lead Ranger Lucas Hugie. They do so on-site, just a stone's throw from where the Transcontinental Railroad was completed.

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“I wish to impress upon your minds that what you are about to witness is not a performance in the common sense of the term.”

This is the story of the Wild West’s end and the close of the frontier.

The West is settled. The buffalo are gone. The US government is seeking to assimilate Native Americans. In this environment, a religious movement promising a restoration of traditional indigenous life, called the Ghost Dance, is spreading across the continent. Fearful of it, the government sends the military to arrest Lakota Ghost Dancers. It ends in tragedy near Wounded Knee Creek. For Native Americans, this is the end of the frontier.

Meanwhile, William Cody, a.k.a., “Buffalo Bill,” is keeping the Old West alive through an incredible performance: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. He’s obsessed with authenticity, only hiring actual cowboys, vaqueros, Native Americans, gunslingers, and others. For Bill, progress is the story of the frontier.

Professor Frederick Jackson Turner says the frontier is over and the nation has progressed. Frederick Douglass has a different view. We’ll take in all these different perspectives as the sun sets on the Old West.

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“This is my last opportunity to make a big haul. Alaska is the last West.”

This is the story of the US purchase of Alaska and the famous Klondike Gold Rush.

Russia needs funds and sees its territory of Russian-America as a liability. That has US Secretary of State William Henry Seward seeing opportunities, such as fisheries and access to Asian markets. It’s an ideal match of interests for two major powers—provided William Henry can convince the Senate to approve the treaty to purchase a region twice the size of Texas.

Decades later, three men find gold in one of the Klondike River’s tributaries. Although in Canada, most of the 100,000 prospectors (called “stampeders” or “klondikers”) who’ll flock here do so via Alaska. There’s wealth to be had if they can survive the journey … and avoid getting robbed blind in Skagway by Jefferson “Soapy” Smith.

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“The fight’s commenced. Go to fighting or get away!”

This is the story of more gunslinging and heists.

Pearl Hart needs to see her mother; is a stagecoach robbery the answer? The Earps Brothers and Doc Holiday are on the opposite of a political and economic feud with the “Cow Boys” in the mining town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory; are they disarming the “Cow Boys” in accordance with a city ordinance? Or is there more to it? Jesse James is a Civil War bushwhacker; but is it still “bushwacking” if he keeps robbing and killing after the war? Or is he a bandit? Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are fleeing to South America; but do they die in a shootout? Or will Butch prove he’s still alive by visiting his family in Utah years later?

Somewhere between the legends and myths is the truth. Too bad some of it will forever remain elusive. Welcome to the Wild West.

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“I am going to hell anyhow.”

This is the story of the rise of Western outlaws and gunslingers.

From transportation of goods and people, to mining and even the cattle industry, a Second Industrial Revolution has overtaken the United States. Economic and political disruption are everywhere … but the law isn’t. And that’s the perfect cocktail for a golden age of outlaws. 

Sam Bass is robbing the Union Pacific. Henry—sorry, he doesn’t go by his legal name these days—Billy or “Kid,” is throwing down in a power struggle in the New Mexico Territory’s Lincoln County. Neither man will be long for this world. 

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“Did they not build the Chinese Wall, the biggest piece of masonry in the world?”

The Central Pacific Railroad is struggling to find long-term construction workers. Many of them quickly leave the CP’s employ to pursue gold and silver in the mines of California or Nevada. But Big Four Associate Charlie Crocker has an idea: why not try hiring Chinese immigrants? The idea is semi-controversial in the eyes of many Americans, but the CP goes for it, and likes the results. Soon, the Chinese make up 90% of the CP’s construction workers, risking their lives as they dangle over cliffs, drill, and blast tunnels through the solid granite of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Both the Central and Union Pacific railroads are bearing down on Utah Territory. Politicking, corporate espionage, labor strikes, struggles of pride and honor and more will all come to bear. Despite these challenges, the transcontinental railroad will be completed. The CP’s Governor Leland Stanford will drive it (or tap it) together with a golden spike no less. We’ll witness the ceremony at Promontory Summit as it happens (two-days late thanks to the UP’s Dr. Thomas Durant) on May 10, 1869.

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