Lost Child: Fort Laramie (April 1, 1956)

“Lost Child” is an episode of Fort Laramie, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 1, 1956. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

A cavalry captain at Fort Laramie must search for a young boy kidnapped by a Cheyenne warrior named Wasiah, who holds a personal grudge against the boy's stepfather. As the captain prepares a patrol to recover the child from the Laramie foothills, a visiting Army major questions whether the captain's sympathetic approach to the Native Americans reflects a dangerous weakness in military policy.

Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory; the surrounding Cheyenne reservation and foothills

Characters: Captain Lee Quince, Major Barlow, Sergeant Gorse, Ben Coons, Wasiah

Listen for: The tension between the captain's measured understanding of Cheyenne culture and the major's demand for a harder military line; the search for the kidnapped boy; Wasiah's revenge against Coons for the death of his brother.

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.