SYNOPSIS

Hollywood's version of the Wild West is an idealised, romantic intrepretation of the opening up of the lands of the western United States. But it is pure fiction. So what was frontier life really like?

Using techniques which reveal the hidden and invisible developed for Drain the Oceans, we see the wreck of a 19th Century steamboat yeilding the stuff that made America; the Little Bighorn battleground shedding light on the true nature of General Custer's defeat; and a crumbling Californian mining town with the forgotten contribution of a major group of those who opened up the west.

The real Wild West was a far more complex and diverse place than the fantasy promoted by the silver screen.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Wayne Derrick has made a great range of television programmes across the genres of true crime, history, adventure, religion, science and even UFOs! He’s produced specialist factual and current affairs programmes for the BBC Channel 4, Channel 5, PBS and Nat Geo Channel. His directing credits include “Being Neil Armstrong” and “Tribe”. 

Wayne has specialised in the history genre, bringing people and places from the past back to life for contemporary audiences, with exciting new revelations and perspectives, as he did in his programme ‘Mystery of the Self-Made Mummy’ for C5/Discovery Channel. He has also directed several other shows in the Drain the Ocean series including Last Wrecks of WW2, Pearl Harbor and the Myth of the Pacific Pirate Ship.