0:00:11 > 0:00:13Ever since I was a small boy I've been
0:00:13 > 0:00:17fascinated by stories of the Wild West.
0:00:17 > 0:00:18What now?!
0:00:20 > 0:00:26Stories of Cowboys, Indians, wagon trains, and the gold-rush.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29But for me those stories are inseparable
0:00:29 > 0:00:32from the landscapes in which they took place.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35The mountains, the deserts and the Great Plains.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41In this series I'll be discovering
0:00:41 > 0:00:44how the early pioneers conquered
0:00:44 > 0:00:48the mighty mountain ranges and the vast expanses
0:00:48 > 0:00:49of the Great Plains.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53How the homesteaders and cowboys overcame extreme temperatures,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55blizzards and drought.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57And I will be finding out how the plants,
0:00:57 > 0:01:02animals and natural resources of this unknown wilderness
0:01:02 > 0:01:04offered unimaginable wealth
0:01:04 > 0:01:06and opportunities for the new nation.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21These are the Great Plains -
0:01:21 > 0:01:22a vast, flat grassland
0:01:22 > 0:01:24in the heart of North America.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31200 years ago, nearly all of it was covered in prairie
0:01:31 > 0:01:34and there are still places where you can see the Plains
0:01:34 > 0:01:36as they were back then.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41No trees, little water just open space.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46This is a place that experiences extremes,
0:01:46 > 0:01:48extreme heat in the summer
0:01:48 > 0:01:51and extreme cold in the winter
0:01:51 > 0:01:54and the wind is always blowing here.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58An incredible landscape, but a very harsh one.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01To describe this as an ocean of grass is pretty accurate.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03The wild prairie once stretched
0:02:03 > 0:02:08all the way from Canada in the North to Mexico in the south,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12half a million square miles of wild grassland.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14In the early 1800s,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17the Great Plains were virtually unknown to the
0:02:17 > 0:02:20European settlers on the East Coast.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24They were sparsely populated by tribes of Native Americans,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28drawn to the area by the animals that thrived there.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31I'm travelling to the northern reaches of the Great Plains
0:02:31 > 0:02:34in Montana to find out what attracted the native
0:02:34 > 0:02:36Americans here in the first place.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44North American bison, known in America as buffalo.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51The bison were lured here by the prairie grass, their primary
0:02:51 > 0:02:54source of food, and with their huge shaggy coats they're
0:02:54 > 0:02:59perfectly evolved to thrive in this forbidding climate.
0:02:59 > 0:03:00It's lovely to watch.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03The calves are all sat down at the moment.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05There are some very big bulls in that herd,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07massive humps behind their heads.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09Quite a sight.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Vast herds of these animals once roamed across the Plains.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20There are descriptions of the herds being so long that a fast horseman
0:03:20 > 0:03:25could ride all day and fail to reach from one end of the herd to the other.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30They were certainly a key ingredient in this ecosystem.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32Their grazing didn't harm the landscape,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35their woolly fur carried seeds
0:03:35 > 0:03:39and dispersed them across the landscape.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43They were an integral part of the health of the prairie.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48And they were also absolutely central to the life-way
0:03:48 > 0:03:50of the indigenous people that lived here,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52the Plains Indians.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54This herd is owned and managed
0:03:54 > 0:03:58by the Southern Peigan, part of the Blackfeet nation.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00At the beginning of the Wild West years,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03the Plains Indians had a unique dependency upon
0:04:03 > 0:04:08the buffalo for food, clothing, shelter and even medicine.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20The portable homes, or tepees, of the Plains Indians are one of
0:04:20 > 0:04:23the most evocative icons of the Wild West.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25You can't find a cowboy movie
0:04:25 > 0:04:29without one and they are still used today for ritual ceremonies.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31I've been invited to witness
0:04:31 > 0:04:34one of their most significant events,
0:04:34 > 0:04:36a buffalo hunt.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40Each year the Blackfeet harvest 20 buffalo for meat to be shared
0:04:40 > 0:04:42amongst the tribe.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45A special ceremony is performed beforehand
0:04:45 > 0:04:47to give thanks to the animal.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49We've been given special permission to film
0:04:49 > 0:04:53the first part of the ceremony, but most of it will go unseen.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56THEY CHANT
0:05:22 > 0:05:26Can you see them all running there? Just right on the other side there.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29Just right behind you - a small one, right there.
0:05:42 > 0:05:43Fight looking at it.
0:05:46 > 0:05:47OK, take him in slow.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10- Keep going. Keep going.- Yep.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15Right there's good.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28That's the heart cavity and lungs.
0:06:28 > 0:06:29This is how I do a deer.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37He's thick there!
0:06:37 > 0:06:39RAY LAUGHS
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Wow, look at the size of that rib.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48So what they are doing is, they cut through the ribs which is
0:06:48 > 0:06:52behind the diaphragm there, that's where all the heart and lungs are.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56They separated the ribs, that left the diaphragm intact,
0:06:56 > 0:06:59holding back the guts, and now they are cutting the guts out.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01But they don't want to spill any of that
0:07:01 > 0:07:02because it would spoil the meat
0:07:02 > 0:07:05and also these pieces all have traditional uses.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07So you've to do this quickly, don't you?
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Because you don't want the meat to spoil.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Yeah, we're just going to take the kidney,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16liver and cut the lungs away and pretty much everything,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20and open that up and if somebody wants the stomach,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23they can take the stomach, that's a kidney right there.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26This is the sweetest part of the liver right there.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31When we hunt elk and stuff like that
0:07:31 > 0:07:33we cut that part off
0:07:33 > 0:07:34and give it back.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36So you give something back to the environment.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Yes, always give it back. Put it up high, say like on this log.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Say a little prayer for good luck.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Let your shot always be straight.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Only take what you need. Never more.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50- There's the spleen.- Yeah.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52- Not bad, though.- What will you use that for?
0:07:52 > 0:07:54Throw it on the coals.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Cover it up and let it slow cook and eat it like that.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59Real good.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03In many societies these parts of an animal are discarded.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07Tell me about the hooves and the legs, Rick.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10We could use the tips of the hoof
0:08:10 > 0:08:14for our bells for a dancer
0:08:14 > 0:08:17or for some ceremonies we use them.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19We could take these bones right here
0:08:19 > 0:08:22and use it for our fleshing tools
0:08:22 > 0:08:25so when we're skinning this,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28when you're skinning that, we could take that bone
0:08:28 > 0:08:32and push the meat away, we don't need a knife.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36If we decide to make raw hide out of this, we can make drums out of it.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39We can make rattles from him.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42We can do many things.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44Are you going to blow it up?
