Drift & Ramble Podcast

Buffalo Bill Cody is best remembered as a showman and perhaps the "P.T. Barnum" of the West. But there's more to his story. Aside from being a legend in his own time, he influenced America in some surprising ways and left a lasting legacy in the way we remember the West.

It's Egg Nog Season! So, we started a new show called the Nog Blog where Cheryl and I discuss viscosity, rum and other important considerations in choosing your Egg Nog accessories. Oh, sure there's a smidge of Drift & Ramble stuff in here but when it's Egg Nog season, things get weird for a reason.

The guys from Audioblivious Productions go on an epic road trip to the Superstition Mountains to look for gold and the Lost Dutchman Mine. Native American folklore says this area could be cursed and may even be the gateway to the underworld. It's just a legend. What could go wrong?

A slight departure from our usual format, Cheryl and I meander through some trivial tidbits from the Wild West including Saloons, The evolution of the Wagon and the strange case of Samuel Colt's lost shipment of six guns. There's even deleted scenes and a ghost story or two!

Black Bart, the "Po8" may have been the West's most polite bandit. In this true crime story from the pages of history, you'll learn how Black Bart robbed 28 stage coaches but never took a dime from the passengers. He never fired his weapon during his eight year crime spree and he left poems at a few of his crime scenes. Who was this masked man and why did he hate Wells Fargo so? We'll answer these questions in this two series. This episode is part one.

Pearl Hart, the "Lady Bandit" loved the bad boys. She married one and they attended the World's Fair where she became enamored with strong women of the west like Annie Oakley. Inspired, she robs a stage coach and becomes one of the most infamous shady ladies of the old west.

In 1860 a man takes a photo of an empty chair. When he develops the picture, there is a ghostly image of a young boy in the frame. How did it get there? And who is this ghastly specter? Within a year, Spirit Photography becomes a lucrative business and the master of this odd profession is William Mumler. In this strange story of spooky photos, we look at the champions and foes of spirit photography.

What's in a name? In the story of Rattlesnake Dick we learn the nicknames can be powerful and living up or down to the reputation they promote may not always be advisable. And while Dick may be all but forgotten, there's that big ol' pile of missing gold that remains. Think you'll be the one to find it?

Call him Deadwood Dick or Nat Love, the most famous cowboy of color in the west, is a product of his own doing. Are the stories true? Does it even mater? As we learn more about the rich history of the old west, we find that tall tales and legends can often reveal great truths.

Was the gunfight at the OK Corral fought over a woman? How did Josephine "Sadie" Marcus wind up in the center of that epic storm? Though there are many mysteries surrounding the final Mrs. Wyatt Earp, one thing that is certain is how she changed the Earp story forever. EP 17 is all about the mysterious woman of Tombstone: Josephine Marcus Earp.

The true story of Wyatt Earp isn't you're probably familiar with. Thanks to Hollywood, Josephine Marcus and an author named Stuart Lake, what we think we know is that this famous lawman made his bones with the gunfight at the OK corral. But what really made Wyatt Earp famous may surprise you. It had nothing to do with gun play. Still, the true story of this American icon is no less fascinating. Wyatt Earp is featured in Episode 15.

The gunfight at the OK corral only lasted 30 seconds but two men associated with that battle would become the most widely recognized gunfighters of the wild west. So why did it take 50 years for the the story to become legend and just who was this man we think we know named "Doc Holliday?"

What makes a great gunfighter? The answer may surprise you. The wisdom of the old west still applies today. In this episode, we hear from Bat Masterson himself, as he describes the 3 requirements of a great gunfighter and tells us about his friend, Ben Thompson. Ben himself was a highly regarded gunfighter in his time and Masterson spins an entertaining tale about the life and times of his friends adventures in the old west.

Are Coyotes rising up against us? Does a woman in a remote cabin survive the night? Can our host write poetry or should he stick to Western stories? And finally the true story of a mysterious healer during the Civil War. Was it sent from heaven or did it come from below? This episode is titled ...Fear.

In EP 9, we get ready for Halloween with two gruesome stories: The Wendigo and Big Nose George... First Nation and Algonquin speaking peoples had a legend of a powerful, shape-shifting creature, born out of greed, who appeared with bitter cold with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. The "Wendigo" was documented as early as 1661 but eventually assigned to a medical diagnosis called "Wendigo Psychosis." Was this an acknowledgement that Wendigos actually do exist? And could this be what...

A man travels a great distance to discover gold in California but he never gets to see the town named after him or enjoy the wealth that sprang from his discovery. We travel to Bodie Ghost Town for a glimpse into one of the wildest towns of the old west. Bodie is now a California State Park and is one of the best preserved Ghost Towns in existence today. We'll meet some of the people who lived here and encounter a very strange experience in the graveyard at Bodie.