Wyoming PBS and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West have launched a new partnership aimed at sharing authentic stories of the American West through a combination of history, storytelling, and visual media. Their inaugural production, From the Center of the West: A Conversation with Authors Dr. Paul Hutton and Peter Cozzens, features an in-depth discussion with two prominent historians about their recently published books and is now available on the Wyoming PBS YouTube channel.
The 30-minute program explores the realities and myths of the American frontier, highlighting topics such as Native American history, the cultural legacy of Buffalo Bill, and the forces of greed, hope, and reinvention that shaped the West. Hutton, author of The Undiscovered Country, covers 150 years across seven generations of Western settlers, while Cozzens, in Deadwood, focuses on the 1870s, examining the legends and truths of the famed frontier town.
The broadcast marks the first step in a collaborative effort between Wyoming PBS and the Center of the West, designed to bring the history, artifacts, and stories of the region to a broader audience. The forthcoming series, tentatively titled From the Center of the West, will highlight the Center’s five museums—the Buffalo Bill Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, Plains Indian Museum, and Cody Firearms Museum—showcasing the people, objects, and ideas that define Wyoming’s unique role in Western history.
The program will air on Wyoming PBS at 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 15, 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 18, and 7 p.m. on Dec. 30.
Wyoming PBS, a nonprofit public broadcasting organization, focuses on educational, informative, and inspiring programming for the state, while the Buffalo Bill Center of the West preserves and shares the legacy of the American West through its extensive museum collections and research initiatives. The partnership between the two organizations represents a new platform for exploring Western history in ways that connect scholarship, storytelling, and public engagement.