Within The Realm
History
About
Tales from where the Great Plains, the Ozark Mountains and Indian Territory collide! Check us out at withinpodcast.com. Find archived episodes and links to our social pages at withinpodcast.com!
Episodes
- The Death of Powderface; The Last Breath of the American Frontier
The old Arapaho Powderface had been named a "Chief" by the Federal Government, one of a few tribal headmen to treat with and later ignore. The newspaper called him "obstinate," and it cost him his life. And the story was soon forgotten, ho…
- A Revisit to Wakita
Up to early March of 2026, only one tornado had struck tiny Wakita, Ok - the fictional storm in the 1996 movie Twister. Folks in those parts said a more than century old Indian blessing was the reason. In the late night hours of that March…
- Wiley Post: Highway Man to the Edge of Space
Wiley Post made headlines. He crushed the record for circumnavigating the globe and then broke his own record a year later with the first solo trip around the world. He reached unheard of heights in his plane, the Winnie Mae, verifying the…
- The Best Possible Result
It took years to get the ball rolling but the Texas County landscape would soon have a good sized body of water provided by the Corps of Engineers. It was to provide all the usual things a lake would, especially high-paying government jobs…
- At 150 - A Look Back, A Look Ahead
A milestone - a marker on a real or figurative trail that allows you to know how far you've come and how far you've got to go. Here on our 150th episode, I take a moment to consider this particular milestone. Episodes featured : From Kansa…
- The Broad Street Pump
For this episode, we will depart from the usual back road or mountain trail, far from where the Great Plains, the Ozark Mountains and the Indian Territory collide for the cobble stone street of London, 1854. This story has all the elements…
- Piggy Banks or Aid For the Tenth Leper
The Piggy Bank, that most useful tool in teaching thrift and saving for a rainy day. The idea has been around for centuries, but the concept of a little slotted-back pig in every child's room is pretty recent and from the unlikely starting…
- He Brought Us 'Lectric
An old fan used by my Grandfather to provide a little respite from the Oklahoma summer heat had a history. It had been purchased three decades before I became fascinated with it, listening to it's ancient blades whir during his afternoon n…
- Dead Woman Crossing
Katie DeWitt had come to the Oklahoma Territory to get herself a piece of the disappearing American Frontier. She taught school there in what would become Dewey County, perfected her claim to a farmstead,married and had a child, all by the…
- Displaced Okies and Frito Chili Pie
Traditions have to start somewhere. I was present at the birth of a new tradition for a bunch of fellow Okies living in Kansas involving a favorite food from our home state. A few things had to fall into place before the tradition was born…
- The American Elm
The American Elm was the "go to" tree as the thing planted for shade in the mostly treeless Great Plains. As those Plains gave way to villages and towns and then to cities, the American Elm was the favored "street tree" that lined the stre…
- Night School and A Driver's License
All the kids had been raised and the youngest grandkid was starting school, it was time for a new chapter for Emma Belle. The next big step required a high school diploma and a driver's license, two things she didn't have. What she did hav…
- The Alvarez
Sometimes it takes decades for a story to come around. Years ago I made a deal to acquire a particular guitar and though many a day has passed since the agreement was made, the instrument has made it into my home. It's a story of youth, ho…
- Duwali's Sword
Chief Bowles or Duwali was a name familiar across the American Frontier two hundred years ago. As headman of the Cherokees west of the Mississippi River, he saw his people through many a trying time. His favor was curried by the many ruler…
- Score For Stilwell: The Photographer's Motor Car
In the early days of the 20th century, things were changing - and fast! Electric lights, flying machines and the automobile were pushing their way into the center of attention. Folks, especioally here Within The Realm, were a scrappy sort.…
- Frantie Mae: For Service In The Cause of Freedom
There were some heroes from the Second World War that didn't get much further than a few miles from home to perform a service that resonated from the Heartland of America to halls of power in London. This is a story about quiet duty and hu…
- Christmas City of the Ozarks
There is a little out of the way place in the Ozarks, tucked down in the corner of Missouri, not far from Arkansas, not far from Oklahoma, that has carved out a name for itself during the Christmas holiday. A few things had to fall into pl…
- The Octagon City
Octagon City was an attempt at establishing a vegetarian Utopia on the plains of Kansas in the mid 1850s. The Reformers of the Day were out to change the world through Phrenology, avoiding the evils of liquor, coffee and tea, limiting the…
- Watch That Basket!
