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8 Episodes 2023 - 2023
Episode 1
Kit Carson spends his teenage years in the Southwest, learning to hunt, trap, and scout. Along the way, he befriends other frontier legends like Jim Bridger, and he quickly earns a reputation for his steely nerves and fearlessness. When Carson nearly dies in a skirmish with Blackfeet warriors, his mind turns to marriage, and he begins to court a famous Arapaho beauty named Waa-Ni-Beh. But the realities of mountain life intrude on Carson's marriage plans when a Canadian mountain man, known as the Bully of the Mountains, insults Waa-Ni-Beh. An incensed Carson challenges the bully to a duel to the death, and a legend is born when the two men face each other on horseback in the heart of the wild frontier.
Episode 2
Wed, Feb 22, 2023
Joe Meek arrives on the frontier as a naïve and inexperienced teenager with no formal education, but he eventually rises to become one of the most respected and beloved mountain men of the entire frontier era. Joining the trapping brigade of legendary trapper William Sublette, Meek quickly masters the many skills of life in the mountains, including trapping, hunting, and surviving battles with fearsome Native American tribes. His greatest challenge arises from a chance encounter with warriors of the Crow tribe, who take him captive while he's scouting for new areas to trap. Using wits and guile to deceive his captors, Meek lures them into a confrontation with the famous mountain man Jim Bridger, who must find a way to rescue Meek without igniting a bloody battle with the formidable Crow.
Episode 3
Wed, Mar 1, 2023
Though Andrew Henry is a successful businessman, he has little experience in the fur trade when he joins a trapping expedition headed into the uncharted distant West. His partner, a mercurial Spanish-American trader named Manuel Lisa, nearly starts a mutiny by antagonizing American trappers while favoring the more experienced Canadian rivermen. When Lisa suddenly departs the expedition, Henry takes charge and vows to find the lucrative beaver furs in a region called Three Forks, which is ruled by the fearsome Blackfeet tribe. Along the way, he enlists the help of famous mountain man John Colter, who's dire warnings about Three Forks causes deep unease among the men. Colter's fears come true when the Blackfeet strike again and again, killing some of the men and forcing the rest to take refuge in a hastily built fort. Before long, Henry must make an agonizing choice: break his word and abandon the trapping venture or lead the remaining men deeper into darkness to complete his mission.
Episode 4
Wed, Mar 8, 2023
In 1811, Marie Dorion, a member of the Iowa People and mother of two boys, joins her husband on a harrowing overland expedition to establish a fur trading post in the Pacific Northwest. While her husband, Pierre, serves as the official translator of the undertaking, Marie soon proves to be his equal as they trade with Native Americans along the way. When their journey is bogged down by the poor decisions of the expedition's leader, who is more businessman than mountain man, the party nearly starves, and Marie buries her newborn third child in an unmarked grave. Though they eventually reach the safety of Fort Astoria, Marie's worst ordeal still lies ahead. While trapping in the mountains, her husband is killed in a Native American raid, and Marie struggles to survive the winter with her two sons in a hastily built shelter. When their meager supply of food is depleted, Marie sets out into a blizzard in a desperate attempt to find help, risking a lonely death to save her children's lives.
Episode 5
Wed, Mar 15, 2023
Despite a career that rivals any of the greatest mountain men of the frontier era, Joe Walker remains relatively unknown. Born of humble beginnings in Tennessee, young Walker's thirst for adventure leads him to join his cousin Sam Houston in the violent Creek War of 1813, but the horrors he witnesses on the battlefield leave him with a lifelong abhorrence of bloodshed. After the war, Walker's wanderlust takes him to distant New Mexico, where he helps pioneer what becomes the famous Santa Fe Trail. When he is hired by the mysterious Benjamin Bonneville to guide a trapping expedition into the Rocky Mountains, Walker leads the first wagon train to ever cross the Continental Divide. But his greatest exploration is a grueling trek across the Great Basin Desert seeking an overland route to California, which leads to a frightening confrontation with the Paiute tribe and a battle he'll do anything to avoid.
Episode 6
Wed, Mar 22, 2023
As the fur trade era is ending, lifelong frontiersman Tom Fitzpatrick is forced to adapt. He breaks away from the mountains to join his friend and legendary mountain man Jedediah Smith, who is now trading goods along the Santa Fe Trail. After weeks on the trail, their wagon train runs dangerously low on water, and Smith disappears after setting out to find a new water source. Though a desperate search turns up no sign of Smith, Fitzpatrick stumbles upon an orphaned Arapaho boy whom he takes under his wing and names "Friday." When the caravan finally makes it to Santa Fe, Fitzpatrick learns that Smith has been killed by Comanche warriors, ending one of the most remarkable lives of the frontier age. Afterwards, Fitzpatrick informally adopts Friday, sends him to receive a formal education in St. Louis, and eventually locates and reunites him with his Arapaho family. Years later, while Fitzpatrick is guiding settlers along the remote trails of the West, he again encounters his adopted son.
Episode 7
Wed, Mar 29, 2023
Raised on a Virginia farm owned by none other than George Washington himself, Jim Clyman is already a seasoned frontiersman when he enlists in a legendary trapping brigade along with renowned mountain men Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, and Tom Fitzpatrick. But Clyman's journey into the wild frontier goes awry in his very first year when he survives a ferocious battle with an Arikara tribe that leaves a dozen fellow trappers dead. The Arikara War that follows forces Clyman and his companions to trek even deeper into the unknown frontier in search of furs. After famously helping Jedediah Smith survive a bear attack by sewing his scalp back onto his head, Clyman is separated from the rest of the brigade and finds himself 600 miles from the safety of the nearest fort. To survive the grueling march, he must put his fate in the hands of Native Americans, without knowing if they will help him or kill him on sight.
Episode 8
Wed, Apr 5, 2023
William Sublette is one of the greatest mountain men and businessmen who ever ventured into the Western Frontier. Using his intelligence, ambition, and fortitude, he rises to the top of a business where success involves putting one's life on the line every day. His path to success begins when he joins Jedediah Smith to take over the fur company started by their mentor William Ashley. After nearly losing his business and his life in the first year, Sublette develops an audacious plan to outdo his rivals by transporting goods to and from the Rocky Mountains by wagon train for the very first time. His successful venture paves the way for the countless wagon trains on the Oregon Trail in the years to follow. But Sublette jeopardizes his life and newfound fortune when he rushes into battle to save his comrades from the fierce Gros Ventre Tribe.