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America's Hidden History | Bronco Charlie

America's Hidden History

October 3, 2019

27:35

America's Hidden History

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America's Hidden History | Bronco Charlie

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- [Narrator] Modern historians have revised, rewritten,
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and even deleted entire chapters of American history.
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So what are we missing?
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What happened to the history that didn't make the books?
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Join historian David Barton, Tim Barton,
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and special guests as they uncover the facts some historians
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don't want you to know.
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This is America's Hidden History.
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(fast-tempo western guitar music)
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We're in Fort Laramie, Wyoming.
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Fort Laramie's one of the oldest historic sites in Wyoming.
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Decades before it was a territory, the fort was here.
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It has the oldest post office location in Wyoming.
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But the reason that we're looking
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at Fort Laramie is this is also
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where the Pony Express had one of its offices.
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And the Pony Express was a significant piece
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of American history.
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Yeah, and the reason we're actually focusing even
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on the Pony Express right now is
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because the hero for this show
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is a guy named Bronco Charlie.
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Now Bronco Charlie was one of the youngest guys
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and most famous guys ever to ride for the Pony Express.
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But to understand his story, really,
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we need to understand the Pony Express a little better.
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So back up in time.
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When the mail is being delivered throughout America,
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at that time it's being delivered stagecoach or steam ship.
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And so there was a group of businessmen
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who said you know, I think we can do this better.
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I think we can do it faster.
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And so they had a business venture saying
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what if we got several hundred horses,
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we have maybe a couple hundred stations,
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and they would have horses at each station?
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And what would happen is these stations
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were spaced out maybe every 15 to 20 miles,
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and so you run a horse as hard as you can
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to the next station, you swap horses,
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and this was their idea is if we just run horses
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as hard as they'll go,
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we probably can make the mail get there faster.
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So these three business guys decide,
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well, let's try this plan and see if it works.
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And they actually made a fairly good team of it,
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and they thought we can do this in half the time
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that everybody does if we can get this all put together.
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Well, they ended up getting over 500 horses,
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they had roughly 190 stations,
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and then put a station master at each station,
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and the station master was in charge
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of taking care of the horses at that station,
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of maybe having some food there
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so when the Pony Express rider comes up,
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they have some food, a horse that's ready.
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So they have horses, they have stations,
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they have station masters,
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but now they have to recruit riders.
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So one of the fun things from history
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is there's old recruiting posters from the Pony Express,
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and one of my favorite ones says,
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"Wanted, young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over 18.
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"Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily.
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"Orphans preferred, $25 a week."
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Back in 1860, that's a lot of money,
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but it says orphans preferred.
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Why do you prefer orphans?
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Well, because we know this is dangerous,
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and we don't want Mom and Dad upset
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if you don't make it back alive.
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And even at that, the fact they said young,
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skinny, wiry fellas, why would you want that?
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Well, because the horse has gotta carry the mail and you,
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and you don't wanna run the horse out
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over that 15, 20 miles.
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So the average weight of a Pony Express rider
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was between 100 and 125 pounds,
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so it would be like today's professional jockeys.
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These are small guys.
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We know they were tough guys because
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of what they did along the way
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and fighting outlaws and fighting Indians
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and fighting mountain lions and bears.
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They were tough, tough, tough guys, but they are teenagers
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in the 100 to 125-pound range; it's amazing.
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Well, and so not only were they gonna have to be tough
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in the sense of fighting off things,
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and most Pony Express guys, they would come
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with their own guns, but these business guys says,
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there's a few things we wanna make sure they have just
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for the journey, so there were two things
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that every Pony Express rider had
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in addition to all of their own gear.
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They were all given a Bible,
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which actually was printed by these three business guys,
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which even says something of the culture of that time,
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that if you have some free time,
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what's the best thing to read?
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Well, we think it's the Bible.
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So every Pony Express rider got their own Bible.
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But they also were given a horn or a trumpet,
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and the reason was as you are riding the horse
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as hard as you can to the next station,
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when you get to where maybe you see the station
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off in the distance, start blowing that horn.
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The station master hears the horn,
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comes out and gets another horse ready and waiting for you.
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That way, when you get there, you can swap out really fast,
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mount on this new horse, and you are gone again.
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So that's something that the Bible, the trumpet, and a gun
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were the constant companions of these Pony Express riders.
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But in addition to that, they wanted you
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to have high character as well.
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So you took an oath as a Pony Express rider
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that you will not swear, you will not use profanity,
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you will not drink, you will not get in fights
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with other Pony Express employees.
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They wanted high character in the people they hired.
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Now the Pony Express didn't last all that long,
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only roughly for a year and a half because,
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at this point, you have the expansion of the telegraph.
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In DC, the federal government says we got a great idea.
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We've got telegraphs that goes partway across the country.
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Why don't we connect the telegraph all the way
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to the West Coast, and that way we can get news
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and message all the way east to west?
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10 days after the Pony Express starts,
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they start building the transcontinental telegraph.
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When they finally got it finished in San Francisco,
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on the day that that first message went
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from East Coast to West Coast,
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that's the last run of the Pony Express.
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So the Pony Express lasted about a year and a half,
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but what they did in that period of time
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was absolutely remarkable.
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And the reason this matters for our story
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is because the hero of our story is Bronco Charlie.
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But his adventure starts when he's just a kid.
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(dramatic, intense instrumental music)
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(fast-tempo western guitar music)
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We're in Cody, Wyoming.
