The Legends of the Old West Podcast is a good ’un. Host Chris Wimmer went and committed a book, whose conceit is a solid one: Exploring the pivotal Summer of 1876. That centennial year saw a lot of action on the North American frontier, most notably with the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the James-Younger Gang’s debacle in the Northfield Raid, and the murder of Wild Bill Hickcock in Deadwood.
Here’s the caper:
From the creator of the “Legends of the Old West” podcast, a book exploring the overlapping narratives of the biggest legends in frontier mythology.
The summer of 1876 was a key time period in the development of the mythology of the Old West. Many individuals who are considered legends by modern readers were involved in events that began their notoriety or turned out to be the most famous ― or infamous ― moments of their lives. Those individuals were Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James.
The Summer of 1876 weaves together the timelines of the events that made these men legends to demonstrate the overlapping context of their stories and to illustrate the historical importance of that summer, all layered with highlights of significant milestones in 1876: the inaugural baseball season of the National League; the final year of President Ulysses S. Grant’s embattled administration; the debut of an invention called the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell; the release of Mark Twain’s novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;” and many more.
Contextualizing these events against the backdrop of the massive 100th anniversary party thrown to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, The Summer of 1876 is the ultimate exploration and celebration of the summer that defined the West.
Brian H. says
Dang. Frontier Partisan reading’s got me time travelin all over. Hard to stay in one place very for long.
JimC says
I have similar difficulties…
RoseJ says
Right there. The winds of destiny kinda gang up on us and move us along!
lane batot says
Yes, per usual, I will be celebrating June 25th, Little Bighorn Day, with ice cream of some sort–a decades-old tradition with me now. And I LOVE that Charlie Russel depiction of the battle at Little Bighorn–I think it is the likely most accurate painting on the incident I’ve seen……
David Wrolson says
My youngest son just graduated from a tech school (welding) that is attached to the University of Montana. My wife attended the ceremony (we had a daughter graduating from North Dakota State University at the exact same time) as I could go to Fargo-but not Missoula during planting.
She said a speaker was half Lakota and one of her great-greats died at the Little Bighorn fighting Custer and the gang.
JimC says
Well THAT’s cool.
leonard krol says
People tend to forget that the Indians took heavy casualties that day. The 7th Cavalry dies hard.