Land Deal: Gunsmoke (December 11, 1955)

“Land Deal” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast December 11, 1955. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Marshal Matt Dillon encounters Mr. Trumbull, who is guiding a party of ten immigrant families to settle on railroad land northeast of Dodge City. Trumbull requests to be deputized, claiming he needs help maintaining order during the settlement. When Dillon rides out to the immigrant camp, he discovers two men fighting to the death over a woman, bound arm-to-arm with knives in their free hands.

Dodge City and an immigrant camp thirty miles northeast near the south fork of the Pawnee River

Characters: Matt Dillon, Chester, Kitty, Mr. Jonas, Mr. Trumbull, Cal Calhoun, Sidney, Mrs. Calhoun

Listen for: The unusual and brutal fighting method used to settle disputes among the immigrants, and the tension brewing within the settlement party over domestic troubles.

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.