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Behind us is a statue of a Pony Express rider.
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Now the Pony Express trail actually came not too far
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from this area of Wyoming, but this is
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where our story takes a little bit of a twist
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because of the individual who is a part
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of the Pony Express, Bronco Charlie.
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Now he's the hero of this show,
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but Bronco Charlie's story really does start much younger
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when his family comes to California.
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They're living out in the frontier, that kind of lifestyle.
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There were vaqueros who would ride by,
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and he said the vaqueros were the best-looking thing around.
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Well, when he was eight years old, he talked two vaqueros
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into taking him to their ranch.
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The ranch owner writes his parents a letter
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and says hey, I've got your son.
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We're gonna take care of him.
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It's no big deal for us, we got him.
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Well, all he wanted to do-- Now, wait a minute.
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How parents today are gonna say,
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oh, he's eight years old, you got him, that's fine.
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I don't even know you, don't know who you are.
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Well, so eight years old, he decides I just
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wanna live here and work with the horses.
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And so the vaqueros, he says they teach him
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how to shoot, they teach him how to use a lariat,
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they teach him how to really ride a horse,
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but all he wants to do is break the wild horses.
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And he explained they get this horse,
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they put a blindfold on him, they get a saddle on him,
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they get Bronco Charlie up on it.
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Well, when they think he's got the hang of it,
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they turn him loose, and the horse just takes off.
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Well, as the horse is running,
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it steps in a gopher hole, the horse falls, he flies off.
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He says it hurts so bad, but I knew I'm not supposed
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to let go of the reins, so he's on the ground,
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holding the reins. He says the horse was bigger than me.
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No eight year old could handle it.
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It's pulling away, he's pulling back.
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Well, the vaqueros come up, and they're able
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to get the horse, and they help him get back up on it.
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Only a couple days later, the vaqueros were going out
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to round up more of these wild horses,
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and he says, I wanted to show them
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that I really could handle this.
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I really was tough.
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He says, so I took my lariat, and I walked into the pin
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where all these horses were.
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He says, and I was gonna get this horse named Rabbit,
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and I was gonna ride it by myself.
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He says, I caught five of the wrong horses
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(David laughs) before I finally
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caught the right horse.
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When the vaqueros came back and they saw
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what he had done, they were so impressed,
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well, they gave him the nickname Bronco Carlos
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or Bronco Charlie, which he says was a name he carried
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with him the rest of his life.
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Well, at the age of 11, he and his dad are in town,
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and as they're in town, there was a horse
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that had come through town without a rider on it,
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and the horse-- And it was
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a Pony Express horse because of the saddle.
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And the assumption is that rider probably
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is dead somewhere along the trail.
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And so they run down to the station.
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The station master's there and says,
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I don't know what we're gonna do.
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We were gonna take this rider
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and put him on a different horse.
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And Charlie says, my dad looked at me,
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and we both just knew.
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He says, my dad picked me up, put me on the horse,
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and says go, son.
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He says, and I just took off at a gallop
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on my way to Placerville, and it's 40-something miles away.
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He had to ride through the night.
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He said when he was riding, he heard a mountain lion scream.
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He said it was the most terrifying sound he'd heard
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in his whole life.
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It was like a woman was being murdered.
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Well, he finally arrives at the post
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at Placerville the next morning.
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When he gets there, the station master looked
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and had all kinds of questions.
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He said, you're not the normal rider.
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And Charlie said, I didn't know what to tell him
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because nobody had even told me what to do.
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My dad just put me on the horse and said go.
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So I told him what happened, and they said okay,
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you can stay here.
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Well, this is the beginning of his journey
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with the Pony Express.
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But then they expanded his route,
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and so he went from riding roughly 40 miles
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to more than 170 miles was part of his route,
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and he even acknowledged that during one of these rides,
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he heard something whisking by his head.
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He turned around, and he saw Indians up on a hill,
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and they were shooting arrows down at him.
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Well, as he's running, finally, arrows do hit him,
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and he said it was at this point I thought what can I do,
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and he remembered he had a gun.
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So he drew his six gun, and he began firing back.
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Well, he was able to maneuver and escape.
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When he made it to the station, he was covered in blood.
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They didn't make him keep going that night,
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but the next morning, he was up to ride again.
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Well, his adventure continues throughout the Pony Express.
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Each time he's riding, he's got part
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of the Sierra Nevadas to cross,
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and that's a rugged mountain range.
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And so he's going up to 170 miles by himself,
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and we are still talking an 11 year old here.
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But nonetheless, what he did over that period of time
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is absolutely a remarkable story.
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And what he accomplished
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in those several months actually led to his fame
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because people heard about this young boy,
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and they began to write stories about him.
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Now many of them were fictitious stories,
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but he was a great kid to write about.
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His fame really grew.
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In fact, it grew so big that, in just a few years later,
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because of his fame as the Pony Express,
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he was going to be invited to join a pretty massive show
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by Buffalo Bill.
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(dramatic, intense instrumental music)
00:10:08.050 --> 00:10:12.190
(fast-tempo western guitar music)
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Behind us is the statue of Buffalo Bill.
00:10:22.180 --> 00:10:24.100
Now Buffalo Bill was a very famous name in American history.
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In fact, many movies have depicted him
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as a hero or an individual in those stories.
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The thing he's probably the most famous for
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is a show he did called The Wild West.
