🤠This Week in the West

📢 Episode Summary:

At age 37, Reeves became one of the first Black deputy marshals west of the Mississippi, serving under Judge Isaac Parker out of Fort Smith. Illiterate but possessing an extraordinary memory, Reeves memorized every warrant before riding out, often covering more than 75,000 square miles of dangerous territory. Over 32 years, he made more than 3,000 arrests, relied on disguises and strategy more than brute force, and upheld a strict moral code—even when it meant arresting his own son for murder.

Reeves’ reputation grew into legend, influencing Western storytelling and possibly inspiring the fictional The Lone Ranger. His legacy experienced a resurgence in recent decades, with honors including induction into the Hall of Great Westerners, a statue in Muskogee, the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, and renewed popular attention through the TV series Lawmen: Bass Reeves. Once nearly erased from history, Bass Reeves is now rightly recognized as a towering figure of justice, resilience, and frontier law.

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🤠This Week in the West

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Born in rural Pennsylvania and shaped by ranch work, military service and a winding path through Oklahoma, Mix found his calling with the legendary 101 Ranch Wild West Show. His natural horsemanship and showmanship caught the eye of early filmmakers, launching a prolific film career that saw him appear in more than 230 movies for Selig Polyscope and later become a worldwide sensation at Fox Film Corporation. There, Mix helped transform short Western reels into full-length adventure films and established enduring genre tropes—from white-hat heroes to daring horseback rescues—often alongside his famous partner, Tony the Wonder Horse.

Despite earning a fortune and building his own studio “frontier town,” Mix’s life mirrored the boom-and-bust arc of early Hollywood. The transition to sound films, financial setbacks, and personal struggles pushed him back to live performance in circuses and serial films like The Miracle Rider. His life ended tragically in a 1940 car accident, but his legacy endured. Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers in 1958, Tom Mix remains a foundational figure whose blend of myth, spectacle and authenticity helped fix the image of the Old West in American popular culture.

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🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

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🤠This Week in the West

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Born and raised on a ranch in Mason, Texas, Bush learned horsemanship from her father and developed a work ethic that would shape a historic career. As one of the earliest members of the Girls’ Rodeo Association, she helped define women’s professional rodeo, earning card number 14 and winning her first world championships at just 20 years old. Over nearly two decades, Bush amassed an astonishing 32 world titles across multiple events, including nine All-Around championships, while competing in an era when women’s rodeo fought for recognition and equal prize money.

Beyond competition, the podcast highlights Bush’s lasting influence as a teacher, mentor, and leader. Through her barrel racing clinics, board service with what became the WPRA, and advocacy for equal pay, she shaped opportunities for generations of cowgirls. Inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Bush is remembered as “quietly famous”—a humble champion whose impact still echoes throughout the rodeo world.

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🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

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🤠This Week in the West

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Born in Pennsylvania in 1796, Catlin defied his family’s wishes that he pursue a legal career, abandoning law to follow his passion for art. Drawn west by stories of Native peoples and inspired by the legacy of Lewis and Clark, Catlin traveled to St. Louis in 1830 to meet William Clark and secure support for his ambitious goal: painting members of as many tribes as possible. Over the next several years, he visited more than 50 tribes, journeying across the Plains and into the Rocky Mountains, creating portraits and scenes that emphasized dignity, individuality, and cultural richness.

By the late 1830s, Catlin had assembled more than 500 paintings into his famed Indian Gallery, even as he openly worried about the impact of policies like the Indian Removal Act and events such as the Trail of Tears. Although his work was better received in Europe than in the United States, financial hardship forced him to sell the original collection. Undeterred, Catlin spent his final decades recreating much of his work in what became known as the “Cartoon Collection.” Though recognition came too late for him, his original gallery was eventually preserved by the U.S. government and now resides in the Smithsonian, securing his vision for future generations.

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🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

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🤠This Week in the West

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Sundown didn’t enter the rodeo world until later in life. Already in his late 30s, he was known across the Northwest as a skilled horse trainer and rancher in Idaho, breeding and selling horses with his wife. Rodeo competition began as a way to supplement his income, but it quickly became the stage where his talent—and resilience—shone brightest. By his late 40s and 50s, Sundown was so dominant in bronc riding that competitors sometimes withdrew rather than face him.

His most legendary moment came at the Pendleton Round-Up in 1916. At age 53, wearing bright shirts and distinctive orange Angora chaps, Sundown rode the bronc Angel into submission and captured the Broncho Busting title, along with the All-Around Cowboy belt. He became the first Native American to win the championship, a triumph made all the more powerful given his past. “Many years I ride and many times I win money,” Sundown said afterward, “But never did I get first place before.”

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🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

🎟️: You can now buy tickets to The Cowboy online, go to https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/tickets/

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🤠This Week in the West

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Listeners learn that long before he returned to ranch life, Harper revolutionized Notre Dame athletics. After playing under legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg at the University of Chicago, he brought innovation, discipline, and administrative organization to a struggling Notre Dame program. As head coach and the school’s first full-time athletics director, Harper went 34–5–1 in football, helped popularize the forward pass, and upgraded scheduling with national powers such as Army and Texas. He insisted athletics should be financially self-sufficient and embodied his son’s memory that “his whole religion was geared around the Golden Rule.”

