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  • The thirty seconds on Fremont Street cost him office and exile

    The thirty seconds on Fremont Street cost him office and exile
    2026/10/30
    A sheriff stands between the Earps and Cowboys on Fremont Street for thirty seconds - what did it cost him in a frontier courtroom of ambition?

    The thirty seconds on Fremont Street cost him office and exile

    In this episode, we trace John Harris Behan’s life from a Westport childhood to a frontier career that mixed law, politics, and business, and we follow how one October afternoon on Fremont Street cast a long shadow over his reputation and future. What did those thirty seconds mean for his offices, his finances, and his place in territorial Arizona?

    Person: John Harris Behan
    Date: October 26, 1881
    Location: Fremont Street, Tombstone
    Event: Confrontation between the Earp brothers and the Cowboys at the O.K. Corral
    Date of birth: October 24, 1844

    - He served as Yavapai County Sheriff, was county recorder, and won a seat in the Seventh Arizona Territorial Legislature by 1874.
    - Behan was present at Apache Pass in July 1862 as a civilian logistics man attached to the California Column.
    - Investigators later found $5,000 set aside from unidentified sources during his time as sheriff and $50,000 passed through prison accounts without documentation.
    - He managed the Yuma territorial prison and was discharged from a double-billing charge in January 1882 on a legal technicality.
    - His 1912 death certificate listed hardening of the arteries and syphilis contracted about thirty years earlier, a cause attributed by his son.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    24 分
  • The carved NEMO that made him be remembered as nobody

    The carved NEMO that made him be remembered as nobody
    2026/10/29
    A twenty-year-old artist walks into a Utah canyon with two burros and a sketchbook, carves NEMO into red sandstone - what did it cost him?

    The carved NEMO that made him be remembered as nobody

    In this episode, we follow the last months of Everett Ruess: his disciplined travels, artistic work, and the journey that led him into the canyon country south of Escalante in November 1934. We track the evidence left behind - diaries, a corral, a carved word - and ask what those traces can tell us about his disappearance.

    Person: Everett Ruess
    Date: November 1934 (last journey); March 8, 1935 (letter received)
    Location: Canyon country south of Escalante, Utah; Davis Gulch
    Age: 20 years old
    Artifact: Wooden corral, two burros, carved letters "NEMO"

    - He carried two burros, a sketchbook, and months of disciplined fieldwork when he entered the Utah canyons.
    - He had eight years of meticulous diaries and a long record of letters and prints connecting him to artists and archaeologists.
    - Before vanishing he built a small wooden corral and left no trail leading out of the canyon where it stood.
    - The only physical inscription tied to his last known days is the word NEMO carved into red sandstone, meaning "nobody" in Latin.
    - A letter dated March 8, 1935 described the corral, the two burros, and the carved letters - but no body or clear explanation accompanied those items.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 分
  • The flagpole snapped - he caught the colors and carried a lifetime of duty

    The flagpole snapped - he caught the colors and carried a lifetime of duty
    2026/10/28
    A flagpole snap in a Texas field; a soldier catches the colors and keeps a lifetime of duty - what did it cost him?

    The flagpole snapped - he caught the colors and carried a lifetime of duty

    In this episode, we follow Arthur Tracy Lee from a snapped flagpole at the Battle of Gettysburg through decades of frontier service, painting and reports that documented encounters with Native leaders and U.S. policy. What did his lifelong habit of "catching" the world demand of him?

    Person: Arthur Tracy Lee
    Date: July 2, 1863
    Location: Fort McKavett; Fort Davis; battlefields including Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma
    Event: flagpole snapped; regimental colors fell and were caught by the standard-bearer
    Topic: military service, frontier duty, painting, reports on Native American relations

    - He was born June 26, 1814 in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, moved to Philadelphia to study art and learned to look carefully.
    - Commissioned second lieutenant October 3, 1838, sponsored by Simon Cameron, then served across Florida, Wisconsin, Texas, and the frontier.
    - He assisted in two Winnebago removals and served in the Second Seminole War, often executing orders the Army had already decided.
    - At Fort McKavett in 1852 he lived among southern Comanche leaders and wrote the line reporting they were friendly if supplied with food.
    - Across four years at Fort Davis he produced 154 documented paintings and kept a sketchbook while performing garrison and negotiation duties.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • The brushstroke that made viewers feel guilty - it cost him a life of arguing

    The brushstroke that made viewers feel guilty - it cost him a life of arguing
    2026/10/27
    A Texas painter stares down the Dust Bowl and forces viewers from pity into guilt - what did that brushstroke cost him?