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As he's trying to find the right people
00:10:36.290 --> 00:10:39.060
to be part of the show, one of the names that comes up
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is someone who was very, very famous
00:10:42.090 --> 00:10:44.130
as a young boy in the West, a Pony Express rider.
00:10:44.130 --> 00:10:47.070
And Buffalo Bill says, well, let's show them
00:10:47.070 --> 00:10:48.240
what the Pony Express was all about.
00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.170
And so he hires a man named Bronco Charlie.
00:10:50.170 --> 00:10:53.190
Now Bronco Charlie at this point is not a boy anymore.
00:10:53.190 --> 00:10:56.190
He's a little bit of an older guy,
00:10:56.190 --> 00:10:58.070
older guy only in terms of the Wild West.
00:10:58.070 --> 00:11:00.150
He's in his 30s, roughly, now.
00:11:00.150 --> 00:11:01.260
So he's a grownup in the West.
00:11:01.260 --> 00:11:03.060
But in the West, that's pretty old.
00:11:03.060 --> 00:11:05.090
30 'cause he started busting broncs when he was eight,
00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:07.190
and he's riding Pony Express when he's 11.
00:11:07.190 --> 00:11:09.170
So man, when you're 30, that's really old in the West.
00:11:09.170 --> 00:11:11.280
Well, so Bronco Charlie is part of the show.
00:11:11.280 --> 00:11:14.000
And as being a young man who learned
00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:16.030
to break this broncs and become a very good rider,
00:11:16.030 --> 00:11:19.010
he's showing what does it look like
00:11:19.010 --> 00:11:21.030
if you're a cowboy in the West,
00:11:21.030 --> 00:11:22.190
you're working with horses, how do you actually do that?
00:11:22.190 --> 00:11:24.190
Well, he did this in the show in the East for a while.
00:11:24.190 --> 00:11:27.220
And they also even had, as part of the show,
00:11:27.220 --> 00:11:30.100
well, how did the Pony Express work?
00:11:30.100 --> 00:11:32.010
So they would have a ride come galloping into the arena,
00:11:32.010 --> 00:11:34.280
he would jump off his horse, he would grab the mail
00:11:34.280 --> 00:11:37.200
off the saddle, he would jump on another horse,
00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:39.180
throw the mail up, and he'd take off,
00:11:39.180 --> 00:11:41.020
and they'd show the exchange, how that exchange happened
00:11:41.020 --> 00:11:43.050
from station to station to station.
00:11:43.050 --> 00:11:45.030
They're trying to show people how the Old West really was.
00:11:45.030 --> 00:11:47.240
And so Bronco Charlie was with the show for several years,
00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:50.000
and the show did really, really well.
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:51.290
And it did so well, they said, hey,
00:11:51.290 --> 00:11:53.180
if people in the East like this,
00:11:53.180 --> 00:11:54.270
why don't we go further east?
00:11:54.270 --> 00:11:56.040
Let's go to Europe and show those folks
00:11:56.040 --> 00:11:58.100
what the Old West was like because, even in Europe,
00:11:58.100 --> 00:12:00.260
the stories about the Wild West and the Old West
00:12:00.260 --> 00:12:02.190
and what we don't hear, it was legendary in Europe.
00:12:02.190 --> 00:12:05.170
And so they end up in Europe,
00:12:05.170 --> 00:12:07.000
and it's a real hit in Europe as well.
00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:08.290
Well, and in Europe, they feel like they're very advanced,
00:12:08.290 --> 00:12:11.130
they're sophisticated, that the Wild West,
00:12:11.130 --> 00:12:13.210
those guys are backwards.
00:12:13.210 --> 00:12:15.050
And so one of the fun things that happened while they
00:12:15.050 --> 00:12:17.040
were over in Europe was there was a bicycle race,
00:12:17.040 --> 00:12:20.270
but it wasn't just a normal bicycle race.
00:12:20.270 --> 00:12:23.000
- [David] So they actually set up a race
00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:24.280
between bicycles and between Bronco Charlie.
00:12:24.280 --> 00:12:27.220
The race is for six days.
00:12:27.220 --> 00:12:29.140
For six days, you're watching a bike
00:12:29.140 --> 00:12:32.130
and a horse go in circles!
00:12:32.130 --> 00:12:34.130
Now, I gotta say, there's not a horse
00:12:34.130 --> 00:12:35.280
that's gonna last six days on a gallop against a bicycle.
00:12:35.280 --> 00:12:38.260
So Bronco Charlie had to change horses 53 times
00:12:38.260 --> 00:12:42.030
during that race.
00:12:42.030 --> 00:12:43.150
He used 53 different horses, and he won the race
00:12:43.150 --> 00:12:46.060
with a two-mile advantage over the other guys.
00:12:46.060 --> 00:12:48.210
They were still two miles behind in laps
00:12:48.210 --> 00:12:50.220
when he crossed the finish line.
00:12:50.220 --> 00:12:52.070
So actually, the old technology really
00:12:52.070 --> 00:12:54.110
is pretty good against the new stuff.
00:12:54.110 --> 00:12:55.240
(dramatic, intense instrumental music)
00:12:55.240 --> 00:13:00.140
(fast-tempo western guitar music)
00:13:05.250 --> 00:13:09.290
After the Wild West show, Bronco Charlie retires
00:13:14.260 --> 00:13:17.030
from what he considered public life
00:13:17.030 --> 00:13:18.190
where'd he'd been in the public eye for so many years.
