Most people think of Charlie Jones and Merlin Olsen for their contributions to football (Jones as a broadcaster, Olsen as a Hall of Fame defensive tackle). Indeed, NBC sometimes paired them for NFL broadcasts. But one other thing Charlie and Merlin share is a fascination for the Old West. In the mid-1980s, they researched the Old West and put together The American Frontier, a series of short videos for American public television. Some of these shorts reveal the truth about things we seem to know, such as the California Gold Rush and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Other programs delve into some of the people whose deeds are sometimes forgotten in today's world. Among that latter category was Horace Tabor (pictured), who had cornered the silver market in Colorado in the 1880s. Please note:
The American Frontier was originally produced as filler material to absorb the three to nine minutes between PBS shows. Technically, this means there was no particular order of the