0:08:46 > 0:08:48You should have had Ray do it.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50- Ray, do you want to?- Just show me.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52No, go over and blow it.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57- Is he scared?- No, no, I'm not scared. - He has to clean it with his lips.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01They think I'm scared to blow up this thing!
0:09:01 > 0:09:03- Hold it.- Yeah. - Put your hand like this.- Like that?
0:09:03 > 0:09:07What have we got here? This is part of the stomach, isn't it?
0:09:07 > 0:09:09This is how it'll look.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11BLOWING
0:09:11 > 0:09:14So you can blow it up like that. Yep?
0:09:14 > 0:09:19So then once they are like this you, er...just dry them.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22And then you can make bags out of them, like tobacco bags.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25- That's how it ends up?- Yeah.
0:09:26 > 0:09:32So it can either be for tobacco or just carrying water.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35It's very good. It's really good to see, very good to see this
0:09:35 > 0:09:40and it's all being done in a special way which is really neat.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42'But the ancestors of the Blackfeet
0:09:42 > 0:09:45'didn't have the luxury of 4x4s or rifles.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51'Leo and James invite me to see how they would have hunted buffalo
0:09:51 > 0:09:55'200 years ago with bows and arrows and on horse-back.'
0:10:03 > 0:10:07Horses were introduced to the Plains by the Spanish in the mid 1600s.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11It was a momentous encounter for the Indian tribes who were
0:10:11 > 0:10:13farming on the edges of the Plains.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20They developed phenomenal horsemanship skills.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Now they could hunt buffalo more easily and more often,
0:10:24 > 0:10:26and follow them wherever they roamed.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05That's pretty good. You enjoyed that, didn't you?
0:11:05 > 0:11:08- You broke your bow! - I know. First time.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10You were over excited!
0:11:10 > 0:11:12Can you imagine what that was like for your ancestors?
0:11:12 > 0:11:14It had to be pretty amazing for them to kill them,
0:11:14 > 0:11:18to be able to shoot them and kill them right there, hauling ass beside them.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20You make it look easy. But it's quite difficult, isn't it?
0:11:20 > 0:11:23Getting right up beside them, staying beside them like that,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25getting one shot between us, that was the hardest part.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27Well, it was great watching you.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30- I bet you want a drink, don't you? - Yeah, a shot of water.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32That was really good.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35I'm really impressed and riding bareback as well.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39The Plains Indians turned into nomadic peoples,
0:11:39 > 0:11:44accompanying the migrating buffalo right across the great grasslands.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52In the early 1800s, at the beginning of the Wild West years,
0:11:52 > 0:11:56the Plains Indians had the Great Plains all to themselves.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59But all that was set to change.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03Stories of rich farmland on the west coast of America were brought
0:12:03 > 0:12:06back east by early mountain men and fur trappers.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08By the 1840s,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11a trickle of white emigrants from the eastern seaboard
0:12:11 > 0:12:16started to cross the Great Plains heading for Oregon and California.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18They became known as the pioneers.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24The journey became an annual event with more and more people
0:12:24 > 0:12:28crossing the Plains to make the 2000-mile trek west.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34The route west across America became known as the Oregon Trail,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37but to think of it as one route would be a mistake.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Think of it instead like this frayed rope.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43On the eastern seaboard you've got the population
0:12:43 > 0:12:46and people are coming literally from every corner.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50In fact some are arriving by boat from overseas.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52They all converge, though, here
0:12:52 > 0:12:55at Independence, Missouri.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59This became the staging post for people heading west.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03And here families would arrive and wait for others to join them.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06When there were sufficient families with the right skills,
0:13:06 > 0:13:08perhaps a doctor, a carpenter, a trail guide,
0:13:08 > 0:13:13and they felt they could travel west safely, they'd set off.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15As they headed west they went across mountains,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18the Plains and then across deserts
0:13:18 > 0:13:21before reaching the west side of the US,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24and there they went their separate ways.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28The central part of the journey across the Plains is fascinating.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33They'd travel 450 miles taking a route that took them
0:13:33 > 0:13:36through some of the driest areas of the Great Plains.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38The reason for that's that there was a river.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49This is the North Platte river.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51And of course rivers mean life
0:13:51 > 0:13:54and that was the case for the settlers too.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56Because this river didn't just give them
0:13:56 > 0:13:59directionally a means of navigating across the prairies,
0:13:59 > 0:14:03it also provided water for the families, for their animals,
0:14:03 > 0:14:08lush grazing and very often flat ground to travel along as well.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12You may wonder why didn't they build boats and go along the river?
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Well, there's one obvious answer to that.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18This river flows west to east. It goes in the wrong direction.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22Whatever, it was a lifeline and they followed it.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28The banks of the River Platte
0:14:28 > 0:14:31guided the steady stream of wagons across the Plains.
0:14:31 > 0:14:36Then in 1849, gold was discovered in California
0:14:36 > 0:14:39and the stream became a flood!
0:14:40 > 0:14:44The Great Plains became the stage for one of the greatest mass
0:14:44 > 0:14:48human migrations in history.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50As many as half a million emigrants
0:14:50 > 0:14:53made their way along the Oregon trail.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59I've caught up with the Oregon Trail on the
0:14:59 > 0:15:02western reaches of the Great Plains, at Guernsey in Wyoming.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07Here the wagons were forced away from the river bed for a few miles.
0:15:07 > 0:15:13It meant that virtually every wagon had to cross a ridge of soft sandstone at exactly the same spot.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18These extraordinary marks in the ground are the ruts
0:15:18 > 0:15:24left by the wheels of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of wagons
0:15:24 > 0:15:26going through, just here.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29And you find them all through this area.
0:15:29 > 0:15:30There's one here.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33When I look at this rut, it looks like a left hand wheel.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38So you have to imagine the wagon cantered right over.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42It gives you some sense of their urgency to get through.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45And, in fact, you can see a cut mark here. It's very faint.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47Quite eroded now.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50Gosh.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52And look at that!
0:15:52 > 0:15:57You can really - you can feel the drama as they're coming through here.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01There would probably be somebody near here looking,
0:16:01 > 0:16:06to make sure that the axle doesn't grind out on that barrier there.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Inching forwards. "Yes, yes, stop!"
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Maybe trying to chock up the wheel to get through there.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21You really get a sense here of overcrowding, of frustration.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26Imagine if you will, the animals, their hooves slipping if the ground is wet,
0:16:26 > 0:16:31trying to get through here, of a family desperate, children crying.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Maybe a wheel is shed or an axle is broken and one of the routes
0:16:35 > 0:16:40is temporarily blocked with half of humanity pressing from behind.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43"Get out of the way, we want to go west!"