00:13:18.190 --> 00:13:20.250
And so he actually comes out,
00:13:20.250 --> 00:13:22.060
and he lives on a farm, on a ranch.
00:13:22.060 --> 00:13:24.090
He retires at this point; he's roughly 44 years old.
00:13:24.090 --> 00:13:27.090
He has a wife, they have three kids,
00:13:27.090 --> 00:13:29.150
and he's just living a normal life as a cowboy.
00:13:29.150 --> 00:13:32.180
Well, he goes to town on occasion,
00:13:32.180 --> 00:13:34.030
and actually he said one day he was going to town,
00:13:34.030 --> 00:13:36.000
and the Salvation Army Hall was there.
00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:38.060
And the Salvation Army was an organization largely trying
00:13:38.060 --> 00:13:41.070
to reach the souls of the lost, if you will.
00:13:41.070 --> 00:13:44.060
And he decided to go and sit in one of their halls,
00:13:44.060 --> 00:13:46.060
and he sat in the back, and people saw him there,
00:13:46.060 --> 00:13:49.010
and they actually accused him of being a sinner.
00:13:49.010 --> 00:13:51.180
And that didn't sit well with him, and he was very offended.
00:13:51.180 --> 00:13:54.010
And he got up, and he left.
00:13:54.010 --> 00:13:55.130
Well, he actually wrote in a letter,
00:13:55.130 --> 00:13:57.040
and he said that his son was sleeping.
00:13:57.040 --> 00:13:59.050
His son wakes up screaming, and he and his wife get up,
00:13:59.050 --> 00:14:01.250
and they run to see what's wrong with his son.
00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:04.020
And he says, I had a dream, Daddy,
00:14:04.020 --> 00:14:06.040
that the devil had you, and he burned you up.
00:14:06.040 --> 00:14:08.250
And he said that that really made him think.
00:14:08.250 --> 00:14:11.090
Very shortly after that, his son got sick,
00:14:11.090 --> 00:14:15.100
and it was described from Bronco Charlie
00:14:15.100 --> 00:14:18.010
as black diphtheria.
00:14:18.010 --> 00:14:19.170
And actually, the son wasn't the only one that got sick.
00:14:19.170 --> 00:14:21.260
All three of his kids got sick, and then his wife got sick.
00:14:21.260 --> 00:14:24.030
In fact, when they called for the doctor,
00:14:24.030 --> 00:14:25.230
the doctor recognizes this, it's like a plague,
00:14:25.230 --> 00:14:28.120
and so the doctor says you need to stay in your house.
00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:30.180
They put a quarantine on the house.
00:14:30.180 --> 00:14:31.280
Nobody in the family could leave.
00:14:31.280 --> 00:14:33.090
It wasn't long after that all three
00:14:33.090 --> 00:14:35.090
of Bronco Charlie's kids died.
00:14:35.090 --> 00:14:37.070
They all succumbed to black diphtheria.
00:14:37.070 --> 00:14:39.100
He was torn up, he was devastated.
00:14:39.100 --> 00:14:41.110
His wife was still sick.
00:14:41.110 --> 00:14:42.210
He thought he was losing his wife, too.
00:14:42.210 --> 00:14:44.080
He says he just cursed God, was so frustrated,
00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:47.090
couldn't understand why this was happening.
00:14:47.090 --> 00:14:49.020
Well, his wife gets better,
00:14:49.020 --> 00:14:50.250
the quarantine is finally lifted on his home,
00:14:50.250 --> 00:14:53.170
and so he decides he's gonna return
00:14:53.170 --> 00:14:55.210
to town and actually go to the bar.
00:14:55.210 --> 00:14:57.060
He's gonna try to drown out his sorrows with alcohol.
00:14:57.060 --> 00:14:59.240
And as he goes to the bar, he hears the Salvation Army Band
00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:03.000
playing, and he decides to stop and listen.
00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:05.160
He heard the songs they were playing,
00:15:05.160 --> 00:15:07.130
he heard people speaking, and he was so convicted,
00:15:07.130 --> 00:15:10.010
he decided, he said, I had to give my life to God.
00:15:10.010 --> 00:15:12.070
He says, so then and there, I gave my life to God,
00:15:12.070 --> 00:15:14.280
which is a really neat redemption testimony for him.
00:15:14.280 --> 00:15:18.230
Actually, he says that he was so passionate
00:15:18.230 --> 00:15:21.140
that he began traveling and telling people the gospel.
00:15:21.140 --> 00:15:24.120
Well, he was in a town, and he was sharing the gospel,
00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:26.250
and he said really, I didn't know what to say.
00:15:26.250 --> 00:15:28.280
I didn't know much, but I knew that Jesus had saved me,
00:15:28.280 --> 00:15:31.290
and I knew that all that called
00:15:31.290 --> 00:15:33.220
upon the name of the Lord could be saved.
00:15:33.220 --> 00:15:35.260
He said, but a pastor came to me and said Charlie,
00:15:35.260 --> 00:15:38.130
you might need to reconsider this whole preaching thing.
00:15:38.130 --> 00:15:41.100
He says, your life has been so rough,
00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:43.190
you might not be the best example to tell people the gospel
00:15:43.190 --> 00:15:46.200
because of how much you've been a bad guy,
00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:49.160
essentially is what the pastor says.