Harper walked away from coaching in 1918 at the height of his career, explaining to his son that he rejected the rising pressure “to do nothing but win, win, win, regardless of what you did to the boy, the school or anything else.” He believed that football should “build men,” not break them. Naming Rockne as his successor, Harper returned to Kansas ranch life, where he later led the Kansas Livestock Association, survived the Depression, and built a respected career as a cattleman—all while remaining a trusted adviser to Rockne.

After Rockne’s death, Notre Dame again called Harper back to stabilize the athletic department, and by the time he stepped away in 1934, he had restored order during one of the university’s hardest chapters. When Harper died in 1961, Notre Dame officials traveled to his rural Kansas gravesite to honor him with “A Sportsman’s Prayer.” He was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners in 1962 and enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971—belated recognition for a man who, as one journalist wrote, too often “is in the shadows,” despite shaping Notre Dame’s identity for a century.

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🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

🎟️: You can now buy tickets to The Cowboy online, go to https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/tickets/

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🤠This Week in the West

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Pickett’s invention of “bulldogging,” the precursor to today’s steer wrestling, launched him into fame on the rodeo circuit and in the great Wild West shows of the early 1900s. Performing with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show alongside icons such as Buffalo Bill Cody and Will Rogers, he astonished crowds across the nation and around the world. Despite racial barriers that forced him at times to pass as Mexican or Native American to perform, Pickett pushed forward and became the first Black cowboy movie star, appearing in early silent films that showcased his extraordinary skills.

Even after his days in the spotlight, Pickett continued working as a cowboy until he died in 1932. His legacy lives on through his membership in multiple halls of fame and as a foundational figure in rodeo history. As Zack Miller of the 101 Ranch once said, “Bill Pickett was the greatest sweat-and-dirt cowhand that ever lived—bar none.” The episode honors his incredible life, fearless talent, and enduring influence on the American West.

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🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

🎟️: You can now buy tickets to The Cowboy online, go to https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/tickets/

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🤠This Week in the West

📢 Episode Summary:

Listeners learn how Glidden’s work emerged amid a flurry of competing barbed-wire prototypes from inventors like Henry Rose, Isaac Ellwood, and Jacob Haish. Between 1868 and 1874, more than 500 patents were filed as the “fencing problem” became a national debate across the growing frontier. Glidden’s 1874 patent — nicknamed “The Winner” — rose above the rest because it was cheap to produce, effective on the open prairie, and easier to manufacture than earlier designs.

The episode digs into how barbed wire reshaped the American West. It allowed settlers to fence vast stretches of land quickly, transforming the plains into a patchwork of private property. That shift restricted traditional cattle trails and contributed to the decline of the open-range cowboy era. Though Glidden sold half of his manufacturing rights early on, per-pound royalties made him a wealthy man until his patent expired in 1892.

The legacy of barbed wire also carried a darker side. It hindered the movement of the American Bison, played a role in confining Native Americans to reservations, and later became a defining and deadly element of World War I trenches and World War II concentration camps. When Glidden died in 1906, newspapers noted that his invention survived with all its “distressing, clothes-tearing, hide-rendering” impact — a lasting symbol of both progress and consequence in the story of the West.

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🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

🎟️: You can now buy tickets to The Cowboy online, go to https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/tickets/

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🤠This Week in the West

📢 Episode Summary:

The episode traces Hulings’ remarkable artistic journey, beginning with his childhood visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, his early struggle with illness, and the path that eventually led him to the landscapes of New Mexico and the American Southwest. From portraiture to illustration to fine art, Hulings continually pushed himself, traveling widely and honing his craft across studios in Santa Fe, New York, and Europe. His keen intuition for knowing “what to paint” became one of his greatest strengths.

Finally, the episode recounts how Hulings’ career intersected with the Museum’s vision for a new era of Western art. His award-winning work helped launch the very first Prix de West, which showcased 92 works by 34 artists and expanded the definition of Western art. Though he never returned to the exhibition, Hulings remained a towering figure in Western art until he died in 2011 at age 88. His story frames the Museum’s ongoing mission to celebrate artists who reveal the depth, beauty, and complexity of the American West.

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🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

🎟️: You can now buy tickets to The Cowboy online, go to https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/tickets/

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🤠This Week in the West

📢 Episode Summary:

Reynolds first announced his vision in 1953, and momentum quickly grew. Delegates and supporters soon agreed the museum should represent not just rodeo, but the full history of the American West. Multiple cities competed to host the project, but Oklahoma City won with its ideal Route 66 location, rodeo connections, donated land, and funding support. On dedication day, trustees also selected the first five Great Westerners, including Theodore Roosevelt, Charles Goodnight, and Will Rogers.

The episode then traces the museum’s evolution—from opening in 1965 to expanding exhibits, adding the Prix de West, and becoming home to major Western art and heritage collections. Today, the 220,000-square-foot museum preserves more than 700,000 photographs, thousands of books and archives, and the donation collections of icons like Roy Rogers and John Wayne. With new exhibitions ahead, including an immersive experience and a Route 66 gallery, The Cowboy continues fulfilling Reynolds’ dream of honoring the people and stories of the American West.

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

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🔗 Further research:

📬 Connect With Us:

🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

🎟️: You can now buy tickets to The Cowboy online, go to https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/tickets/

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