    The brushstroke that made viewers feel guilty - it cost him a life of arguing

    In this episode, we follow Alexandre Hogue’s decades-long effort to use painting to shift public feeling about the Dust Bowl from sympathy for victims to culpability for choices that wrecked the land. We trace his life, methods, influences, and the visual strategies he developed to make guilt unavoidable. What did his insistence on accountability demand from him?

    Person: Alexandre Hogue
    Date: 1934 (first Drouth Stricken Area painting), 1933 (Dust Bowl painting), 1898 (birth)
    Location: Texas (Denton; returned to Texas to stay), Memphis, Missouri (birth)
    Topic: Dust Bowl, artistic response vs documentary photography
    Period: 1930s-1994 (worked for six decades; lived to ninety-six)

    - Hogue painted Drouth Stricken Area in 1934 to place destruction precisely where people lived, making the damage follow the farmstead.
    - He contrasted his paintings deliberately with contemporary documentary photography, arguing photos provoked sympathy that absolved responsibility.
    - Born in 1898 in Memphis, Missouri, Hogue moved to Denton, Texas as a child and later returned to Texas permanently in 1925 at age twenty-seven.
    - He taught at Texas State College for Women from 1931, was active through six decades, and had works acquired by major museums including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Musée National d'Art Moderne.
    - His visual strategy derived from childhood lessons about “Mother Earth,” summers drawing with Charles Franklin Reaugh, and a refusal to adopt prevailing New York styles until he found his own voice.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    18 分
  • The Sculptor Nobody Knew: Solon Borglum's Quiet War with Erasure

    The Sculptor Nobody Knew: Solon Borglum's Quiet War with Erasure
    2026/10/26
    A sculptor on the Missouri River watches the Lakota at Crow Creek and chooses to record a disappearing world - but what did it cost him?

    The Sculptor Nobody Knew: Solon Borglum's Quiet War with Erasure

    In this episode, we follow Solon Borglum from a childhood shaped by enforced silence to the summer of 1899 when he and his wife stepped off a riverboat onto the Crow Creek Reservation. The episode covers his training, his Paris breakthrough, and the choices that led him to spend decades documenting Lakota life; what did he pay for that commitment?

    Person: Solon Hannibal Borglum
    Date: December 22, 1868 (birth); Summer 1899 (Crow Creek visit)
    Location: Crow Creek Reservation, Missouri River, Dakota Territory; Paris; Cincinnati; Ogden, Utah
    Event: Paris Salon exhibition of Lassoing Wild Horses and The Stampede of Wild Horses (1898)
    Topic: Recording Lakota life, horses, and erasure

    - At age 30 he won acclaim in Paris, then brought his new wife to Crow Creek to observe the Lakota.
    - Born into a polygamist household in Ogden, Utah, he was raised under an enforced silence about his mother.
    - He trained under J. Laurie Wallace and at the Cincinnati Art Academy with Louis Rebisso before studying in Paris.
    - He modeled working draft horses from U.S. Mail stables, spending weeks observing before touching clay.
    - He chose to document a culture and landscape being renamed and reduced along the Missouri River rather than pursue immediate commissions.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 分
  • A boardinghouse keeper took him in - and cost him a private life

    A boardinghouse keeper took him in - and cost him a private life
    2026/10/25
    A boardinghouse keeper in 1855 San Francisco gave homeless fifteen-year-old Otto Mears a bed - but what did it cost him?

