In far west Texas and eastern New Mexico, there is a land so flat you’ll swear, if you squint hard enough into the infinite horizons, that you can see the back of your head. This treeless, sand dune, canyon and grass filled country stretches some fifty thousand square miles of land that used to be called The Great American Desert but today, is called The Llano Estacado or the High Staked Plains. In the deep past, it was home to Ground Sloths, Mammoths, and Bison before Clovis, Apache, and then the Comanche. The Spanish explored it, the New Mexicans hunted buffalo on it, the Americans fought the Indians on and around it. Coronado, Oñate, Kit Carson, and Robert E Lee all travelled across or around it’s flat emptiness.
In this Roadrunner exclusive episode of the American Southwest Podcast, I cover all of that and a whole lot more as I uncover the Tierra Incognita that is El Llano Estacado. I discuss what it looks like, how it distorts the mind, the creatures that live on it, the violent weather, the history of the American Indians including the mysterious Teya, the Spanish, The French, The English, the New Mexicans, the Comancheros, the Contrabandistas, the Ciboleros, the Texans, and finally, the Americans. I introduce important Southwestern Characters, animals, peoples, cultures, and battles. I quote from great authors who wrote fantastic books about the place that only those who hunted the bison, and those that hunted the bison hunters ever dared to venture into.
This is the first of many exclusive episodes for the Subscribers or Roadrunners and at 3 hours and 30 minutes, I hope that it satisfies everyone’s desire for awesome and exciting information on the American Southwest. Thank y’all for subscribing and listening.
History Podcast Episode Exclusively for Subscribers by Thomas Wayne Riley
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