Queen of the Cowtowns

October 3 – 5, 2021

Well, I did in fact get Bill to leave Colorado and cross the border into Kansas. We were headed for the home of Marshall Matt Dillion and Miss Kitty (you remember, from the old TV series Gunsmoke which ran for 20 seasons between 1955 and 1975).

Our home while in Dodge City was Gunsmoke RV Park, just outside of town. The sites were long, gravel sites with ample room on each side. Our site had two trees which proved to be problematic for satellite reception. Fortunately a member of the campground staff knew just how to position the RV to secure a signal.

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Dodge City – a brief history

Fort Dodge was established in 1865 on the Santa Fe Trail near the present site of the city, offering protection to wagon trains, the U.S. mail service and serving as a supply base for troops engaged in the Indian wars. Kiowa, Cheyenne and other plains tribes inhabited the area, and wild game was abundant including vast herds of buffalo.

Just six years later in 1871, five miles west of the Fort at the foot of a hill along the Trail, a ranger by the name of Henry L. Sutler constructed a three-room sod house. Sutler’s home, built to oversee his cattle ranch, became a frequent stopping place for buffalo hunters and traders. Dodge City was founded the next year, 1872, just five miles west of Fort Dodge on the edge of the military reservation, with the Sutler’s home as the first building. It quickly became a trade center for travelers and buffalo hunters.

By September of 1872, the shiny steel rails of the brand new Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad stretched into view – and a town was waiting. The railroad initiated tremendous growth for many years. Already, south of the tracks, hastily built frame buildings, and tents were housing two grocery and general merchandise stores, a dance hall, a restaurant, a barber shop, a blacksmith shop — even a saloon next to Sutler’s original sod house. The famous Front Street legend had begun. Dodge City was already setting a record for growth.

During those early years, Dodge City also acquired an infamous stamp of lawlessness and gun-slinging. There was no local law enforcement, and the military had no jurisdiction over the town. Buffalo hunters, railroad workers, drifters, and soldiers scrapped and fought, leading to the shootings where men died with their boots on. This created a hasty need for a local burial place – Boot Hill Cemetery.

Dodge City was the Buffalo capital for three years until mass slaughter destroyed the huge herds and left the prairie littered with decaying carcasses. An estimated 850,000 buffalo hides were shipped from Dodge City in the years 1872-1874. Farmers, during hard times, gathered the buffalo bones and sold them for six to eight dollars a ton. The bones were used in the manufacture of china and fertilizer. By 1875 the buffalo were gone as a source of revenue, but the Longhorn cattle of Texas drove the dollars into town. For ten more years, over five million head were driven up the Western Trail (earlier known as the Texas Trail) to Dodge City. Law and order came riding into town with such respectable officers as Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Bill Tilghman, and Charlie Bassett. Out of these personalities evolved the famous fictional character, Marshal Matt Dillon. The town these early men knew was laid out with two Front Streets, one on either side of the railroad tracks. The city passed an ordinance that guns could not be worn or carried north of the “deadline” which was the railroad tracks. The south side where “anything went” was wide open. In 1876 the population was 1,200, and nineteen businesses were licensed to sell liquor.

During those five years, the population varied according to the season, swelling during the summer, with the influx of cowboys, buyers, gamblers, and prostitutes. Business houses, dance halls, and saloons catered to the Texas trade.

Saloon keepers renamed their places, Alamo and Lone Star served brandies, liqueurs, and the latest mixed drinks. Ice usually was available so even beer could be served cold. Some saloons advertised anchovies and Russian caviar on their cold menus. Gambling ranged from a game of five cent “Chuck-aluck” to thousand dollar poker pots. Many saloons offered some type of musical entertainment – a piano player, a singer, or as in Chalk Beeson’s Long Branch, a five-piece orchestra. Beeson also organized and led the famous “Cowboy Band” which entertained all over the west at cattlemen’s conventions, concerts, dances and in Washington, D.C. at the inauguration of President Harrison.

Fort Dodge was closed in 1882 and by 1886, the cattle drives had ended. An illustrious period of history was over but the legend lives on in Dodge City’s history preservation of its romantic and internationally famous past.

Dodge City History

Boot Hill Museum

We first headed to the Boot Hill Museum built on the site of the Boot Hill Cemetery. The Museum includes a replica of Front Street and thousands of artifacts from the Beeson Museum. Unfortunately while we were there, no gunfights, Can-Can girls, or performances by Miss Kitty in the Long Branch Saloon occurred. Still, we were very impressed with the artifacts, recreations, and information.

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Boot Hill Cemetery

On the hill behind the museum buildings is the original site of Boot Hill Cemetery.

A tall black man called Tex (or Black Jack, or both) was standing in the street in front of a saloon, taking in the action, not hurting anybody or anything. Behind and above him, on top of the platform entrance to the watering hole, a gambler named Denver pulled his pistol and senselessly shot Tex in the head.

The killer got clean away. After the victim kicked off, the body lay in the street for a time. Finally, some folks took the corpse up to a nearby rise and buried Tex.

Tex was allegedly the first man killed in Dodge City who took up residence in Boot Hill. He wouldn’t be the last. In fact, reports say that another 15 victims of violence were buried in the unofficial cemetery in the next 18 months alone. They were buried with their boots on—hence the name of the not-so-hallowed ground.

Nobody was quite sure just how many bodies were interred there, let alone the identities of the deceased. But we know about a few of them.

Jack Wagner was a drunken cowboy disarmed by Marshal Ed Masterson in the spring of 1878. But Wagner got another gun and mortally wounded the lawman. One of the Mastersons—either Ed or brother Bat—managed to shoot Wagner, who died the next day. Wagner went to Boot Hill. Ed Masterson was buried in another local cemetery.

By that time, Boot Hill was notorious across the country. It was also prime real estate, just begging for development. But builders were skittish about the place and refused to pony up the cash for it. Ford County decided to build the area’s first public school on the site; it opened in 1880.

Most of the bodies—about 50 of them, only one woman among them—were moved to other local graveyards. Reports state that some of the remains were not wearing their boots; the footwear had been placed like pillows under the heads of the dead.

A museum now stands on the site, a one-block re-creation of what Dodge City’s main street looked like back in the 1870s. It includes a small section of tombstones—not real ones, just representations of what once was.

True West Magazine

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Dodge City Trail of Fame

From the museum we walked along the Dodge City Trail of Fame for a bit. The trail includes 80 locations of interest, historical storyboards, medallions, pole art banners, or sculptures around town. The medallions and sculptures highlight famous citizens or movie/television stars who portrayed Dodge City characters.

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We stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant on our way back to the RV. After two nights here we now have to “get out of Dodge” and head for the Lone Star State.