Plot

This vivid historical fiction podcast tells the fictionalized history of the Old West and reveals the hidden stories, true crime, fascinating characters, and secret history of early California.

Welcome to the Wild West -- if you are looking for more than cowboys and gunslingers, you'll find it here. If you love true crime, historical fiction, classic Westerns, small town scandal, American history, and wild, rip roarin' adventure - folks, you'll feel right at home down here in little ole Cookesville. Stake your gold claim in the dangerous mining town of Hangtown. Listen to Choctaw survivors of the Trail of Tears. Drink whisky in the saloon of the 19th century Gambling Queen of Santa Fe, successful Latina businesswoman and town leader Doña Gertrudis Barceló. Explore early California with a Chinese entrepreneur and his family. Prepare for battle in the Mexican American War. Escape the horrors enacted by California's first governor, who tried to exclude Chinese and Black folks from the state, and sponsored vigilante death squads to murder Indigenous tribes. Survive midcentury Sin City, the wild mob town of early Las Vegas. Clean up celebrity crime scenes in Old Hollywood and hide evidence for murder with a local legendary gumshoe and fixer.—Amanda Callas