00:15:49.160 --> 00:15:51.030
Charlies says the zeal for the Lord,
00:15:51.030 --> 00:15:53.040
at that point, really, really died in me.
00:15:53.040 --> 00:15:55.110
I've never felt as passionate as I did then,
00:15:55.110 --> 00:15:57.090
which is really a sad thing for a pastor
00:15:57.090 --> 00:15:59.010
to say. Yeah, what a sad thing.
00:15:59.010 --> 00:16:00.140
Right?
00:16:00.140 --> 00:16:01.190
That's the whole gospel message, right,
00:16:01.190 --> 00:16:03.120
is that God can reach you and redeem you.
00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:05.160
Well, nonetheless, Charlie does come to the Lord,
00:16:05.160 --> 00:16:08.110
and so he and his wife were now living back on the farm.
00:16:08.110 --> 00:16:10.290
When he's 67 years old, World War I breaks out.
00:16:10.290 --> 00:16:13.220
Now, Charlie's been an adventure guy his whole life.
00:16:13.220 --> 00:16:17.020
He decides he's gonna go on this adventure of World War I.
00:16:17.020 --> 00:16:20.060
He goes and signs up at the US recruiting office,
00:16:20.060 --> 00:16:22.250
except, like a recruiting office
00:16:22.250 --> 00:16:24.170
would tell a 67-year-old today,
00:16:24.170 --> 00:16:26.110
they said sir, you're a little too old.
00:16:26.110 --> 00:16:29.070
Sorry, we're not gonna be able to let you enlist.
00:16:29.070 --> 00:16:32.010
Well, he was so disappointed and frustrated,
00:16:32.010 --> 00:16:34.010
one of his friends found out Canada actually took people
00:16:34.010 --> 00:16:36.270
up to the age of 44, and Charlie thought I
00:16:36.270 --> 00:16:39.090
can tell them I'm 44.
00:16:39.090 --> 00:16:40.210
He got on his horse, and he rode to Canada.
00:16:40.210 --> 00:16:43.020
He tells them he's 44 and he wants to fight.
00:16:43.020 --> 00:16:45.180
The Canadian military signed him up.
00:16:45.180 --> 00:16:47.270
He fought for two years in World War I
00:16:47.270 --> 00:16:50.000
in the Canadian military.
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:51.140
At one point, he says he finally told his commanding officer
00:16:51.140 --> 00:16:53.210
he actually was a bit older than 44.
00:16:53.210 --> 00:16:55.200
At that point, he's 69, he finally retires
00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:58.110
from World War I. And by the way,
00:16:58.110 --> 00:16:59.170
some of the guys who fought with him said he
00:16:59.170 --> 00:17:01.080
was so good at telling stories 'cause he
00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:03.090
would go back and tell them about the Wild West
00:17:03.090 --> 00:17:05.100
and tell them about the things he'd done.
00:17:05.100 --> 00:17:06.200
And they said he so entertained us,
00:17:06.200 --> 00:17:09.000
there they are on the front and fighting,
00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:10.180
he even showed us tricks he could do with a horse
00:17:10.180 --> 00:17:12.160
'cause they're still using horses in World War I.
00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:14.170
And he did, he entertained the troops
00:17:14.170 --> 00:17:15.290
by horse tricks, which you can imagine, right?
00:17:15.290 --> 00:17:18.160
This is a cowboy.
00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:19.230
Eight years old, he's already doing things
00:17:19.230 --> 00:17:21.030
on a horse, he's learning tricks,
00:17:21.030 --> 00:17:22.220
and the stories he has to know
00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:25.090
from the things he did with Buffalo Bill
00:17:25.090 --> 00:17:26.240
to the Pony Express, really some amazing things in his life.
00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:30.020
Well, when 69 finally hits, he retires,
00:17:30.020 --> 00:17:32.210
comes back home, and he does settle back down
00:17:32.210 --> 00:17:35.060
on his ranch, which one of the things,
00:17:35.060 --> 00:17:36.230
it's pretty cool he says, and we don't know exactly
00:17:36.230 --> 00:17:39.030
what year is this happened.
00:17:39.030 --> 00:17:40.180
But he says that God gave him and his wife two more kids,
00:17:40.180 --> 00:17:43.140
and God restored that to him,
00:17:43.140 --> 00:17:45.180
which is a really neat testimony.
00:17:45.180 --> 00:17:47.040
Now at this point, he's 69, but his story's not done.
00:17:47.040 --> 00:17:50.130
(mid-tempo, jazzy big band music)
00:17:50.130 --> 00:17:54.180
Hi, I'm down at the WallBuilders collection,
00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:05.270
going through our icons,
00:18:05.270 --> 00:18:07.050
doing some digging on Bronco Charlie.
00:18:07.050 --> 00:18:09.030
And actually, we have a couple of original artifacts
00:18:09.030 --> 00:18:11.180
from the Pony Express and Bronco Charlie himself.
00:18:11.180 --> 00:18:14.110
So what I have here, this is an original Bible
00:18:14.110 --> 00:18:17.050
from the Pony Express.
00:18:17.050 --> 00:18:18.050
It was given by the owners,
00:18:18.050 --> 00:18:20.000
it's got their names on the front of it,
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:21.140
to every single one of the riders.
00:18:21.140 --> 00:18:23.150
And what's awesome about this is they made it small
00:18:23.150 --> 00:18:25.240
and compact so that the riders
00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:27.100
could carry it with them so that they could refer to it
00:18:27.100 --> 00:18:29.140
while they're doing this dangerous job.
