“A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver! The Lone Ranger! … With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early western United States! Nowhere in the pages of History can one find a greater champion of justice! Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear! From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!
“Come on, Silver! Let’s go, big fellow! Hi-yo Silver! Away!”
The Lone Ranger was conceived in the depths of the great depression. The first episode aired on Detroit radio station WXYZ and seven other Michigan affiliates on January 30, 1933.
After gaining steadily in popularity among radio listeners for a decade and a half, the first of a 221-episode Lone Ranger TV series was aired on September 15, 1949.
A film was made in 2013:
More Michigan connections:
Lone Ranger Fandom states that Jewell picked The William Tell Overture for the music because it was public domain, and no copyright fee was needed. The term “kemo sabe” that Tonto called the Lone Ranger came from Mullett Lake, up near Cheboygan. Jewell’s father-in-law ran a boys’ camp on Mullet Lake, named “Camp Ke-mo-sah-bee”. Following the success of “The Lone Ranger”, the camp changed its name in the mid-1930s to the “Lone Ranger Camp” until 1941.
Source: John Robinson, “ The Lone Ranger Term “Kemo Sabe” Came From This Michigan Location “, 99.1 WFMK Blog, April 28, 2021.
For more information see Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University and