On Thursday, July 3 we were scheduled to take the Dodge City Trolley Tour. We got there a little early so I could go into the Visitor Center and walk around a bit. I did find a couple of the statutes of old time Dodge City Stars but most of them have been removed as they are renovating some of Front Street. I got a picture of James Arness and Doc Holliday. There were only two couples on the tour -- us and one other couple. We had a great guide; been doing this a number of years. He took us all around the city; we listened to a tape of the city and the guide interrupted occasionally to tell us a story of the topic.
We started off from the Visitor Center ~~
Dodge City is the cowboy capital of the world! Dodge City started from a dusty trail town to a bustling cattle and agricultural capital. Before there was a town, the Santa Fe Trail was here. 50 years before Dodge City was founded in 1872, traders and wagons rumbled along where the town is now. Thousands of wagons traveled from Missouri to Santa Fe, an outpost in what was then Mexico, where traders exchanged merchandise for silver and gold.
Fort Dodge was established in 1865 to protect wagon trains on the trail from attacks by Plains Indians tribes and to furnish supplies to the soldiers who were fighting the Indians wars on the plains. The abundance of buffalo here lured the hunters, who swarmed over the area killing buffalo to see for a reasonable price. A successful day's hunt might reward the hunter with $100. That would be over $3,000 by today's standards.
As word spread about the excellent hunting and about the railroad that would soon reach western Kansas, entrepreneurs everywhere were eager to start a business near the new railroad tracks and Fort Dodge, to supply hunters with necessities for their trade. The first train arrived in September 1872. Already, buffalo hides were stacked high waiting to be shipped back east. Soon after the arrival of the railroad, many businesses moved north of the tracks to Front Street.
Front Street is at the base of Boot Hill, a large hill and a convenient spot for burials. The first burial on Boot Hill was in September 1872. According to George Hoover, "He was planted, as they call it." From 1872 to 1878 Dodge City had no proper cemetery so if you had the money or were considered to be someone of importance, you were buried at Fort Dodge. However, if you were like this poor soul, you were probably a cowboy or buffalo hunter who had a bit of money in his pocket and wanted to do some gambling and drinking. He likely got into a fight over a card game or a saloon girl and got shot. The saloon keepers carried him to the top of the hill and buried him in a shallow grave. Since he didn't die in the comfort of his bed of natural causes, he could have been buried with his boots on. It became known as Boot Hill, and it forever after carried that name. During the winter of 1872 and spring of 1873, no less than 15 men were killed in Dodge City and planted, as they call it, on "Boot Hill."
Only one woman is believed to have been buried here -- Alice Chambers, a dance hall girl who died in May of 1878, and was the last person buried on Boot Hill. With the town booming because of the Texas cattle trade, the land covered with these unmarked graves became too valuable as merely a burial ground for this "motley crew of sinners." Early in 1879, the bodies were removed and reburied in Dodge City's first official cemetery to make way for a new school building.
As we rode through the town, our guide pointed out different murals that were painted to depict the history of Dodge City. This mural shows the stagecoach riding through the countryside.
The wind turbine and barrel was installed by Studebaker as a tribute to the company.
Dodge City was known for its cattle drives. A Texas trail drive was a serious operation. As many as 3,000 cattle were collected on south Texas and handed over to a trail boss for delivery at the railhead 1,500 miles or more away. 10 to 12 trail hands tended the herd, along with a cook and also a wrangler to care for the remuda -- a herd of 100 or more saddle horses. The cowboys spent 14 to 16 hours a day in the saddle -- for $30 a month plus their board. They "punched" the cattle along the trail some 10-12 miles a day. Clouds of dust were visible for miles on the Kansas prairie and the sound of the cattle hooves was heard hours before the longhorn appeared.
When a longhorn steer established itself as the leader of the herd, drovers often shipped the steer back home for us on later cattle drives. The monument on this site is "El Capitan," a tribute to those longhorn cattle leaders.
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| El Capitan |
Each year more and more cattle were driven to Dodge City, earning the title "Queen of the Cowtowns." Dodge City's era was the longest of any of the Cowtowns.
The cattle boom abruptly ended in 1885 when the quarantine line moved west of Dodge City, and cattle drives no longer could reach here. Adding to the economic disaster were blizzards the next winter that devastated local herds and left the region's cattle industry crippled. Not until the 1900s did the cattle trade regain momentum. It did not reach its former height until the 1960s.
