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.