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The American Old West is as iconic a historical period and as fertile for storytelling as any other.

You get the same adventure and moral complexity as medieval epics, the same heroic individualism and dastardly vigilanteism as swashbuckling pirate stories, the same tales of loss and love as a Regency-era romance.

And if I ask you to name characters from those other eras, it would be easy.

King Arthur or Robin Hood, Blackbeard, or Captain Kidd, Heathcliff, or Mr. Darcy.

And so, too, is it easy to name a famous cowboy.

In fact, let's play a game together.

On the count of three, name an Old West hero.

And let's see if we're thinking of the same one.

One, two, three, Wyatt Earke.

The story of Wyatt, his brothers and best friend Doc Holliday has been told in newspapers, books, film, radio, and television.

But how did 30 seconds at the OK Corral turn into a legend and what really happened?

On today's Saturday matinee, we're bringing you an episode from one of my other podcasts, American history tellers, that begins to tell the story.

There are criminals and lawmen.

There are rivalries and alliances.

There are liars and lovers.

It's got it all.

And it's all true.

I hope you'll enjoy.

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