0:16:43 > 0:16:47You really can feel that here. It's a remarkable place.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Further west along the Oregon Trail,
0:16:57 > 0:17:01I meet up with wagon master Kim Merchant and his two daughters
0:17:01 > 0:17:07to get a sense of what it must have been like to experience the journey.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11Now we've got this wagon. This is quite large as wagons go.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13I've seen some even narrower than this.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16You've got to take in here all of your possessions.
0:17:16 > 0:17:22Let me think. Your tool kit, maybe some luxuries, not many,
0:17:22 > 0:17:24things you want to take to start your new life.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28But you've got to have in here your food and your medicine
0:17:28 > 0:17:30to take you across the continent.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32There were six to eight people in a family,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35so they would have to bring so many pounds of flour
0:17:35 > 0:17:39and so many pounds of bacon, and so many pounds of salted pork
0:17:39 > 0:17:41or salted beef.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45And they didn't carry canned goods because they were heavy.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49But they did have a process where they dehydrated vegetables
0:17:49 > 0:17:52and made bricks and that's how most people took theirs.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55They dried them and prepared a whole year ahead of time.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58They dried out the vegetables.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00This would be full.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03And that's why along the way, when the animals got weak
0:18:03 > 0:18:06they threw things out, because they were too heavy.
0:18:06 > 0:18:12It was always something like Grandma's organ or Mom's favourite dresser. They just threw it out.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16It was more important to get there than take that stuff.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18Sure. That's the thing that astonishes me.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22These weren't explorers. They're families.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27Just ordinary people, and every age group travelled on these journeys.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29Well, I see your daughters have got the best seats,
0:18:29 > 0:18:31- they have the best seats in the house.- They do.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33- I think we want to get going.- OK.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39Come on. Molly! Molly! Get up!
0:18:49 > 0:18:52You can see why the pioneers called their wagons
0:18:52 > 0:18:55prairie schooners in the hope they would sail safely
0:18:55 > 0:18:59to the other side of this great sea of grass.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01With the wagons packed full, incredibly,
0:19:01 > 0:19:07most of the emigrants made the entire 2,000 mile journey on foot!
0:19:07 > 0:19:10The flat landscape meant that when they set up camp
0:19:10 > 0:19:18after a hard day's walk, they were often still within sight of their previous night's campsite.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21So how far would travel in a day, at this pace?
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Probably with the right weather and everything is right,
0:19:25 > 0:19:30animals are well fed, you could travel 12 or 15 miles a day.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34People would have been quite footsore.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36And what about the weather?
0:19:36 > 0:19:38Because they were pretty exposed out here.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41The weather in all the seasons was pretty extreme
0:19:41 > 0:19:45even in the dead of summer, when they'd be approaching this place.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Thunder storms crop up in the afternoon.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52The wind comes up. And you got canvas there.
0:19:52 > 0:19:58You can have pretty severe hailstorms as the prairie warms up.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03The geology's fascinating, look at that smooth rock there.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Big piece of granite. That's Independence Rock.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08- That's Independence Rock? - That's Independence Rock.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12- That's a good sign.- That's a good sign. We're right on schedule.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16If they made it here by the 4th July at the speed they travelled,
0:20:16 > 0:20:21they could make it over the mountain passes before the snow flew.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24So you had to be here by the 4th July to be certain to get across the mountains.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26Yes, within a day or two.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29You know, that was the kind of rule of thumb, so to speak.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32Well, we're in pretty good shape because it's the 3rd July.
0:20:32 > 0:20:33We're a day ahead of time.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35It really was a time for celebration.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Some of the ladies would save their last eggs
0:20:38 > 0:20:42and their last pound of sugar to make a pound cake
0:20:42 > 0:20:46and they'd tear the hoards off the sides of the wagons
0:20:46 > 0:20:49to make a long table for all the food to put on.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52And what about music?
0:20:52 > 0:20:57Oh, yeah, music was a part of the wagon camps in the evening.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00Somebody would pull out a fiddle,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03and someone would pull out a guitar,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07maybe a banjo, a mandolin and away they'd go.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10Whoa, let's stop here a second.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16That's what they were waiting for. That's what we've been waiting for.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21If you were on the trail, that would be like coming home.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24And especially after you've travelled, you've been wet,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28you've been cold, you've been sunburnt, you've been thirsty,
0:21:28 > 0:21:31you've been hungry and you've been sick
0:21:31 > 0:21:37and then you finally get to a place where there's some cause for some celebration.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39Well, I think we should make our way down to the shindig.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41I think so too. It's time to celebrate.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59THEY PLAY FOLK MUSIC
0:22:08 > 0:22:11Pioneers on this long and risky journey
0:22:11 > 0:22:15shared the basic human desire to be remembered.
0:22:15 > 0:22:195,000 of them inscribed their names here using lamp-black,
0:22:19 > 0:22:24oil, axle grease, buffalo grease - anything that could be daubed on the rock
0:22:24 > 0:22:30which became known as "the Great Register of the Desert".
0:22:32 > 0:22:36Very good.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39The elation of reaching the rock on Independence Day
0:22:39 > 0:22:40was quickly forgotten.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42After two months on the trail,
0:22:42 > 0:22:48the pioneers were still only halfway to Oregon or California.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51Now Hollywood would have you think that the biggest threat
0:22:51 > 0:22:54to the people who came down this very trail in their wagons
0:22:54 > 0:22:58was Indian attack - and certainly, that did occasionally happen,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01but it was by far the least of your worries.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03There were a lot of other things that could get you.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06In the baking hot summers, you could die from heatstroke.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09You could be drowned crossing the rivers,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11you could be seriously injured if your wagon turned over
0:23:11 > 0:23:15or an animal bolted or if someone had an accident with firearms,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18that accounted for a lot of deaths.
0:23:18 > 0:23:19Then there were the diseases.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22Every disease of humanity came down this very trail -
0:23:22 > 0:23:25chickenpox, mumps, measles, you name them.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28And the one that was on everybody's lips was cholera -
0:23:28 > 0:23:31that's the one they feared the most.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35It's estimated that 6% of the people who headed west
0:23:35 > 0:23:37died on this very trail.