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| Sacred Heart Cathedral |
Sacred Heart Cathedral was constructed in 1915 and listed as a National Historic Landmark. It replaced an 1882 Catholic Church on this site. The church's architectural features are reminiscent of a Spanish Mission. The Cathedral is one of many buildings in Dodge City reflecting a strong Spanish influence. Inside the cathedral is a 26-foot oil-on-canvas mural behind the alter portraying the crucifixion of Christ. The scene is unique in that a character in the foreground has facial features of an American Indian, the flora is of the prairie and the horse is a Pinto.
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| The Stone House |
The Home of Stone is one of the oldest homes in Dodge City. The first owner, John Mueller, a boot maker and rancher, hired a German stonemason to build the house in 1881. Constructed of native limestone, cut and quarried 12 miles north of Dodge City, the stones are two feet thick and set with limestone mortar.
Each time Mueller shipped cattle east by railroad, the rail cars returned with Victorian furniture for his house. However, Mueller's residence in Dodge was short-lived. In 1885, fire on Front Street destroyed his boot shop and the following winter's blizzard devastated Mueller's livestock herd, so he sold out and moved to St. Louis in 1886. Only two families ever lived in the house, the Mueller's and the Schmidt's. The Schmidts bought the house in 1890 for $5,000. By today's standards that would be around $400,000. Two of the Schmidt children, Elma and Heinrich, never married. They lived in the house until 1960 at which time they sold the house and its furniture to Ford County to be used as a museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites.
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| St. Cornelius Episcopal Church |
St. Cornelius Episcopal Church was built in 1898 with donated labor and stone from a saloon owner's demolished ice house. The architectural design is Norm Gothic, and the church still retains the original stained glass windows. It is the oldest church building in use in the city.
As the spring cattle trade began in 1882, Dodge City shows signs of civilization. The Santa Fe Railroad discussed plans for a new depot, residents wanted graded roads and new homes were built to accommodate residents. Also, much to the horror of gamblers, saloonkeepers, and former buffalo hunters, a temperance society was organized in the Union Church on Gospel Hill.
Intoxicating liquor, the cause of most gunfire in Dodge City since its founding in 1872, was banned in Kansas in 1880. The only exceptions being for "medicinal, scientific, and mechanical purposes." Dodge City saloons ignored the ban until the fall of 1885 when the Attorney General visited to initiate lawsuits against the open saloons.
Most saloons made magical transformations into drug stores where one could purchase liquor for medicinal purposes. Some business owners just painted over the sign and changed "saloon" to "restaurant." As the Dodge City Globe observed, "From the number of saloons that are being turned into restaurants, it would appear like the eating business was pretty good in this city." From all appearances, Front Street businesses now specialized in "Methodist cocktails and Baptist Lemonades." However, for over 20 years more liquor and beer were served in private clubs and basements under Front Street.
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| Santa Fe Depot |
Dodge City was the last significant rest stop for westbound passengers; the country to the west was largely undeveloped. It's railyards, roundhouse, and shops led the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) Railroad to select Dodge City as the location to build a large structure that included a passenger depot. Santa Fe's Western Division railroad offices, baggage and freight rooms, and a hotel and restaurant run by Fred Harvey Co. At its peak, the hotel included 43 rooms, 10 with private baths, and five sleeping rooms on the 3rd floor. During this period, rooms generally rented from $1.50 to $7 a day. Construction began on the original station in 1897 and opened in 1898.
The Harvey House chain of restaurants served meals on china and required gentlemen customers to wear coats. Harvey Houses dotted the rail sides at 125 mile intervals along the Santa Fe Railroad, from Kansas to California, because at each interval steam engines were serviced. The restaurants eventually closed with the advent of railroad dining cars.
Harvey initially employed an all-male staff. However, they tended to be rowdy, argumentative, and unrefined, leading Harvey to release his male wait staff in the early 1880s and replace them with the Harvey Girls. To be a Harvey Girl, the young woman had to be between 18 and 30, single, attractive, friendly, intelligent, and an adept conversationalist. In exchange for employment, girls had to sign a contract agreeing not to marry during their contract. The girls were paid $17.50 plus tips per month and provided uniforms, room and board.
Next to the Depot two huge sundials were constructed. The one on the right is for Mountain Time and the one on the left is for Central Time. In 1897, the time of their construction, the line separating the two time zones ran between the sundials. Since then, the Mountain Time zone line has moved some 100 miles to the west. The problem we have with these today is we don't know how to reset them for daylight savings time.
