Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

Further Into The Wild Frontier

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The second season of the INSP documentary series I am proud to have contributed to is wrapping up, but it won’t be long until we’re on another trek Into the Wild Frontier. Season 3 premiers on May 6 — and this time around, the focus is entirely on tales from the 18th Century frontier east of the Mississippi River.

I didn’t have a role in this season, but I sure am looking forward to it. And I’ve found an easy  way for folks who don’t have INSP in their cable package to watch the whole set of yarns: Frndly TV. The streaming service is available on a free 7-day trial: https://try.frndlytv.com/. A subscription won’t cost you too many plews, and you’ll get the series as it airs. I signed on.

Season 3 has a few kinda off-beat bios in the line-up, which is A Very Good Thing. As you know, I really appreciate an outfit that doesn’t retell the same old stories over and over again — and Into the Wild Frontier is stepping well off the beaten path with some of these:

S3, Ep1
6 May 2023

Anne Bailey: Horseback Heroine

After Anne Bailey’s husband is killed by Native Americans, she defies the social norms of the frontier and becomes a horseback courier, risking her life to deliver vital supplies to isolated forts and settlements.
S3, Ep2
13 May 2023

William Bartram: America’s First Great Naturalist

Naturalist William Bartram risks his life exploring the unmapped regions of the South to document the native fauna and flora. Over thousands of miles of terrain, he faces hostile Native Americans, dangerous wildlife, and deadly disease.

Daniel Boone: Cunning Woodsman

Legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone faces the biggest challenge of his life when the Shawnee take him as their prisoner. If he can’t escape, he won’t be able to warn the settlement of Boonesborough, and his family, of a looming attack.
S3, Ep4
27 May 2023

Mason & Dixon: Trailblazing Surveyors

Astronomers Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon brave deadly terrain and hostile Native Americans to resolve a border dispute in Colonial America. With science and courage, they survey their famous Mason-Dixon Line with pinpoint accuracy.
S3, Ep5
3 June 2023

James Harrod: Kentucky’s Founding Father

When frontiersman James Harrod founds Harrod’s Town on Native American hunting grounds, he soon finds his new settlement under attack. His leadership is tested as he defends the first European settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.
S3, Ep6
10 June 2023

Christopher Gist: Unsung Hero of the First Frontier

After successfully mapping the rugged Ohio Country, frontiersman and surveyor Christopher Gist is hired to lead a young George Washington on a perilous diplomatic journey to deliver an ultimatum to the French forces in the Ohio wilderness.
S3, Ep7
17 June 2023

George Croghan: Frontier Peacemaker

When Chief Pontiac organizes a coalition of Native American tribes to attack British forts, frontier trader George Croghan risks his life on a perilous journey into the wilderness to find Pontiac and attempt to negotiate a peace agreement.
S3, Ep8
24 June 2023

Robert Rogers: Frontier Solider

Robert Rogers leads an elite fighting force of fearless rangers behind enemy lines to fight French forces in Colonial America, but one mission tests his men as never before when they must trek 200 miles through the wilderness without food.
Looking forward to a good telling of these great American stories.

Comments

  3. Lee Logue says

    Yesss!
    I completely buy into that 1700’s make-up look that
    this very engaging Frontier Lady is sporting here…..

    Reply

  4. GAH says

    I have enjoyed the series since I found out about it from your blog…

    Very interested to see what they have to say about Gist and Croghan…

    About a month ago, I read a good bio on Gist- With George Washington in the Wilderness: The Frontier Life of Christopher Gist [Misencik and Misencik, 2022]… The book is about Gist’s entire life, not just his trek through Western PA dragging GW along…

    Reply

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