0:23:37 > 0:23:43That's 20,000 people, buried mostly in simple scrapes along the trail.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46It's staggering to think how many perished on the way.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56100 miles west of Independence Rock, I find a stark reminder
0:23:56 > 0:24:01of the toll this landscape took on those pioneers.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04I find this grave site particularly moving.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Perhaps it's the isolation in this desolate landscape
0:24:08 > 0:24:14or the fact that it belongs to a young English woman who'd come all the way from Suffolk -
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Charlotte Dansie.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21She died here in her early 30s with her infant whilst in childbirth.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27When she died, her husband dug a grave for her
0:24:27 > 0:24:28and for the infant Joseph.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32It wasn't a coffin, just a chest lid with brass hinges -
0:24:32 > 0:24:35it was the best they could afford, it's all they had with them.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39And her husband laid her to rest with her favourite possession -
0:24:39 > 0:24:41a string of blue glass beads.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51But beyond Charlotte's grave, you can see the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54For the pioneers who had made it this far,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57they still had a third of their journey to go,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00but at least they had made it across the Great Plains!
0:25:04 > 0:25:07It's a sad fact that just a few years later,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09Charlotte could have made the journey safely.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14In 1869, after six years of frantic construction,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17America's first transcontinental railway was completed.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24The train annihilated concepts of distance and time.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28Once, the continent had taken months to cross,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33but with America's east and west coasts connected by rail,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37those 3,000 miles of mountain, prairie and desert
0:25:37 > 0:25:39could be crossed in under a week.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45This is what would change the West for ever - the railroads.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50With the railroads established, and a lot of propaganda encouraging people to come west,
0:25:50 > 0:25:55there was a flood of humanity into the prairies.
0:25:55 > 0:25:591.6 million people headed west,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02fired with this thought of the Homestead Act.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22In 1861, the US Government passed the Homestead Act,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25offering 160 acres of free land
0:26:25 > 0:26:28to pretty much anyone willing to farm it.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31The pioneers had seen the plains as a barrier to get across.
0:26:31 > 0:26:36Now, thousands of homesteaders flooded onto them to settle,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38and make a new life here.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Do you hear that sound? That is the sound of money.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45And of course, this was the homesteaders' vision -
0:26:45 > 0:26:48crops as far as the eye could see.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50When they saw all this grassland, they thought,
0:26:50 > 0:26:51"We can turn that into farmland."
0:26:51 > 0:26:53There was just one problem.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56How do you build a house in a land with no trees?
0:26:56 > 0:26:58Homesteaders weren't wealthy people.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01They couldn't afford to import lumber,
0:27:01 > 0:27:03let alone bricks to build with.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06But of course, necessity is the mother of invention
0:27:06 > 0:27:09and some bright spark said, "Why don't we use the grassland itself?
0:27:09 > 0:27:13"If we cut turf, we can use that as bricks to build buildings."
0:27:13 > 0:27:15And that's exactly what they did.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18It's estimated that there were over one million sod houses
0:27:18 > 0:27:21built all across the prairie.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33This remarkable building is one of the rarest in North America.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38This is a sod house, it was built right at the beginning of the 1880s.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42You can see very clearly, the bricks made of turf.
0:27:42 > 0:27:43There are some roots.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48They found the roots of the prairie grass made for very strong turf bricks.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51They laid them so the roots were facing upwards,
0:27:51 > 0:27:53and they would grow into one another a bit.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56These bricks got the nickname of "Nebraska Marble".
0:27:56 > 0:27:58That's how strong they were.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03The interior of the building is really in a remarkable state of preservation.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09This building was inhabited until 1952.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11Since then, it's been derelict.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14But you can see how well it was taken care of
0:28:14 > 0:28:16in the fact that it's preserved.
0:28:16 > 0:28:21One of the secrets was that a tin roof was put on in later years.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25We have a graphic picture of what life was like in this house.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29A house comprised of two rooms.
0:28:29 > 0:28:35Eight children and three grandchildren were born in this building.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40Can you imagine a family of eight living together in this tiny space?
0:28:40 > 0:28:45The walls were obviously a great home for rodents and birds
0:28:45 > 0:28:49and the children would sometimes find that their socks had been stolen
0:28:49 > 0:28:53by rodents and taken off into the walls, into their nests.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57Before this roof was put on, there was a roof of wood
0:28:57 > 0:29:01covered with heavy black paper and sods on top of that.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04When it rained, sometimes it would leak
0:29:04 > 0:29:07and the father would have to rush out and put soil
0:29:07 > 0:29:09over where the leaks were.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12But there were certain advantages.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14The sod was a wonderful insulator.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17So in the extreme heat of summer,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20the interior of the house was always cool
0:29:20 > 0:29:23and in winter it was remarkably warm.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26It's really atmospheric.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29There is still life in here now, look at that.
0:29:51 > 0:29:56Small communities like this deserted hamlet of Montrose in Nebraska
0:29:56 > 0:30:00began to emerge in the rural interior of the Great Plains.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04I've come here to meet up with Homestead historian Tammi Littrel,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07to find out more about the people who took up the challenge
0:30:07 > 0:30:09of farming this landscape.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14I've got some pictures here that I've put in this scrap book,
0:30:14 > 0:30:19that were taken by Solomon Butcher, an amazing photographer
0:30:19 > 0:30:22who photographed many of these homesteads.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26- It's great that he did. - Amazing, yes.
0:30:26 > 0:30:32They're quite remarkable. You get a sense of pride in these families.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35What sort of people came out here?
0:30:35 > 0:30:39Well, anyone that was 21 years old could sign up
0:30:39 > 0:30:42as long as they were the head of the household.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45So it could be a single woman or a widowed woman.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48It could be a newly freed slave.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52Usually, they were people that had moved to earlier frontiers.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57They were people that were fairly adventurous, but not always.
0:30:57 > 0:31:03Sometimes they were like a young farmer in a family of eight boys
0:31:03 > 0:31:06and he knew that he was not going to get the family farm back east,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08it was too small,
0:31:08 > 0:31:10and so he had the opportunity to have land for himself.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13You know, to start his own place.
