Wild West Podcast
Welcome to the Wild West podcast, where fact and legend merge. We present the true accounts of individuals who settled in towns built out of hunger for money, regulated by fast guns, who walked on both sides of the law, patrolling, investing in, and regulating the brothels, saloons, and gambling houses. These are stories of the men who made the history of the Old West come alive - bringing with them the birth of legends, brought to order by a six-gun and laid to rest with their boots on. Join us as we take you back in history to the legends of the Wild West. You can support our show by subscribing to Exclusive access to premium content at Wild West Podcast + https://www.buzzsprout.com/64094/subscribe or just buy us a cup of coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/wildwestpodcast
Wild West Podcast
Secrets Beneath the Limestone: The Haunted Legacy of Dodge City’s Home of Stone
A limestone mansion built to defy the prairie became a vessel for sorrow—and then a sanctuary. We take you inside Dodge City’s Home of Stone, from John Mueller’s audacious rise and the black walnut staircase that flaunted prosperity, to the winter they called the White Death that buried a cattle empire under ice. Amid ruin, another story took hold: Caroline’s quiet grief, a nursery that never warmed, a rocking chair that swayed without wind, and a whisper that sounded like a child who didn’t get to grow up.
When the Schmidts moved in, the house learned new rhythms—electric light, hot bread, children’s laughter—until a visiting boy tumbled down the staircase and said another child pushed him. Instead of fleeing, Elizabeth Schmidt opened the town’s memory, reading county ledgers and finding the Mueller graves that numbers can’t account for. Elma saw the silent boy in the wavering lamplight, pointing to the nursery, to his heart, and out across the endless plains—a pantomime of loss that didn’t need words.
The answer wasn’t force; it was recognition. In the basement, a trunk with faded initials held a small carved wooden horse, smooth from a child’s hands. Placed on the parlor mantel—the warm center of the home—the toy changed the house’s weather. The chill lifted. Doors stilled. What remained felt like a guardian more than a ghost. Across decades, the Home of Stone became a living museum of Dodge City’s true legacy: not just gun smoke and cattle drives, but the durable courage of pioneer mothers and the quiet rituals that heal places.
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