Cowboy Country - Set of 2 - DVDs

Rodeos and Roundups
Each year, more than 700 rodeos are held across the U.S. These competitions are deeply rooted in the workday reality of the cowboy—a reality that still exists on ranches throughout the American West today. We explore both worlds.

Dude Ranches
The American West is home to hundreds of places where city slickers can experience cowboy life, if only for a few days or so. Ranch living is a "hands-on" experience that draws hundreds of thousands of people of all ages every year, many of them from Europe and Asia. We'll visit them and see why this kind of vacation is so popular.

Modern-Day Cowboys
The cowboy ideal is a continuing presence in the American West. We showcase the people and the events that continue to nourish this ideal.

Hollywood Comes to Cowboy Country
Hollywood's portrayal of the American West may not always have been accurate, but it has certainly helped preserve interest in this colorful period of American history. Classic Western films are entwined with a time when bravery and purpose were the rule rather than the exception. We revisit some of the stars of this genre and the places where they made their celluloid magic, to examine why the Western movie has proved to be so enduring.

Cowboy Country Journeys
The American West is home to some of the world's most fantastic terrain. So by horseback, canoe, river raft, jeep and llama pack, we see how the pioneer spirit to explore and discover is still very much alive and well.

Rail Journeys
Nothing so fundamentally changed the American West as did the "iron horse." This new form of transportation created fortunes, hastened the end of ancient cultures and shaped a new world. So climb aboard as we travel through the past and the present on America's Western railroads.

Critters of Cowboy Country
Across the American West, few treasures are as precious as the wildlife that roams this vast area. But for many of these animals—the bison, the elk, the deer, the wild horses—the days since the wild, wild West have been perilous times. We visit them in their natural habitats and see what's being done to protect them for the future.