0:31:13 > 0:31:19It would be immigrants in eastern cities that are just jam-packed
0:31:19 > 0:31:21and they're wanting to own their own land.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25Or it would be European immigrants, who were always tenant farmers
0:31:25 > 0:31:28or could not afford to buy the land to start their own farms.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32You'll notice in most of the pictures there are a few things
0:31:32 > 0:31:36that they're very proud of. Watermelons was one thing.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39You see a lot of watermelons and what that is saying is,
0:31:39 > 0:31:45they're taking these photographs to send to their families back in, wherever they came from.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49Because often times, when they moved out here, the separation was permanent,
0:31:49 > 0:31:51they never saw their families again.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55And so, these were photographs to show them, we're in Nebraska,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58we made it, we grew watermelons.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00Then there's this astonishing photograph.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03Now, I'm assuming they must have built a frame house by now
0:32:03 > 0:32:05because it's a very high angle.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09Well, actually what this picture is about is she was so horrified
0:32:09 > 0:32:14to have her family know she lived in a "soddie" - a dirt house -
0:32:14 > 0:32:18that she had Solomon and her husband carry that pump organ
0:32:18 > 0:32:22out into the barn yard and Butcher climbed the windmill
0:32:22 > 0:32:24and got that picture off the top of the windmill.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27So there's the elevated position.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29So she has her possessions she's very proud of,
0:32:29 > 0:32:33the organ, and then in the back ground you see there's pigs,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36cattle and horses and everything that he has
0:32:36 > 0:32:40and different implements, farm implements to show what he's accumulated.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45Really, this country was built on the backs of ordinary people.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47People who came out with a dream in their hearts
0:32:47 > 0:32:50and when they found no trees to build with,
0:32:50 > 0:32:54they literally lifted the turf and made their homes from it.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Lots of ordinary people. Lots of different cultures.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00So it was a fabric of different people that came here.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02It's the fabric of America.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05And hard work.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07And luck. SHE CHUCKLES
0:33:27 > 0:33:30The new frontier was there for the taking.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32But having made it here,
0:33:32 > 0:33:35the settlers still faced a huge challenge.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38How to farm the virgin prairie?
0:33:38 > 0:33:42Some of them had arrived from Europe with farming experience,
0:33:42 > 0:33:46but the soil and climate, even the grass on the Great Plains,
0:33:46 > 0:33:50were different from anything they'd ever seen before.
0:33:50 > 0:33:55This is short grass prairie - you find that in the most arid areas.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59But there are places on the plains where there's slightly more rainfall
0:33:59 > 0:34:02and there you get the tall grass species.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07And they are recorded as having grown all the way up to chest height
0:34:07 > 0:34:08if you were on horseback.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10It's astonishing.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14But when you look at any grass, really you're just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17You need to look underground to see what's really going on -
0:34:17 > 0:34:20take a look at this.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24This is a species called switchgrass.
0:34:24 > 0:34:32That is a life-size photograph showing just how extensive the root system is.
0:34:32 > 0:34:38In one square metre on the prairie there can be five miles of roots -
0:34:38 > 0:34:41that's what made the ground so productive
0:34:41 > 0:34:43but it also caused problems -
0:34:43 > 0:34:46the roots were so dense and so tightly packed
0:34:46 > 0:34:49that when farmers attacked them with iron ploughs,
0:34:49 > 0:34:54the ploughs broke and it was only when steel ploughs came into the prairies
0:34:54 > 0:34:56that this land could be turned into farmland.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00For many settlers, the challenges proved too great.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04Up to an estimated 60% of homesteaders
0:35:04 > 0:35:07admitted defeat and returned home.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13But for those who remained, the American dream became a reality,
0:35:13 > 0:35:15and their descendants are still thriving here today.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20I've travelled to Custer County, in Nebraska,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23to meet Kevin Cooksley, who still lives on the land
0:35:23 > 0:35:26where his great-grandfather's sod house once stood.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31So now we're coming up to where the sod house was, aren't we?
0:35:31 > 0:35:33The depression is there.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35You can go right to where the well was.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37The ground actually feels a little harder here,
0:35:37 > 0:35:39because that would have been tamped down.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41It would have been, yes.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46Alex Pirnie, my great-grandfather,
0:35:46 > 0:35:51emigrated here in 1876 from Edinburgh, Scotland.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53Do you have any photographs of him?
0:35:53 > 0:35:58The one that was made famous by Solomon Butcher.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00This would have been Alex Pirnie.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03With the great, big, whiskery moustache. Very impressive.
0:36:03 > 0:36:04Isn't it?
0:36:04 > 0:36:08And in it, you can see the sod house.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11When they were living in that sod house, what was life like?
0:36:11 > 0:36:12There were no trees.
0:36:12 > 0:36:17So when you arrived here, firewood would have been in short supply.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21So you used the dried buffalo chips,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24cow pies, for fuel.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26Once you started growing crops,
0:36:26 > 0:36:31corn primarily, you could burn the corn cobs.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34They must have been incredibly isolated.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Yes, they were.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39Things that come to mind, you know, you worry about the hostiles,
0:36:39 > 0:36:41you worry about the storms.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43You worry about the poisonous snakes.
0:36:43 > 0:36:44You worry about injury.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46Because where do you go for a doctor?
0:36:46 > 0:36:47Where do you go for medicine?
0:36:47 > 0:36:51- And of course childbirth as well. - And childbirth, yeah.
0:36:51 > 0:36:52How many...? You go to the old cemeteries
0:36:52 > 0:36:55and look how many headstones have children that died
0:36:55 > 0:36:57when they were one month old, two months old,
0:36:57 > 0:37:00or women that died in childbirth.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03What made him stop here?
0:37:03 > 0:37:06That's a good question, and I've asked myself that,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09and the best answer I've been able to come up with -
0:37:09 > 0:37:12they found a place that reminded them of home.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16I imagine that when Alex got here and he looked around,
0:37:16 > 0:37:19and he got up on this hill, and he's got the creek down below,
0:37:19 > 0:37:23he's 360 degrees visibility all the way around.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25He's high enough he doesn't have to worry about floods.
0:37:25 > 0:37:27He can see the bad weather.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29He can see if there's someone coming -
0:37:29 > 0:37:31he can see them coming.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33And I think he looked round at the hills
0:37:33 > 0:37:37and he thought, "This looks like home too".
0:37:37 > 0:37:41I've been fortunate that I came into possession
0:37:41 > 0:37:44of a couple of his journals,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48and he writes in there in pencil...
0:37:48 > 0:37:50Could you read a little bit?
0:37:50 > 0:37:52Here - 1898, page 86,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55he writes about building this frame house.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58"The first load of lumber was hauled by Alex Pirnie
0:37:58 > 0:38:02"from Berwyn to build the first frame house in this valley.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05"James Short, a coloured man from Westerville,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08"came and built the foundation,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10"but winter came on us very suddenly,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13"and came very cold and stormy,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16"so the foundations stood all winter
0:38:16 > 0:38:19"and the first nail of this house
0:38:19 > 0:38:23"driven on March 2nd, 1899.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25"Then we moved into this new frame house
0:38:25 > 0:38:30"after living 14 years in the old sod house."
0:38:30 > 0:38:32And the frame house, which is still standing,
0:38:32 > 0:38:35how far would he have to bring that lumber?
0:38:35 > 0:38:38He writes in his journal of going to Grand Island, Nebraska,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40to get the lumber to build the house,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43and Grand Island is 90 miles away.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47It would have involved a week-long trip by wagon.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49That's if there were no problems.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51It's amazing. You can really get the sense of his pride
0:38:51 > 0:38:54when he talks about driving the first nail.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57You know, this is a new departure.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00It's a new stage in the family's success.
