The Frontier and the freedom it afforded was the shaping influence of the 19th century American West, but life in the Modern West has been formed just as powerfully by the presence of a public lands system American visionaries established a century ago. This is why they did it.

Thank you to our sponsor Velvet Buck.

Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube, Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Pandora, Amazon.

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Check out more MeatEater's American History audio originals "The Long Hunters" and "Mountain Men"

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop MeatEater Merch