00:18:29.140 --> 00:18:31.210
It's a really cool, leather-bound, neat artifact.
00:18:31.210 --> 00:18:35.120
And additionally, over here,
00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:37.270
we've got the only surviving letter from Bronco Charlie.
00:18:37.270 --> 00:18:42.120
So this is actually from his later years.
00:18:42.120 --> 00:18:44.090
He's writing to a close friend of his
00:18:44.090 --> 00:18:46.030
about his conversion to Christianity.
00:18:46.030 --> 00:18:48.200
So it walks through how he wasn't saved
00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:51.180
and then he had this transformative experience,
00:18:51.180 --> 00:18:53.170
and he actually became something
00:18:53.170 --> 00:18:55.020
of a minister of the gospel, something almost
00:18:55.020 --> 00:18:57.090
like a cowboy pastor, even.
00:18:57.090 --> 00:18:59.010
And he writes to his friend, and he says,
00:18:59.010 --> 00:19:01.060
"I'm sorry to say a preacher who, mind you,
00:19:01.060 --> 00:19:03.200
"told me that I was unlearned,
00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:05.210
"and I went home and never preached again."
00:19:05.210 --> 00:19:09.030
Bronco Charlie was basically the biggest celebrity
00:19:09.030 --> 00:19:11.230
of the time back then, and to have a pastor come up
00:19:11.230 --> 00:19:14.270
and tell him you probably shouldn't be preaching
00:19:14.270 --> 00:19:17.010
because you know you didn't go to school
00:19:17.010 --> 00:19:18.130
for it is crazy to think about.
00:19:18.130 --> 00:19:20.110
But it's really neat and really captures a lot of his story.
00:19:20.110 --> 00:19:23.230
And over here, we've got some awesome
00:19:23.230 --> 00:19:26.120
and really colorful, really cool-looking comic books
00:19:26.120 --> 00:19:29.240
and kids' books about the Pony Express,
00:19:29.240 --> 00:19:32.170
and it shows how big of an impact this had
00:19:32.170 --> 00:19:34.280
on the American imagination.
00:19:34.280 --> 00:19:36.140
Every boy growing up wanted to be a Pony Express rider,
00:19:36.140 --> 00:19:38.250
so they started doing this, and it shows the Pony Express
00:19:38.250 --> 00:19:41.190
was such a big, impactful moment in American history,
00:19:41.190 --> 00:19:44.140
and Bronco Charlie one of the most famous riders.
00:19:44.140 --> 00:19:46.270
(dramatic, intense instrumental music)
00:19:46.270 --> 00:19:51.140
(fast-tempo western guitar music)
00:19:56.250 --> 00:20:00.290
We're standing in front of a Pony Express marker,
00:20:06.060 --> 00:20:07.270
and this is actually where a station stop used
00:20:07.270 --> 00:20:10.030
to be along the Pony Express route,
00:20:10.030 --> 00:20:11.140
right along the Oregon Trail.
00:20:11.140 --> 00:20:12.280
And the reason we're back by a Pony Express stop
00:20:12.280 --> 00:20:14.260
is because Bronco Charlie, after his amazing adventures
00:20:14.260 --> 00:20:17.130
throughout his life, when he's 80 years old,
00:20:17.130 --> 00:20:19.240
actually, in his autobiography,
00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:21.090
he said he was 81 years old, he decided he wanted
00:20:21.090 --> 00:20:23.160
to relive the glory days of the Pony Express.
00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:25.130
The mayor of New York found out he wants
00:20:25.130 --> 00:20:26.290
to go on this ride, and the mayor says, well,
00:20:26.290 --> 00:20:28.260
let me give you an official mail dispatch.
00:20:28.260 --> 00:20:30.230
And it was really just a letter,
00:20:30.230 --> 00:20:32.080
but it was a letter to the mayor of San Francisco.
00:20:32.080 --> 00:20:34.260
And so Bronco Charlie gets on his horse,
00:20:34.260 --> 00:20:36.270
he goes to New York City, he gets a letter from the mayor,
00:20:36.270 --> 00:20:39.230
and then he rides his horse from New York City all the way
00:20:39.230 --> 00:20:42.090
to San Francisco, California.
00:20:42.090 --> 00:20:44.000
This is an 81-year-old man, mind you.
00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:45.270
Now when the Pony Express was in action,
00:20:45.270 --> 00:20:47.280
they would go 10 or 15 miles,
00:20:47.280 --> 00:20:49.180
and they would swap out a horse.
00:20:49.180 --> 00:20:51.030
That's when the next station was.
00:20:51.030 --> 00:20:52.150
Well, this is not back in the 1860s anymore.
00:20:52.150 --> 00:20:56.090
This is now roughly 1930s, and so,
00:20:56.090 --> 00:20:59.110
to do this in the 1930s, he's not able
00:20:59.110 --> 00:21:01.150
to swap out his horse along the way.
00:21:01.150 --> 00:21:03.090
He's on one horse riding from New York all the way
00:21:03.090 --> 00:21:06.150
to California.
00:21:06.150 --> 00:21:07.230
It took him seven months to make this journey.
00:21:07.230 --> 00:21:10.080
But as he was coming to towns, people knew who he was.
00:21:10.080 --> 00:21:12.200
He was a famous guy, so, as he would come to town,
00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:15.110
the people would line the streets of the towns.