0:39:00 > 0:39:05And this frame house is almost a town house from San Francisco,
0:39:05 > 0:39:07albeit on a smaller scale.
0:39:07 > 0:39:08It's very grand, isn't it?
0:39:08 > 0:39:12Very grand. I mean, complete with a balcony and a walk-out door,
0:39:12 > 0:39:20so he can step outside and view his kingdom, if you will.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23He had to feel like a man who had arrived.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26As the homesteaders began to settle the plains in earnest,
0:39:26 > 0:39:30the expansion of the railroads continued to pick up steam.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35Farming equipment started to be shipped in by rail,
0:39:35 > 0:39:39helping the homesteaders tame the wild landscape.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41Of course, there were still problems.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45With an average of less than 38cm of rain
0:39:45 > 0:39:47falling on the plains each year,
0:39:47 > 0:39:51finding enough water to expand agriculture was tough.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57But the ever resourceful farmers found a solution to this too.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01Extracting water from hand-dug wells was hard work,
0:40:01 > 0:40:03so they turned to the natural resource
0:40:03 > 0:40:08they had in plenty - the relentless plains wind.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12Windmills like this are a common feature in this landscape.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14It's wonderful technology.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18It's very simple and very effective, and can be long-lasting.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22This pump has been functioning since 1893.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26That, of course, made life so much easier for the homesteaders.
0:40:26 > 0:40:27What they didn't realise, though,
0:40:27 > 0:40:31is that they were tapping into an incredible natural resource -
0:40:31 > 0:40:33the Ogallala Aquifer.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35It's porous rock underground here
0:40:35 > 0:40:39that, like a sponge, holds an enormous amount of water.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43In fact, it spreads under the prairie for an area of eight states.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47The combination of this huge hidden water supply
0:40:47 > 0:40:50and the new windmill technology
0:40:50 > 0:40:54enabled the homesteaders to alter the frontier beyond recognition.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57Incredibly, within one generation,
0:40:57 > 0:41:02the vast prairies had turned almost entirely to farmland.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05The new farms were supported by America's railroad boom.
0:41:05 > 0:41:11By 1890, six huge transcontinental lines straddled the country,
0:41:11 > 0:41:15with hundreds of branch lines connecting isolated communities.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18It opened up new opportunities for trade
0:41:18 > 0:41:21right across the Great Plains.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24Towns like Dodge City developed at the rail heads
0:41:24 > 0:41:26where the tracks ended.
0:41:26 > 0:41:31Saloons, stores, and brothels quickly followed the dollar.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34AUCTIONEER SPEAKS RAPIDLY
0:41:38 > 0:41:42This auction is a lasting legacy of a beef bonanza
0:41:42 > 0:41:44triggered in the mid-1800s.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46Dodge City, originally Fort Dodge,
0:41:46 > 0:41:51was transformed by the railroad's arrival in 1872.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53Now that the local beef could be shipped back
0:41:53 > 0:41:56to the new nation's growing cities in the east,
0:41:56 > 0:41:59demand was enormous.
0:41:59 > 0:42:0139. 85 on 8.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Thank you.
0:42:08 > 0:42:14Dodge City has to be one of the most iconic towns in the Wild West.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18The original front street burned down in the past.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20Fires were a common problem in frontier towns.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23Today, there's this tourist approximation
0:42:23 > 0:42:25and it gives a really good feel
0:42:25 > 0:42:28of what life would have been like back in the 1800s.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31But what a lot of people don't realise
0:42:31 > 0:42:33is that Dodge City was actually founded
0:42:33 > 0:42:36on one of the saddest stories in the Wild West.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45As the railroad continued advancing east,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49its newly-laid tracks cut right through the migratory path
0:42:49 > 0:42:51of the great southern buffalo herd.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53It sparked a massive - and lucrative -
0:42:53 > 0:42:58trade in buffalo hunting and tanning here in Dodge City.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02Historian Noel Ary explains how the arrival of the train
0:43:02 > 0:43:05would mark the beginning of the end for the buffalo...
0:43:05 > 0:43:08There was a big demand for leather.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10And if you stop to think,
0:43:10 > 0:43:13we didn't have plastic, so furniture,
0:43:13 > 0:43:19harness of all kinds, saddles, coats, rugs,
0:43:19 > 0:43:23and then as the industry began to build,
0:43:23 > 0:43:25they would have one large power plant,
0:43:25 > 0:43:27and long shafts going from that,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30and belts that came down to power all the machinery,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33and they found buffalo hide made a wonderful belt.
0:43:33 > 0:43:38The railroad made it possible to market all of these products
0:43:38 > 0:43:40that they got from the buffalo.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44Buffalo hunters flocked to Dodge City,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47where they could earn up to 3 per hide.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51A really good hunter could shoot up to, if everything was right,
0:43:51 > 0:43:53100 buffalo in a day.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55- 100 in a day?- Uh-huh.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58Horizon to horizon, there were buffalo.
0:43:58 > 0:44:04And so it wasn't hard in the beginning to find buffalo.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08One hunter shot 1,500 buffalo in seven days.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12- 1,500 bison?- 1,500 bison in a week.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14There was a lot more people hunting
0:44:14 > 0:44:16than I think a lot of people thought.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20I know just in this immediate area, they estimated 5,000 hunters.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22And, of course, they had good guns.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24This was just after the Civil War,
0:44:24 > 0:44:29and the Sharps rifle is heavy.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32It's 14-16lb.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35And they come in all different calibres,
0:44:35 > 0:44:39and different barrel lengths,
0:44:39 > 0:44:43but they were accurate, and they were well-made.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48And if you had a Sharps, you had the Cadillac of guns at the time.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50And this is a genuine... This is a historical piece?
0:44:50 > 0:44:52Yes, this is an old Sharps.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54I don't know the history behind it.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56It's been awfully well taken care of.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00Most of them don't look that good.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04- It's amazing. A very, very heavy barrel.- Sure.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07And when they were hunting,
0:45:07 > 0:45:09they tried to get as close as they could to a herd.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11And they'd watch them a little while
0:45:11 > 0:45:13and determine which was the leader,
0:45:13 > 0:45:15which was usually an old cow.