A serious technical glitch has not only prevented me from getting episodes out in the past couple of weeks, but has also lost most of my work over the past few months to the digital ether-world! The first thing I thought of when I digested…
- The Indian
On a hilltop in Kansas stands a weather-beaten monument to the Indian, who at the time of the placement of the statue was becoming a memory of days gone by. The statue continues it's vigil over the valley below but in the overgrowth of the…
- Windows
The Air Conditioning gave up the ghost this weekend, so I have a few things I'm juggling along with this podcast schedule, but it got me to thinking about a few things...so here are a few of those thoughts. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTIST! Chec…
- Dexter, Kansas and the Hindenburg
Even out here in the windswept section of the place where the Great Plains, the Ozark Mountains and the Indian Territory collide, small, sometimes forgotten things may have a bigger impact than you know. An important discovery near the lit…
- Gusty: Building Trust One Kid at a Time
Back in the day, local TV news was important, especially the weather forecast, here in Tornado Alley. One Weatherman here in the place where the Great Plains, the Ozark Mountains and the Indian Territory collide developed a great gimmick t…
- Not Just Another Dog Story
We believe our dogs to have a special bond with us. It's something sacred to those of us who have been forged into better people by the love of a little black rescue dog. Let me tell you about my dog, Boomer. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTIST! Ch…
- Brownie's Hat: Community and the Pride of the Prairie
The Spring of 1954, somewhere in northwestern Oklahoma. A group of upstart high schoolers form a marching band to represent their school at sporting events after the school could no longer send along the official band. From there, small ge…
- Wildness Thrust Upon Them: The Horses Of Shannon County
Described as wild and beautiful creatures, the horses of Shannon County, Missouri are just that. The off spring of work horses abandoned by desperate Ozark farmers during the depression, they have survived and flourished on the Federal Lan…
- Pretty Boy and the Repo Man
The Cookson Hills hold many a legend about the exploits of Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd and his amazing escapes from the clutches of the law through a hail of gunfire. But there's also the story about a collector, a clerk really, from…
- A Southern Accent
You know Within The Realm as the place where the Great Plains, the Ozark Mountains and the Indian Territory collide, but what happens when too much on your plate, a little guilt over not getting a podcast episode out on schedule and a cove…
- The Tree On The Trail And Other Observations
I'm feeling philosophical about my walks with my assistant producer, Boomer, on the trail near our home. By applying a lesson I learned from the pages of the nerdy books I read when I was a kid, I have special outlook on not just the walks…
- Forever England
Most know the United States entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Just a few months before that fateful December morning, folks in Miami, Ok were already hearing the engines of foreign pilots over head. Miami was home to C…
- Lincoln in Bleeding Kansas
Before he was on the Five Dollar Bill, before his words were memorized by schoolchildren through the decades and before he was hailed as the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln was a candidate for President...and it wasn't looking so good.…
- With a Little Help From The Great Spirit
It's a story that can only take place in America. They had come west, illprepared, to a new home where they hoped to start fresh for themselves and their families. The new residents of Nicodemus, Kansas, mostly former slaves from Kentucky…
- A Friend To All
I took it as a challenge to find the history of a character from my mother's hometown in western Oklahoma. She had little to go on, but we found the story - not only the story about this figure from her childhood, one Percy Hook, but also…
- The First Rule of Newtonian Physics and Wrestling
One of the best physicists I ever knew my my first wrestling coach T. A. Shell. Never athletic enough to apply his lessons on the wrestling mat, I have applied them in other parts of my life with some success. T.A. Shell was my coach, yes,…
- A Reflection On Scrooginess
