Monday 14th November – Moseying on into Dodge

After nearly one month on the road we had finally whittled down our propane supply so that the console told us we were empty.  This was new territory for us, we didn’t have a clue how much a propane fill would cost.  We were directed to a local supplier and tried to look like we knew what we were doing.  It only took a couple of minutes and… $34 later we had a full tank again.  Bargain!  We may have been overspending but propane cost was not going to break the bank.

We then drove to Dodge City Visitors centre (where else?) which had plentiful free parking and was next to ‘The Boot Hill Museum’ which was well and truly the highlight of Dodge.  I can’t say that I’m a massive fan of all things cowboy, but when in the West finding out so much of the history was fascinating.  The most important thing we learnt I think was WHY did Dodge become such a hotspot for gambling, cowboys and violence?!  It all came down to the buffalo who used to roam in the mid-west and the native Indians who relied on them for their lives.  As American man moved West, along with the railroads, they discovered how valuable buffalo hide, meat and horn was.  Hunters could earn a fortune and so this led to many young men heading to the area to make their fortune.  This led to the extinction of the buffalo on the plains, altering the lives of the Natives forever.  This did not, however, halt the influx of cowboys who progressed to driving Texas Longhorn cattle across the great plains as their way of income instead.  Dodge was at a central point on these cattle crossings (Coronado Crossing and the Sante Fe trail for example).  Naturally the town grew as a result of the numerous young men with lots of money who needed entertainment – in the form of gambling, alcohol and women – which inevitably led to drink-fuelled crime and violence.  We saw the original Fort Dodge Jail, Boot Hill Cemetery including stories about the demise of some infamous cowboys and a recreated row of shops and saloons:

There were interesting displays teaching us about the famous lawmen who were brought in to deal with the violence, like Wyatt Earp and the Masterson brothers:

We almost had the place to ourselves as it was low season, but on the down-side this meant that there was less of an atmosphere and the museum didn’t put on the gun fights recreations they do in the summertime.  We felt that we had to at least enjoy a cold beer in a saloon whilst playing some cards

....which is where I saw my favourite sign of the day ‘Please don’t shoot the piano player… I’m doing the best I can!’  We spent three hours at the museum before dragging ourselves away, we had a great time.

The VC had advised us to check out Fort Dodge which was a short drive out of town.  This was a historically important area but we discovered that the area now contains retirement accommodation for veterans and that’s about it!  It didn’t feel like a tourist thing to do – wander around and look at old peoples’ homes!

So we returned to Dodge to do a walking tour of the City Centre, seeing more points of interest, statues and plaques to famous Dodge residents.

Doc Holliday (still gambling after all these years)

El Capitan - in honour of the Texas Longhorn

What was surprising was how fleetingly the City existed as a wild frontier, it was only ‘Queen of the Cow Towns’ between 1878 and 1885 at the most.  After this, the trade died down and it became just like any other mid-west town.  A relatively short amount of time for so many stories and cowboy legends to have been bred from this area.