0:45:15 > 0:45:20And they could watch by just how the group was reacting to her.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22That's the one they tried to shoot first.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26If they shot them in the heart, they apparently jumped,
0:45:26 > 0:45:28and caused all kinds of a commotion.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32And that caused the whole group then to run.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35But if they could shoot them in the lungs,
0:45:35 > 0:45:38they would bleed to death pretty fast.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41And what they'd do, they'd stand there a while and bleed,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44and get very sick, and lay down, and that was it.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46The other buffalo might come over and smell them,
0:45:46 > 0:45:49but she didn't leave, and she was the leader,
0:45:49 > 0:45:52so they stayed and continued grazing,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56and the idea was to keep them within rifle range
0:45:56 > 0:45:59as long as they could to kill as many as they could.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01That's fascinating.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04So I've got this impression now of the professional buffalo hunter.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06But it wasn't all like that, was it?
0:46:06 > 0:46:10- There was an element of hunting for sport as well.- Oh, sure.
0:46:10 > 0:46:15And probably the most famous, or infamous, example of that
0:46:15 > 0:46:18was on the Kansas Pacific railroad to the north,
0:46:18 > 0:46:20the other transcontinental railroad
0:46:20 > 0:46:23that went through about 100 miles north of us.
0:46:23 > 0:46:24And they...
0:46:25 > 0:46:29..touted, advertised, shooting buffalo from the train.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31And if they came to a herd,
0:46:31 > 0:46:35they would simply slow the train away down, and everybody shot.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40And Kansas Pacific did have their own taxidermy department,
0:46:40 > 0:46:42which mounted heads.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44And there was a...
0:46:44 > 0:46:47There's a picture that shows the front of the building
0:46:47 > 0:46:49with a number of heads there.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51And I'm sure it was a PR-type thing.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53It was a lark.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57Going to the Old West was the thing to do.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59Shooting buffalo was part of the trip.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01And the buffalo never had a chance.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07Abandoned buffalo carcasses littered the plains.
0:47:07 > 0:47:12They slowly decayed into giant piles of sun-bleached bones,
0:47:12 > 0:47:14making the prairies so white,
0:47:14 > 0:47:18some said it looked as if it were covered in snow.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26It's estimated that the bones of 31 million buffalo
0:47:26 > 0:47:31were collected up and shipped back east to be ground into fertiliser.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36By the end of the 1800s,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39the great buffalo herds had effectively vanished
0:47:39 > 0:47:41from the Great Plains.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52If you know where to look,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56there are marks across this landscape that tell its history,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00because this depression in the ground is not man-made.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03This was made by buffalo,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06because this was once a wallow.
0:48:06 > 0:48:07It's hard to imagine,
0:48:07 > 0:48:09because there are no buffalo here today.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12In 1800, it's estimated that there were
0:48:12 > 0:48:16between 30 and 60 million buffalo
0:48:16 > 0:48:19roaming wild and free across the prairie.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24By 1895, there were less than 1,000.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27It was inconceivable to the Native Americans
0:48:27 > 0:48:29that the buffalo could have been gone.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31But they were, and for them,
0:48:31 > 0:48:35that had a catastrophic impact on their way of life.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41Without the buffalo,
0:48:41 > 0:48:44the Plains Indians simply could not survive.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49After years of increasing conflict with settlers and the US Army,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51they were forced onto reservations.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54There was now nothing to stand in the way of the frontier
0:48:54 > 0:48:56as it swept west.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59With no buffalo,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02and with the Plains Indians restricted to reservations,
0:49:02 > 0:49:04the prairie grass was now up for grabs.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08It wasn't long before industrious ranchers from the south
0:49:08 > 0:49:11realised this was excellent grazing ground for their cattle.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14CATTLE MOO
0:49:14 > 0:49:16I've come to Moore Ranch,
0:49:16 > 0:49:19a working ranch south-west of Dodge City.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23These are your classic longhorn cattle.
0:49:23 > 0:49:24They're beautiful, aren't they?
0:49:24 > 0:49:27They were originally brought here by the Spanish,
0:49:27 > 0:49:28and farmed by the Mexicans.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32But as the United States established its borders,
0:49:32 > 0:49:33and the Mexicans retreated,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37large herds of these were left in the prairies.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41But it wasn't until the buffalo were wiped out
0:49:41 > 0:49:44that there was really an opportunity for these cattle.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47There was a niche created that they stepped into.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50That, coupled with the fact that during the Civil War
0:49:50 > 0:49:53a lot of the farms were left untended,
0:49:53 > 0:49:55created an opportunity for these animals
0:49:55 > 0:49:59to go feral and really breed up.
0:49:59 > 0:50:04By the time the farmers returned at the end of the Civil War in 1865,
0:50:04 > 0:50:09they found upwards of five million longhorn cattle loose on the plains.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11That would usher in a new era,
0:50:11 > 0:50:14the era of the cattle drive,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17and bring with it that iconic figure of the west -
0:50:17 > 0:50:19the cowboy.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26The ranch is owned by the Moore family,
0:50:26 > 0:50:30third-generation ranchers who come from a long tradition of cowboys.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34Hey, hey, hey!
0:50:39 > 0:50:43Today, Joe has promised me a taste of life in the saddle.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47We'll be driving his cattle to pasture -
0:50:47 > 0:50:51a sort of beginners' version of the great cattle drives of the old west.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56When the stampede starts, you're on your own.
0:50:59 > 0:51:04The 1870s and '80s were the heyday of the cattle drive
0:51:04 > 0:51:07as cowboys drove great herds of cattle north
0:51:07 > 0:51:12across the unfenced plains to railheads in Kansas or Nebraska,
0:51:12 > 0:51:14where they would be transported to market.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20These cattle drives would mean spending
0:51:20 > 0:51:22over three months in the saddle,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25covering distances of up to 2,000 miles.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Heat, dust, quicksand,
0:51:32 > 0:51:35stampedes, snakes, drought,
0:51:35 > 0:51:39lightning, and dust storms, were everyday problems.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43It's no surprise cattle driving was a young man's sport.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48The average age of a cowboy was 22.
0:51:48 > 0:51:50They worked for a dollar a day.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58The cowboy was really just a hired man on a horse,
0:51:58 > 0:52:03but he captured the imagination of dime novels, and Hollywood.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05Even today. much of that myth lives on.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25Joining me at the campfire is Jim Hoy,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28an expert on cowboy folk life.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31Can you just give me a description of what a cattle drive was?
0:52:31 > 0:52:35Well, it was gathering together a herd of cattle.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38Typical size was between 2,000 and 3,000 cows.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40You'd have ten cowboys.