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| Central Time Sundial |
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| Mountain Time Sundial |
From the beginning of the 20th century until 1955, a small ethnic community grew on the eastern outskirts of Dodge City. Immigrants from Mexico came seeking a better life; most found employment with the railroad. The tiny city within a city was called the "Mexican Village." Located just south of the tracks and east of the Depot, it was just a little, tiny city. Mexican Village had a dance hall, pool hall, a grocery store, a church, and a school.
The Village began its decline during WWII when the Santa Fe started the transition from steam to diesel locomotives -- technology that required less maintenance and fewer workers. The company further displaced families by erecting a large fuel tank in the middle of the Village. The population continued to drop as families moved north of the railroad tracks. Finally, in August 1955, the site was condemned. Citing poor living conditions, sanitation, and the need for industrial expansion, the ATSF sent notices to vacate. Some houses were moved north of the tracks near the new church; others were demolished.
For more than five decades, several generations called the Village home. At its peak, the community's population reached over 300. Dodge City has since grown to encompass the site where the Village stood but its saga still remains an important part of local history and heritage.
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| 100th Meridian Marker |
The 100th degree of longitude long served as a boundary between nations: first between France and Spain; later as the boundary for the Louisiana Purchase between Spain and the U.S.; and finally between Mexico and the U.S. after 1821. Located in Dodge City, the meridian symbolizes the physical demarcation where the east ended and the west began. The 100th Meridian also was considered a climate change line. Where east of the line was more humid and west of the line was thought to be arid.
"The toughest town on the map" needed more men to help keep the peace, and to prevent vigilante killings seen during the buffalo hunting days. One of the most famous was Wyatt Earp. After arriving from Wichita, Kansas, Wyatt first served as Deputy Marshall, under Marshal Larry Deger.
According to the Dodge City Times in 1877, Wyatt Earp "had a quiet way of taking the most desperate characters into custody, which invariably gave one the impression that the city was able to enforce her mandates and preserve her dignity. It wasn't considered policy to draw a gun on Wyatt, unless you got the drop, and meant to burn powder, without any preliminary talk."
Earp was a seasonal lawman, and for three years, he came and went from Dodge City. In 1879, he left for New Mexico. By 1880, most accounts record Earp in Tombstone, Arizona. After Wyatt left Tombstone, he traveled from boom town to boom town on the frontier working as a gambler, a prospector, a Wells Fargo investigator, and occasionally a promoter of horse races. He died in California on January 13, 1929, at the age of 81.
Bat Masterson's life story also embodied all the colorful tales of the Old West. He boasted careers as a buffalo hunter, scout for the army, professional gambler, frontier peace officer, sportsman, and promoter. Masterson was one of Dodge City's first citizens. Bat, his brother Ed, and a friend, Henry Raymond, hunted buffalo south of the early Dodge City settlement. The Masterson brothers initially arrived in the area in 1872 as subcontractors, to build part of the right-of-way, for the Santa Fe Railroad between Fort Dodge and present-day Dodge City.
Bat Masterson was appointed undersheriff of Ford County in 1877, and then served briefly as a special policeman on the Dodge City police force. Later that year, he won the office of Ford County Sheriff.
Meanwhile, his brother Ed, was appointed city marshal. His tenure would be short. While trying to stop a fight between two drunken cowboys, Marshal Masterson was killed in 1878 at a saloon south of the railroad tracks and was buried at Fort Dodge. A bullet took Ed from office, politics swept Bat out. In early 1880 Bat was defeated by George Hinkle, a bartender, saloonkeeper, property owner, and a conservative member of the "anti-gang" group. Hinkle and his group opposed open gambling and prostitution, Bat did not.
After Bat's defeat, he headed for the gold fields of Colorado, but moved in and out of Dodge City for several years. true to his jack-of-all-trades image, he later moved to New York and became a sportswriter with the New York Morning Telegraph. Bat Masterson died at his desk on October 25, 1921.
The Trolley driver took us out of town toward the feedlots, stopping at this street sign. It was the road farmers used to bring their butter & eggs to town. The county was upgrading their 911 system, and renamed the county road. They renamed the road Lariat. the locals became so upset about the change that eventually the county relented and installed a proper street sign with the name "Butter & Egg Road." Farther down the road, a road sign actually reads "Lariat."
Our Trolley driver stopped by this farm to point out the White Buffalo, the only one around the area. Driving on, we head to the feedlots. Boy did they ever smell awful. I could not imagine working at one of these places.