00:21:15.110 --> 00:21:17.050
They would cheer for him as he would come by.
00:21:17.050 --> 00:21:19.090
One reporter actually said by the time he made it
00:21:19.090 --> 00:21:21.080
to California, he had killed 27 rattlesnakes
00:21:21.080 --> 00:21:24.060
because, well, what do cowboys do?
00:21:24.060 --> 00:21:25.250
You carry your gun, you see a rattlesnake,
00:21:25.250 --> 00:21:27.240
and you just shoot it.
00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:29.100
He's total cowboy.
00:21:29.100 --> 00:21:30.240
Well, he makes this last ride seven months of a ride.
00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:34.080
He delivers this letter in San Francisco
00:21:34.080 --> 00:21:36.170
to great fanfare, people were celebrating,
00:21:36.170 --> 00:21:39.030
and now he's had this great adventure,
00:21:39.030 --> 00:21:41.000
so he can finally go back and settle down
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:43.050
and retire once again except World War II breaks out.
00:21:43.050 --> 00:21:47.090
And just like in World War I where he says
00:21:47.090 --> 00:21:49.030
I wanna be involved, I wanna fight,
00:21:49.030 --> 00:21:51.000
I want a piece of the action,
00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:52.090
now the recruiting office said sir,
00:21:52.090 --> 00:21:54.240
you're a little older than what we're looking for.
00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:57.190
But it was reported that he actually
00:21:57.190 --> 00:22:00.080
was recognized as being this famous guy,
00:22:00.080 --> 00:22:02.150
and he was asked to come be part of the fundraising efforts,
00:22:02.150 --> 00:22:06.050
some of these big rallies they would do to raise funds.
00:22:06.050 --> 00:22:08.150
It was reported not only did he show up,
00:22:08.150 --> 00:22:10.080
but he rode his horse to the event
00:22:10.080 --> 00:22:12.080
because what do cowboys do?
00:22:12.080 --> 00:22:13.130
They ride horses; that's just what you do.
00:22:13.130 --> 00:22:15.240
Well, that's when he's 92 years old.
00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:17.230
He actually was interviewed by a reporter
00:22:17.230 --> 00:22:19.150
when he was 100 years old.
00:22:19.150 --> 00:22:20.210
It was just days before his 101st birthday.
00:22:20.210 --> 00:22:23.060
And when he was interviewed,
00:22:23.060 --> 00:22:24.210
the reporter asked him a very interesting question.
00:22:24.210 --> 00:22:26.060
They said, Bronco Charlie, in all the things you've done,
00:22:26.060 --> 00:22:29.020
100 years of life, do you have any regret?
00:22:29.020 --> 00:22:32.030
And that's an interesting question
00:22:32.030 --> 00:22:33.190
to ask a cowboy with all the things he's done,
00:22:33.190 --> 00:22:36.130
on the Pony Express, being a part of Buffalo Bill,
00:22:36.130 --> 00:22:40.000
his kids that died, and then he's part of World War I,
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:43.080
and then he has this amazing ride again as an 81 year old,
00:22:43.080 --> 00:22:46.020
and then World War II, he's helping raise money.
00:22:46.020 --> 00:22:48.020
He's done a lot of stuff in his life.
00:22:48.020 --> 00:22:50.030
The reporter asked do you have any regrets.
00:22:50.030 --> 00:22:51.250
He answers and says the only regret I have right now
00:22:51.250 --> 00:22:54.170
is that I can't be with my brothers
00:22:54.170 --> 00:22:55.240
in Korea as they're fighting this war.
00:22:55.240 --> 00:22:57.200
Well, it was the middle of the Korean War,
00:22:57.200 --> 00:22:59.200
and this 100 year old's only regret
00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:01.230
is that he can't go fight war,
00:23:01.230 --> 00:23:03.160
which is an amazing thing to tell about him.
00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:05.050
Actually, he told the reporter, he said I don't know
00:23:05.050 --> 00:23:06.290
why they won't take me.
00:23:06.290 --> 00:23:08.140
I can still ride a horse now as good as I ever could.
00:23:08.140 --> 00:23:10.190
In fact, I can take a bullwhip at 28 feet.
00:23:10.190 --> 00:23:13.010
I can crack a cigarette in half.
00:23:13.010 --> 00:23:14.230
I could still be useful.
00:23:14.230 --> 00:23:16.200
Well, this is one of the last reports about Bronco Charlie.
00:23:16.200 --> 00:23:19.200
He died when he was 105 years old.
00:23:20.250 --> 00:23:23.090
Now 105 is amazing even for us today.
00:23:23.090 --> 00:23:26.190
But when he died, he was the last Pony Express rider
00:23:26.190 --> 00:23:29.140
that was still alive, so there was some celebration
00:23:29.140 --> 00:23:32.080
of his life at that moment.
00:23:32.080 --> 00:23:33.250
But even though today we can look back
00:23:33.250 --> 00:23:35.130
and see the amazing things he's done,
00:23:35.130 --> 00:23:37.070
he's a hidden figure in much of our history
00:23:37.070 --> 00:23:39.270
because today, most people don't know his story
00:23:39.270 --> 00:23:42.030
and haven't heard about him.
00:23:42.030 --> 00:23:43.040
Bronco Charlie certainly is one
00:23:43.040 --> 00:23:45.030
of the hidden heroes from America's history.