0:52:40 > 0:52:41Ten drovers could handle
0:52:41 > 0:52:43that number of cattle easily.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47And then you'd have a chuckwagon
0:52:47 > 0:52:51to carry the food - flour, bacon, beans, things like that -
0:52:51 > 0:52:53also any medical supplies.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55You'd gather these together in Texas,
0:52:55 > 0:52:57and they'd start them off.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59Most of them would start in the spring
0:52:59 > 0:53:01as the grass began to get green down there.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04They'd follow the grass north, in a sense.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07First day, they'd drive maybe 20 miles.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09Second day maybe 15, 20 or 25 miles.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13Two reasons - one, get those longhorns far away from home.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15They got a strong homing instinct.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17You don't want them going back where they were.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20Also get them kind of used to the rhythm of the trail.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23If you got them at the very first so they'd handle well,
0:53:23 > 0:53:25and get the rhythm of the trail,
0:53:25 > 0:53:28you could walk 1,000 miles with those cattle.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31They'd weigh more when they got to Kansas than when they left Texas.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34But if they started stampeding the first day or two,
0:53:34 > 0:53:37they might run all the way, and they'd lose weight
0:53:37 > 0:53:38as they did it.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41After you go those first couple of days, you'd slow down.
0:53:41 > 0:53:4415 miles was a big day after that.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46You'd let the cattle graze grass,
0:53:46 > 0:53:48and then you'd put them in camp.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50And they were usually in camp ten hours a night.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53You'd get into the camp, you'd bed the cattle down.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55Leave two cowboys out there to kind of watch them
0:53:55 > 0:53:56and ride around them.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58Then when it got dark, you'd sing or hum
0:53:58 > 0:54:00so the cattle knew you were there.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03And the belief was that it kept them quietened down.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05It was like a lullaby.
0:54:05 > 0:54:06That's fascinating.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08I read somewhere that sometimes
0:54:08 > 0:54:10the cowboys would fall asleep in the saddle.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12They did, they did.
0:54:12 > 0:54:13I mean, if you go,
0:54:13 > 0:54:16and the cattle were stampeding, running, causing trouble,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19you might go two, three, four days without ever getting off your horse -
0:54:19 > 0:54:21or maybe changing horses,
0:54:21 > 0:54:24but not getting a chance to sleep.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27And they would sometimes, when they were out riding night herd
0:54:27 > 0:54:28and they were just dead tired,
0:54:28 > 0:54:32they'd take some of their smoking tobacco and rub it in their eyes,
0:54:32 > 0:54:34and burn their eyes to make them stay awake.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36Wow. Drastic measures.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39And if they had steers that wanted to run and stampede all the time,
0:54:39 > 0:54:41they'd sometimes rope 'em, tie 'em down
0:54:41 > 0:54:43and sew their eyelids closed
0:54:43 > 0:54:45so they couldn't see where they were going
0:54:45 > 0:54:49and kept them from leading the other cattle astray and running.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53Amazing. I've never come across stories of them carrying compasses.
0:54:53 > 0:54:54No.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57At night, when they'd pull into a camp,
0:54:57 > 0:54:59when they're on the trail,
0:54:59 > 0:55:02if there was a moon and stars out,
0:55:02 > 0:55:07the chuckwagon always pointed the tongue towards the North Star,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10so the next day, they'd know which way to go.
0:55:10 > 0:55:12And if there was a foggy day -
0:55:12 > 0:55:15and, you know, you can get lost going in circles pretty easily -
0:55:15 > 0:55:18they'd tie about a 60-80ft lariat rope
0:55:18 > 0:55:20on the axle of that chuckwagon,
0:55:20 > 0:55:22and he could look back every once in a while,
0:55:22 > 0:55:24and if that rope was curving, he knew he was...
0:55:24 > 0:55:27and so he would go back and pull that rope straight,
0:55:27 > 0:55:29and knew he was going north.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31One of the things that fascinates me about the West
0:55:31 > 0:55:33is the way things come and go.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36It really seems like little bursts of gunpowder going off
0:55:36 > 0:55:38left, right, and centre.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40There's a flash of something, and then it dies out.
0:55:40 > 0:55:41So the horse arrives,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44and the Indians go after the buffalo with the horse.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46Then the buffalo is gone.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48And that's the same, true, of a cowboy, isn't it?
0:55:48 > 0:55:50Yeah, in a sense.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54Two major things contributed to that -
0:55:54 > 0:55:55technology and barbed wire.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57The railroad, of course -
0:55:57 > 0:56:01the cowboy was created by the technology of the railroads.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04But that didn't end the open range, barbed wire did.
0:56:04 > 0:56:081878, it's invented, patented.
0:56:08 > 0:56:121883, they began to fence up the XIT Ranch in Texas.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16But barbed wire - they could fence off the water holes.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18They could fence off a pasture,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21and if that pasture didn't have water,
0:56:21 > 0:56:23the windmill could provide that water
0:56:23 > 0:56:25as long as there was ground water underneath.
0:56:25 > 0:56:31But that open range era is over by more or less 1890 -
0:56:31 > 0:56:34wide open life with the wide open spaces.
0:56:34 > 0:56:35And when they fenced it,
0:56:35 > 0:56:38it really changed the nature of ranching.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41It changed the nature of the cowboy very quickly.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43If you think of the cowboy,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47it defines America as its folk hero.
0:56:47 > 0:56:53But that open range cowboy - a bare generation of 25 years.
0:56:53 > 0:56:54Yep.
0:56:56 > 0:56:57# Come along, boys,
0:56:57 > 0:56:59# And listen to my tale
0:56:59 > 0:57:01# I'll tell you the troubles of the old Chisholm Trail
0:57:01 > 0:57:03# Come a-ti-yi yippy yippy yay Yippy yay
0:57:03 > 0:57:05# Come a-ti-yi yippy yippy yay
0:57:05 > 0:57:08# Started up the trail October 23rd
0:57:08 > 0:57:10# Started up the trail with the 2U herd
0:57:10 > 0:57:12# Come a-ti, yippy yippy yay Yippy yay. #
0:57:34 > 0:57:37When the Wild West hit the prairies,
0:57:37 > 0:57:41it was like a stampede beyond any human control.
0:57:41 > 0:57:46It burned across this landscape, changing everything.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48By the end of the 1800s,
0:57:48 > 0:57:53you could no longer find dark ribbons of buffalo herds
0:57:53 > 0:57:56flowing across this landscape, followed by Indians.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00They themselves were now confined to reservations.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03Even cowboys were no longer making cattle drives,
0:58:03 > 0:58:06because the landscape had been fenced.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10The wild grasses were replaced now by crops.
0:58:11 > 0:58:16But in a strange way, the landscape shaped the nation.
0:58:16 > 0:58:21And I think that here, in the very heart of America,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24in the adversity and tenacity that was shown,
0:58:24 > 0:58:30the very nature of the American personality was defined.