The Open Range: Tales of the Texas Rangers (August 26, 1950)

“The Open Range” is an episode of Tales of the Texas Rangers, the old-time radio show, first broadcast August 26, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

When cattleman Maury Buckland is shot and killed by rustlers stealing cattle from his ranch, Texas Ranger Pearson takes the case. With only a cigarette butt and matchbook left behind, Pearson deduces the killer is left-handed and sets out to find the stolen cattle, which hold the key to solving the murder.

Texas ranch country and Camp Hood, August 1948

Characters: Ranger J.S. Pearson, Maury Buckland, Dave Buckland, Sheriff Clyde Johnson, Bud Kurtz, Pete

Listen for: The detective work as Pearson pieces together clues from cigarette butts and matchbooks; the radio dispatch coordinating with commission houses; the search across Camp Hood's open range.

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.