    A boardinghouse keeper took him in - and cost him a private life

    In this episode, we trace how a single act of hospitality in San Francisco set Otto Mears on a life of roads, railroads, political deals, and gilding the Colorado State Capitol dome. We follow the choices, moves, and early jobs that turned a stateless teenager into a builder of high-country infrastructure - and ask how those beginnings shaped him.

    Person: Otto Mears
    Date: 1855 (arrival in San Francisco), 1859 (moved east), 1864 (discharge)
    Location: San Francisco; Placerville; Virginia City; Mesilla Valley; Saguache; Poncha Pass; Nathrop; Leadville; Colorado State Capitol
    Event: Boardinghouse keeper offered shelter to a fifteen-year-old Mears after his uncle left for Australia

    - A teenage Mears arrived in San Francisco alone at age fifteen, with no uncle and nowhere to sleep.
    - A boardinghouse keeper he met on the voyage let him stay months longer than required despite no recorded relationship or debt.
    - He worked as a milker, store clerk, and teamster, gaining practical fluency in prices, distances, and moving goods.
    - After following mining booms to Placerville and Virginia City, he enlisted in the First California Infantry and was discharged in the Mesilla Valley in August 1864.
    - Frustrated by impassable routes, he built a toll road over Poncha Pass to reach the mill at Nathrop, turning geography into infrastructure.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 分
  • The enlistment that cost William Ashworth his freedom

    The enlistment that cost William Ashworth his freedom
    2026/10/24
    A Texas enlistment in 1835 put a free Black landowner at odds with a law that ordered his sale if he stayed - what did it cost him?

    The enlistment that cost William Ashworth his freedom

    In this episode, we trace how a February 5, 1840 Texas law threatened to fine and sell free people of color who remained after January 1, 1842, and how one family's decade of land, labor, and local standing collided with that statute. We follow the petitions, signatures, and the single fact that forced legislators to confront the Ashworths' claim: William's military service before the republic existed - but what would that service buy them?

    Person: William Ashworth
    Event: Texas Act of February 5, 1840
    Date: January 1, 1842 (deadline set by the act)
    Location: Jefferson County, Texas (near Beaumont)
    Supporters: 72 neighbors signed petitions defending the Ashworths

    - The Ashworths arrived in Jefferson County in the early 1830s as free people and built land, cattle operations, and community.
    - Texas declared independence on March 2, 1836, then issued ordinances restricting Black immigration and ordering free people of color to leave.
    - A 1837 legislative reprieve allowed those present at independence to remain, a conditional status the Ashworths relied upon.
    - The 1840 law imposed fines and then sale into slavery for free people of color remaining after 1842, applying regardless of tenure or service.
    - Three petitions, including one noting William Ashworth’s 1835 military service, pushed the legislature to consider individual claims against the act.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分
  • The Tombstone vein he chased that cost him thirty cents in his pocket

    The Tombstone vein he chased that cost him thirty cents in his pocket
    2026/10/23
    He rode into Apache country with thirty cents and a prophecy; he found a vein near Lenox’s grave - what did it cost him?

    The Tombstone vein he chased that cost him thirty cents in his pocket

    In this episode, we follow Edward Lawrence Schieffelin from his childhood in Oregon through his solitary prospecting in Arizona Territory to the filing of the Tombstone claim. We trace the people he met, the warnings he ignored, and the decisions that led him back into dangerous hills - what did his discovery actually mean?

    Person: Edward Lawrence Schieffelin
    Date: May 12, 1897
    Location: near Canyonville, Oregon; Tombstone, Arizona Territory
    Event: filing of the Tombstone claim on September 21, 1877
    Status: ore samples with conflicting assays (family: $7/ton; later: $2,000/ton)

    - He grew up in the Rogue Valley after his family moved west and left at seventeen to prospect across the West.
    - In 1876-77 he prospected alone in Apache country, sleeping at Brunckow’s Cabin despite its violent history.
    - Army scout Al Sieber warned him the hills would be his tombstone; Schieffelin kept searching and found a 50-foot vein he named Tombstone.
    - He rode into Tucson with ore samples that local hands deemed worthless and left with thirty cents in his pocket.
    - Family records and later assays disagree sharply on the value of his final samples, leaving his last days contested.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 分