Frontier Partisans

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

Working The Trapline — Spooks, Highlanders & The Deep, Dark Woods

March 3, 2026, by JimC

There’s quite a trapline haul of Frontier Partisan-related media out there this week. The 1970s Navajo police mystery series Dark Winds is underway with its fourth season at AMC+. Clan Cornelius just got going on it.

Marshals, the Yellowstone spin-off featuring Kacey Dutton has started its run on CBS/Paramount+. The book on it so far is that it has more of a police procedural feel than a Taylor Sheridan feel. That’s to be expected, I think. Sheridan is an executive producer, but he’s not writing it, and the showrunner is the man behind SEAL Team, which we like — but it feels nothing like a Sheridan show. We’ll give this a whirl soon.

Outlander kicks off its final season on Friday, March 6. It is startling to realize that the first Frontier Partisans post on this show was almost exactly a decade ago. How the hell did that happen?

Frontier Partisans has always treated espionage and covert operations as a part of the mythos. National Geographic offers Inside the CIA: Secrets & Spies.

This series is a collection of unbelievable, untold and world-changing stories that reveal what it takes to be a spy beyond the red line of danger. Told from inside the intelligence community by the spies themselves, each mission-driven story propels audiences from one cliffhanger to the next, immersing them in never-before-heard adventures. From the real-life Jason Bourne to the hidden maneuvers surrounding Osama bin Laden’s elimination and a minute-by-minute account of being taken behind enemy lines, every episode brings viewers as close as possible to the world of espionage. With unprecedented access to some of the most elite intelligence officers and the missions that defined them, explore the diverse, dedicated and often deadly work of the world’s most effective spy agency. This is Inside the CIA: Secrets and Spies.

Looks like quite a production. One thing I always enjoy about docos like this is assessing what messaging the Agency is seeking to promulgate. Just sayin’.

*

Speaking of operators…

Flintlock Operator continues to deliver quality content on the principles, protocols and practicalities of operating as a Frontier Partisan on the 18th Century frontier.

Ran across a nice description of a 1770s Frontier Partisan operator…

“Their whole dress is also very singular, and not very materially different from the Indians, being a hunting shirt, somewhat resembling a waggoner’s frock, ornamented with a great many fringes, tied around the around the middle with a broad belt, much decorated also, in which is fastened a tomahawk, an instrument that serves every purpose of defence and convenience, being a hammer at one side an a sharp hatchet at the other, the shot bag and powder-horn, carved with a variety of whimsical figures and devices, hang from their necks over one shoulder, and on their heads is a flapped hat, of a reddish hue, proceeding from the intensely hot beams of the sun.”

J.F.D. Smyth, A Tour in the United States of America…Sometime in 1773 or 1774, 2 volumes (London 1784), 2: 178-81.

Treed by David Wright. Situational awareness indeed…

 

*

MeatEater keeps delivering on FP-realted content:

Steven Rinella talks with author of The Loves Of Theodore Roosevelt and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, Ed O’Keefe. Joined by Randall Williams, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider. Topics discussed: The ladies in Teddy’s life; being a sickly child and powering through pain; hunting to study; a tremendous taxidermy collection; a family that founded so many museums; sisters as advisors and confidants; a life-altering Valentine’s Day tragedy; when a thick manuscript in your front jacket pocket stops a bullet and saves your life; being the first president to embrace women’s suffrage and the right to own property; one of the most beloved in American history; and more.

 

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Comments

  1. Matthew says

    March 3, 2026 at 9:42 am

    About Teddy and Women, it’s interesting that a president known for his manliness was a progressive on women’s rights. It goes against both feminist narratives and “manosphere” narratives. It just shows that people and things are more complicated then internet commentators think.

    Found this on youtube, about two people wanting a book on the Aztecs and the Spanish.

    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0kntzqIJ__0

    Reply
  2. Bobby Hugh Butler says

    March 3, 2026 at 1:36 pm

    The “Treed” painting is used on the cover of an interesting book: “Some Thoughts on Scouts and Spies” by Gerry Baker.
    Baker is a Living History reenactor who was an SF recon man in Vietnam.
    Those perspectives give him an interesting slant on Colonial frontier scouting conditions.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      March 3, 2026 at 1:41 pm

      That’s a worthy treatise.

      Reply
  3. Quixotic Mainer says

    March 3, 2026 at 3:08 pm

    I really liked the first run of Marshals! Kayce feels like himself, and the Standing Rock characters are present in recognizable form. It’s definitely a very tactically minded cop show done in Montana seasoning. It’s lacking both the sweeping soundtrack and the rough language, so it doesn’t feel like the original show as much. Kayce still has that awesome grulla though, he’s always been the unofficial star of the show to my admittedly equine addled mind. The mare I’m riding lately is a lineback dun with a dark face, and could be a relative.

    The Situational Awareness video was excellent though! The fieldcraft part of skill at arms, (as well as fitness) is often neglected by the armchair operator crowd.

    Balancing the Marshal’s win with a fail unfortunately, is the new book on Solomon Kane. If you wanted a critique on 17th century village culture from a past his prime Kane, wracked by arthritis and PTSD, you’re in luck though! I’m about halfway through, so it may rally, but I’m sadly dubious.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      March 3, 2026 at 4:13 pm

      Well, shit. I just ordered that…

      Reply
      • Quixotic Mainer says

        March 3, 2026 at 5:18 pm

        I’ll be interested to know what you think! One cool thing it does is play off of some of Howard’s unfinished Kane stories.

        Reply
  4. Jean says

    March 4, 2026 at 10:14 am

    Great stuff. Thanks

    Reply
  5. David Wrolson says

    March 4, 2026 at 3:35 pm

    The TR podcast on Meateater was really good. As you said the guy they interviewed is the head of getting the new TR Presidential Library going in Medora, North Dakota-which is slated for the July 4th, 2026, timeline.

    I have long planned on visiting this summer after the initial buzz dies down-but he really lit the fire to make it so.

    They will be focusing on his conservation exploits.

    just throwing this out there-The Little Bighorn Battlefield is right on the way from Sisters to Medora-LOL.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      March 4, 2026 at 4:50 pm

      So it is. And a trip to Buffalo may be in the cards, so…

      Reply
  6. Jean says

    March 4, 2026 at 4:39 pm

    I bought a copy of the TR book. My son will love it.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      March 4, 2026 at 4:49 pm

      Wonderful!

      Reply

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