PODCAST · history
Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns
by Matthew Kerns
"For a dime, they gave you a legend. For the truth, you have to look deeper."Welcome to the Dime Library, where award-winning author and historian Matthew Kerns strips away the pulp-fiction polish of the Old West to find the real men and women beneath the dust. From the stage-lit stardom of Texas Jack Omohundro to the gritty reality of the frontier scouts, we explore the authentic history that built the American West. If you want stories that are better than the movies and backed by the archives, pull up a chair.
Episodes
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Ontario - What's In a Name?
On August 27, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” But Ontario has been renamed before. The word comes from the language of the Wendat people, whose homeland once stretched across the Great Lakes region…
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A Tennessee Tribute to Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton died this week in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 80.If you live outside of Tennessee, you're likely going to be puzzled, in the coming days and weeks, by the way her passing is about to dominate your social media feeds. Because you're going to see post after post from people…
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Buffalo Bill's Christmas Story
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Christmas "Mine has been a stormy life and a perilous one... but incidents like this are like shafts of sunshine." — Buffalo Bill Cody, 1887. Step back in time to Christmas Eve in the Colorado gold fields. Join us as we read a rediscovered 1887 interview where Buffalo…
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Buffalo Bill & Iron Tail; Or, The Face of a Vanishing Frontier
In this episode of our podcast, we explore the extraordinary lives of Oglala Lakota Chief Iron Tail and Buffalo Bill Cody. Dive into the story of their friendship, the cultural impact they had during their era, and how their legacies intertwine with the American West's history. Join us for an...
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Charles Belden; Or, Photographing the Pitchfork
Texas Jack Omohundro shaped the American West not just in the perceptions of theater-goers who watched him on stage, but through the lives of the men he took on treks throughout the West, and specifically in Wyoming. In 1878, Texas Jack headed for Rawlins with Count Otto Franc von Lichtenstein…
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The Oldest Man on Utah Beach; Or, Theodore Roosevelt Jr on D-Day
Only one general landed by sea with the first wave of troops to brave the beaches of Normandy. The man who led the 8th Infantry Regiment and the 70th Tank Battalion at Utah Beach was not a young and exuberant West Point graduate–at fifty-six years old, this General was actually the oldest man in...
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Texas Jack, Will Rogers, and the American Cowboy - A Learning Lecture from the Will Rogers Memorial Museum April 21, 2022
On April 21, I was welcomed by the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma, to talk about Texas Jack, his surprising connection with Will Rogers, and the unlikely path the American cowboy took to its current iconic status. The museum broadcast and recorded the talk, which is available…
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Texas Jack Makes an Entrance; Or, His Favorite Horse
Texas Jack and his horses.
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Texas Jack In the Timber Island; Or, Parted Lovers Reunited
This long poem about Texas Jack is from the 1890 book May-Day Dreams, Passion Flowers, Poetic Flights and Prosy Thoughts by Sam Brown Jr., "the Cowboy Poet of the Platte." Reading this one, a couple of lines stuck with me. "He was all that any maiden might wish for in the shape of man. Half…
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The Shooting Dentist; Or, Doctor W. F Carver's Wild West
Doctor W. F. Carver went from his dentist office in North PLatte Nebraska to become the world's most accomplished rifle marksman.
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Massacre Canyon; Or, The End of a Lifeway
Just off a quiet stretch of US Highway 34, just 3 miles east of Trenton, Nebraska, stands a 35-foot tall shaft of Minnesota pink granite. Near the top of the 91-ton monument is a carving of a Sioux warrior named John Grass facing west, and a Pawnee brave named Ruling His Son stares east. The…
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Lazy Kate - Texas Jack's Favorite Rifle
Texas Jack on the “Wide Range”—The History of Lazy Kate (Chicago Field - Saturday, March 19, 1881) By Texas Jack
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The Cow-Boy by Texas Jack
From The Spirit of the Times, March 24, 1877. Written by Texas Jack, this piece was included in the show programs for Buffalo Bill's Wild West as an introduction to the cowboy.
