Elkhorn

The network that produced Into the Wild Frontier continues with its frontier-themed programming with a 10-episode dive into Theodore Roosevelt’s formative years ranching in the Dakotas.  

Top 10 cable network INSP has announced the premiere date for its highly anticipated original series, ELKHORN. The 10-episode series, which gives viewers never-before-seen glimpses into Theodore Roosevelt’s days on the Western frontier, will make its debut on INSP on Thursday, April 11^th at 9PM ET. The announcement comes from Craig Miller, VP of Original Programming for INSP.

“Most Americans are familiar with the man who charged up San Juan Hill with his Rough Riders and later became the country’s youngest president,” said Miller, “but few have heard of Roosevelt’s adventurous and life-altering years on the frontier after the unimaginable events that befell the future iconic leader as a 25-year-old.”

Valentine’s Day, 1884, turned unbearably tragic for Roosevelt when his beloved wife died giving birth to their first child and, several hours later and in the same household, his mother died from Typhoid fever.

Miller continued, “Reeling from these unimaginable losses, Roosevelt decided to abandon his comfortable life as a New York State Assemblyman and member of the  social elite class, and head west to America’s untamed frontier. ELKHORN gives viewers an unprecedented look into this dramatically transformative period in Roosevelt’s life.”

Season 1 of this series was inspired by Roosevelt’s first months in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory where he struggled to establish ELKHORN, the ranch for which the series is named. Viewers will be captivated as they watch young Roosevelt’s character evolve. Throughout the season, confronted with numerous challenges,  he disarms a barroom bully, faces down hired guns, tracks down horse thieves, and kills a grizzly bear, all while forming lifelong friendships and transforming himself from a frail and grieving widower into the man who will be forever identified as “The Cowboy President.”

ELKHORN makes its exclusive television premiere Thursday, April 11, at 9PM ET on INSP, with subsequent episodes airing every Thursday at 9PM.

View a teaser here.

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This news makes me think of Oakley Hall’s novel Badlands. It’s been decades since I read it, but man it was a sure damn good read, which I tackled more than once. It’s a strange novel in a way, a roman a clef that substitutes a young Easterner whose wife died tragically in a fire for TR and a flamboyant Scotsman for the French Marquis de Morés. I don’t think it oughta work, but it does, just like Warlock works as a roman a clef of the Tombstone saga.

Oakley Hall was some writer.