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Episode 1 - "The Lure of Gold"
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Synopsis:
Wild West Country is a history documentary series on the Old West, Gold Rush history of California's rugged Southern Sierra region. The first of six 90-minute episodes of Wild West Country, "The Lure of Gold," is now available on DVD.
This first episode introduces the Southern Sierras from the point of view of modern travelers coming to the Kern River Valley over Walker Pass from the Mojave Desert. It begins a backward journey in time where we meet two of the earliest pioneering families of the 1860's and 70's, back to the day in 1834 when local Native Americans first encountered the "white men" of the Joseph Walker Expedition. That moment
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marked the beginning of the decline of the culture of the Native Americans who had lived here for millennia.
The story then moves forward in time to the 1850's when gold brought thousands to the region, and ends with the discovery of a gold mine which let to the establishment of the mining camp of Whiskey Flat. It later became the town of Kernville . Each subsequent episode will move forward in time, tracing the growth and development of the region, decade by decade, until the 1950's, when the creation of Lake Isabella caused the town of "Old Kernville" to be moved up the valley to its present day site where it thrives to this day.
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