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Daring Donald McKay
There are many names that one might think of when they consider Texas Jack on stage. The earliest exploits with Buffalo Bill Cody and Ned Buntline, the spark with costar Giuseppina Morlacchi that developed into romance and marriage, drinking fake whisky with Wild Bill Hickok on stage, going…
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Texas Jack in Yellowstone Park
Texas Jack in Yellowstone The following article was originally printed in The Boys of the World, a serial printed by Street & Smith, the same publisher that produced Ned Buntline's Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack stories. This is Jack's account of his 1874 trip into the Yellowstone with Lord…
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Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnees - Part IX
Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is. It was just before the play opened for its...
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Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnees - Part VIII
Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is. It was just before the play opened for its...
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Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnees - Part VII
Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is. It was just before the play opened for its...
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Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnees - Part VI
Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is. It was just before the play opened for its...
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Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnees - Part V
Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is. It was just before the play opened for its...
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Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnees - Part IV
Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is. It was just before the play opened for its...
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Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnees - Part III
Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is. It was just before the play opened for its...
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Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnees - Part II
Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is. It was just before the play opened for its...
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Texas Jack, The White King of the Pawnees - Part I
Ned Buntline had already introduced the world to Buffalo Bill, and had included Texas Jack as his stalwart friend, in dime novels before the three joined forces for a dramatic tour of Buntline's play The Scouts of the Prairie; Or, Red Deviltry As It Is. It was just before the play opened for its...
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The League of Three by Prentiss Ingraham - Two
Part 2 of The League of Three; or, Buffalo Bill's Pledge. A story of a trail followed to the bitter end by the three famous scouts, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill and Texas Jack, the "Princes of the Plains" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, author of "Wild Bill, the Pistol Dead Shot," "Merle, the Mutineer,"...
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The League of Three by Prentiss Ingraham - One
Part 1 of The League of Three; or, Buffalo Bill's Pledge. A story of a trail followed to the bitter end by the three famous scouts, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill and Texas Jack, the "Princes of the Plains" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, author of "Wild Bill, the Pistol Dead Shot," "Merle, the Mutineer,"...
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Texas Jack, The Prairie Rattler by Buffalo Bill - Ten
Part 10 of Texas Jack, The Prairie Rattler; or, the Queen of the Wild Riders (A romance in the Life of a real hero—John B Omohundro-—Texas Jack—and a tale of the southwest border. By Honorable William F Cody “Buffalo Bill” author of The Gold Bullet Sport, Kansas King, Deadly Eye, The Phantom Spy,...
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Texas Jack, The Prairie Rattler by Buffalo Bill - Nine
Part 9 of Texas Jack, The Prairie Rattler; or, the Queen of the Wild Riders (A romance in the Life of a real hero—John B Omohundro-—Texas Jack—and a tale of the southwest border. By Honorable William F Cody “Buffalo Bill” author of The Gold Bullet Sport, Kansas King, Deadly Eye, The Phantom Spy,...
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Texas Jack, The Prairie Rattler by Buffalo Bill - Eight
Part 8 of Texas Jack, The Prairie Rattler; or, the Queen of the Wild Riders (A romance in the Life of a real hero—John B Omohundro-—Texas Jack—and a tale of the southwest border. By Honorable William F Cody “Buffalo Bill” author of The Gold Bullet Sport, Kansas King, Deadly Eye, The Phantom Spy,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
"For a dime, they gave you a legend. For the truth, you have to look deeper."Welcome to the Dime Library, where award-winning author and historian Matthew Kerns strips away the pulp-fiction polish of the Old West to find the real men and women beneath the dust. From the stage-lit stardom of Texas Jack Omohundro to the gritty reality of the frontier scouts, we explore the authentic history that built the American West. If you want stories that are better than the movies and backed by the archives, pull up a chair.
HOSTED BY
Matthew Kerns
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns have?
Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns currently has 29 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns about?
"For a dime, they gave you a legend. For the truth, you have to look deeper."Welcome to the Dime Library, where award-winning author and historian Matthew Kerns strips away the pulp-fiction polish of the Old West to find the real men and women beneath the dust. From the stage-lit stardom of Texas...
How often does Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns release new episodes?
Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns has 29 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Who hosts Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns?
Dime Library - Western History with Matthew Kerns is created and hosted by Matthew Kerns.
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