A Christmas Open House at my new friend Opal's place got me to thinking…it got me to thinking about my feelings and attitude toward Christmas, described by some as Grinch-y or Scrooge-y. There's a reason for my jaundiced eye cast on this w…
- Eight's The Place: Tulsa TV, Promotion and Community
Back when I was a kid, there was Channel 8, Tulsa's KTUL. Channel 8 embraced the concept of local content for working stiffs, housewives, kids, lovers of moster movies...you get the idea.The news anchors and characters on these local shows…
- Two Nickels At The Eagle
I've been running into a certain subject in my research, one that will make a few appearances in episodes to follow. It reminded me of the first time I really encountered the subject, standing in line at the Eagle Theater waiting for an Or…
- The Mystery Of The Halloween Hippy
Sometimes there are secrets so deeply hidden, made all the more mysterious by the silence of those involved. And so was the closely held secret of the strange visitor to our home that fall of the year I turned five. Not until years later,…
- The Even More Endangered Ozark Giraffe
Everyone who knows me, knows I am fascinated with Ozark Giraffe style homes. I've made note of a few that have fallen to the progress of time in the past few weeks. Here's a bonus episode with my tribute to the peculiar little houses that…
- I'll Take The One
There a lot wrong with the world, especially when you're looking for it. But there plenty of hope and sunshine, sometimes it shows up at your front door. Today's story is about a weary teacher, a fabled figure from American folklore and a…
- The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time
The tragic tale of Reuben and Fred, two young cowboys on an errand to the Cimarron River salt flats in what is now Woods County, Oklahoma. Their final resting place is this lonely and windswept territory has been marked and remembered for…
- Mighty Fine! Big Jim Walker's Friends and Neighbors Radio Show
Dr. James Walker was an English professor, complete with a tweed jacket and a love for Mark Twain. But Big Jim Walker, his alter ego, was a guitar playing entertainer with his own transmitter free radio show. I learned many a lesson in the…
- Who Lies In Ed's Grave?
Some say a beloved entertainer, a star of television in it's early days, lies buried just north of Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Others say an imposter is at rest beneath the large granite headstone. In this episode of Within The Realm, we investig…
- It Was No Frontier To Tandy Folsom: Another Look At The Frontier Thesis
The story was told about a thoughtless, coldblooded killing for years until it became lore. A closer look reveals two sides of the story, a clash of cultures that led to the death of "poor Mr. Dore." P.J. Dore had come to the Indian Territ…
- A Distant and Unsure Horizon
On our show, we reach back into history and family stories from the past for a lot of our content. Our goal is not to bask in the things of yesteryear, but rather to find inspiration to move forward toward a distant and unsure horizon. Lat…
- The Document
Every story has multiple ingredients to it, but this one is drawn together by a single sheet of paper, sitting forlorne in a dusty courthouse vault for years. The Document tells about a single event in the past, but once elements of the st…
- Always, Your Loving Son
A soldier's story. The box held a medal, a government form and a letter. It was the letter, a quick note home from a GI to his family, that drove Matt Carlson to find the rightful owners of the little package he bought at the flea market.…
- Self Made Men and Proper Credit
A talk about self made men and proper credit, something due to the people who actually made these rugged individuals and, really, all of us. withinpodcast.com Link to referenced episodes: Within The Realm Blog The photography of Dani Wilso…
- More Than Missing Statues: A Talk About Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women
Over the course of the fall and winter of 2020-21 two statues were stolen, one from a park in Kansas City and the other from the lawn of the Tulsa Historical Society. Besides being made of bronze, the other distinguishing similarity these…
- An Assignment
It was an assignment, to write a biography of my Grandfather, to help me maintain my hours at school, but it ended up giving me a great education about his life, what made him and his character and what it meant for me. I heard stories no…