Owned by three companies and covering an area of approximately 200 acres, this feedlot area can hold up to 45,000 head of cattle. There are 70 large feedlots within 100 miles of Dodge City, often feeding as many as 1.3 million cattle. Approximately 4 million head of cattle a year spend time in this region's feedlots. The cattle arrive here from all over the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The cattle enter the feedlots at between 600 to 700 pounds. They are fed from between 100 to 150 days until they reach a market weight of about 1,000 to 1,200 pounds before being processed. Many ranchers no longer brand their cattle because the hides are very valuable. Instead, ear tags identify the cattle's owner. Some tags contain electronic information regarding each animal, ensuring that they are fed the right nutrients to produce the type of meat and taste most demanded by consumers.
Cattle drink nearly eight gallons of water a day, and are most often fed a mixture of corn, chopped alfalfa, hay, molasses, protein pellets with added minerals and vitamins, and by-products like cottonseed and wheat meal.
Because of the unique digestive system of cattle, feeders can use a variety of products to produce beef. Feedlots located near bakeries utilize discarded and old cake mixes. Feed yards near potato chip factories utilize outdated potato chips; paper and all. One of the local elevators makes wallpaper glue out of milo. One of the local feed yards uses this throwaway for a protein supplement. Cattle can, and have often been, fed potatoes, beets, crackers, and by-products from the production of alcohol, and even jelly beans. After the animals are shipped out, feedlot owners clean the cattle pens. The manure is repurposed as fertilizer on croplands.
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| Commanding Officers Quarters |
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| Pershing Barracks, original hospital 1867 |
As we headed back into town following the old Santa Fe Trail, we pass Cargill Corporation, the owner of one of the largest meat processing plants in the nation. It employs about 2,700 people and processes about 6,000 head a day. Cargill purchases about $1 billion a year in livestock. After the company processes the cattle, they vacuum seal beef portions to sell throughout the world. Cargill exports an estimated 15% of its products. They are an industry leader in food safety.
National Beef is another meat processing plant. They employ about 3,000 people and process about 6,000 head a day. The plant was originally owned by three men under the name Hy-Plains Dressed Beef. Then in 1992, the plant was purchased by National Beef and Farmland Industries. It was the first plant owned by National Beef. 30,000 boxes of beef are sent from the plant each day to 30 different countries as well as the United States.
The large grain elevators are sometimes called "the cathedral of the plains," were the first agri-businesses established in western Kansas. The forerunners of present-day elevators were storage units owned by railroad companies and later owned by individuals. Today most grain elevators are farmer cooperative owned. They tower over the western Kansas landscape holding millions of bushels of grain waiting to be shipped to destinations all over the world or used regionally by feedlots.
As we traveled north to Dodge City, we saw many of these huge grain elevators in all the little cities we went through.
Dodge City, in 1885, was on a sure road to prosperity. Then the 1885 quarantine law, the blizzard of 1886, and the disappearance of open range financially ruined local stockmen. The extensive freight business conducted out of Dodge City into Indian Territory was lost to the new railroad's building to the south. Wheat prices dropped to 40¢ a bushel and land was as low as 50¢ an acre. Robert Wright, one of the area's first settlers, said, "Property values dropped to 5¢ to 10¢ on the dollar, and you can buy land for a song and sing it to yourself."
It was in one fell swoop in 1886; fire, ice and a lingering depression dissolved Dodge City's dreams of extravagant plans for growth. Dodge City soon lost its lusty habits and its population of rough frontiersmen, gunmen, gamblers, and western characters. Not until the agricultural boom of the early 1900s did the local economy rebound.
Today, Dodge City is proud of its western heritage. Their heroes have grown to be larger than life. Their history involved not only the facts, but legends that grew up around them. As the 19th century ended, the tendency of the western pioneers to brag a bit, furnished an abundance of material for dime novels, nickelodeons, Hollywood films, and later, radio and television. The history of the west has been a mother lode of entertainment riches. Dodge City is synonymous with the west.
Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson have evolved into world famous gunfighters who helped to bring law and order to their western community. Their lives are the basis for the modern-day hero, Marshal Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke's fictional composite of Dodge City's real characters. Indelibly impressed on the history of the frontier spirit, Dodge City is part of a vast folkloric literature of frontier conflict -- the simple duel between right and wrong; white hat and black hat.
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| Jim with John Henry "Doc" Holliday |
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| Jim with James Arness as Marshall Matt Dillon of "Gunsmoke" |
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