Black Hills Gold: Fort Laramie (May 20, 1956)

“Black Hills Gold” is an episode of Fort Laramie, the old-time radio show, first broadcast May 20, 1956. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Fort Laramie free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

A cavalry escort accompanies a wagon train heading west on the Oregon Trail near Fort Laramie. The captain warns the wagon master against taking the closed Bozeman Trail into Indian territory, where gold has been found, but fears that the lure of gold fever may tempt other settlers to violate the treaty with Red Cloud and the Sioux, potentially sparking a war.

Fort Laramie and surrounding canyon country in Indian territory, 1956

Characters: Captain Lee, Sergeant, Wagon train driver, Major, Red Cloud, Willa, Dad

Listen for: Discussion of the tension between white settlers seeking gold in the Black Hills and the treaty obligations to keep them out of Indian country; a cavalry officer's concern about enforcing the treaty and preventing conflict.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.