00:23:45.030 --> 00:23:47.150
(gentle, pleasant acoustic guitar music)
00:23:47.150 --> 00:23:52.070
(horse whinnies)
00:23:57.120 --> 00:23:58.220
(chickens clucking)
00:23:58.220 --> 00:24:01.240
Looking back on Bronco Charlie,
00:24:03.030 --> 00:24:04.220
I think the word that stand out
00:24:04.220 --> 00:24:06.090
to me more than anything else is expectations,
00:24:06.090 --> 00:24:08.140
the expectations that his father had for him,
00:24:08.140 --> 00:24:10.170
the expectations he had for himself.
00:24:10.170 --> 00:24:12.180
Father looks at the station master
00:24:12.180 --> 00:24:14.020
when there's nobody in the saddle
00:24:14.020 --> 00:24:15.000
and says can anybody ride?
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:16.060
Yeah, just take an 11 year old in there.
00:24:16.060 --> 00:24:17.260
Take off, kid.
00:24:17.260 --> 00:24:19.080
Expectation is he could do it.
00:24:19.080 --> 00:24:20.240
And then even as I look at him late in life,
00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:23.160
golly, I'm 80 years old.
00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:24.290
I can do this, I can cross the country.
00:24:24.290 --> 00:24:27.030
I'm 67 years old, I can fight in World War I.
00:24:27.030 --> 00:24:29.250
And I think that's a real good indication
00:24:29.250 --> 00:24:33.150
of maybe where the culture has gone today,
00:24:33.150 --> 00:24:35.220
is that we've changed what we expect we
00:24:35.220 --> 00:24:37.110
can do for ourselves or what others expect of us,
00:24:37.110 --> 00:24:40.200
and we just don't do as much as we used to.
00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:42.070
Well, even the idea of expectations,
00:24:42.070 --> 00:24:44.100
the word that I think of the most with him is grit.
00:24:44.100 --> 00:24:48.010
For him, he was embracing the way life came,
00:24:48.010 --> 00:24:51.100
but the way he kept going was
00:24:51.100 --> 00:24:52.190
because he had so much courage.
00:24:52.190 --> 00:24:54.020
The expectation was if you could, maybe you should, right?
00:24:54.020 --> 00:24:57.070
If you have the ability, if you can do something,
00:24:57.070 --> 00:25:00.080
well, you should go for it.
00:25:00.080 --> 00:25:01.150
Well, think about how different we'd be today
00:25:01.150 --> 00:25:02.210
if we blew off those expectations.
00:25:02.210 --> 00:25:04.260
Oh, you're only 13, you can't do that.
00:25:04.260 --> 00:25:06.150
Okay, then I won't even try.
00:25:06.150 --> 00:25:08.010
Or you're 67, you can't.
00:25:08.010 --> 00:25:09.080
All right, then I won't.
00:25:09.080 --> 00:25:10.230
We respond to what somebody else's expectations are rather
00:25:10.230 --> 00:25:13.100
than giving it the shot. Yeah.
00:25:13.100 --> 00:25:14.110
And that's that grit.
00:25:14.110 --> 00:25:15.250
Well, and even one of the cool things
00:25:15.250 --> 00:25:17.110
about his life is when he has this moment
00:25:17.110 --> 00:25:21.220
where he comes to God, and his story of faith is so unique.
00:25:21.220 --> 00:25:26.000
But we know from studying history it
00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:28.060
was not uncommon for guys back in that era
00:25:28.060 --> 00:25:30.280
to have grown up with the Bible, to be familiar with God.
00:25:30.280 --> 00:25:34.210
But it's so neat to see someone
00:25:34.210 --> 00:25:36.200
who is as rough and as tough and as gritty as he is
00:25:36.200 --> 00:25:40.250
to have this moment where he's drawn to God.
00:25:40.250 --> 00:25:42.240
And certainly recognize, then,
00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:44.200
if you're in a situation where your wife
00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:46.130
and your kids have some kind of plague,
00:25:46.130 --> 00:25:49.290
your house is under quarantine,
00:25:49.290 --> 00:25:51.210
you're gonna be questioning everything.
00:25:51.210 --> 00:25:54.070
When your kids die, it makes sense
00:25:54.070 --> 00:25:56.170
what he was feeling in life.
00:25:56.170 --> 00:25:58.090
It's just such a cool testimony
00:25:58.090 --> 00:25:59.290
to see God get a hold of his life
00:25:59.290 --> 00:26:02.200
and then he continues on with the life
00:26:02.200 --> 00:26:04.090
with the same grit, the same courage, the same fortitude,
00:26:04.090 --> 00:26:07.290
not this idea of the limitations culture puts on him.
00:26:07.290 --> 00:26:10.270
It really is such a unique life
00:26:10.270 --> 00:26:13.220
by someone who is the epitome of
00:26:13.220 --> 00:26:16.200
what we imagine from early America.
00:26:16.200 --> 00:26:18.180
There wasn't anything they couldn't do.
00:26:18.180 --> 00:26:20.290
They just went for it, and they made it happen.
00:26:20.290 --> 00:26:22.240
(dramatic, intense instrumental music)
00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:27.120
- [Announcer] We hope you're enjoying TBN's exclusive series
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America's Hidden History, thrilling stories of ordinary
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in extraordinary ways to shape our nation.
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America's Hidden History | Bronco Charlie

America's Hidden History | Bronco Charlie

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America's Hidden History | Bronco Charlie

America's Hidden History | Bronco Charlie

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