Dodge City was founded in 1872. It quickly became the world's largest shipping point for Longhorn cattle. Dodge City is known as one of "the wildest" of the early frontier towns. Law and order was established with the help of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and Bill Tilghman.
The cattle industry is still vital to the town's economy. As Dodge City grew, the "wild west" slowly disappeared. The cattle drives stopped in 1885, however, this period in Dodge City's history gave the town international fame. You can relive this period of history while visiting the Boot Hill Museum and Front Street in Dodge City, Kansas.
The exhibits throughout the museum imitate life in early Dodge City. Their collection contains over 200 original guns, a working print shop, an extensive collection of drug store items and many other exhibits. All artifacts on display are authentic. There are approximately 20,000 artifacts displayed.
Admission prices:
Summer: Adults $8.00, seniors $7.50, students $7.50, families $25.00, children age six and under is FREE
Off-season: Adults $7.00, seniors $6.50, students $6.50, families $20.00, children age six and under is FREE.
Activities include:
o The Long Branch Variety Show is the longest running theater production of its kind in Kansas. It is a 1880s styled show suitable for family audiences.
o Chuck wagon dinners: Nightly at 6:00, adults for $10.95, kids 6 and under $6.95 plus the sales tax in summer season only. Dinner and the variety show tickets are available. The chuck wagon dinner is served in the Occident Saloon.
o Stagecoach rides: The stage leaves approximately every 15 minutes for a Dodge City downtown tour in a real horse-drawn stagecoach. Hours are daily 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Cost is $5.00 per person in the summer season only.
Boot Hill Museum Exhibits:
o People of the Plains: This exhibit is housed in the original Boot Hill Museum building. It tells the story of the people who have lived on the plains featuring the Nomadic Indians of the Great Plains, The Railroad, The American Buffalo, The Era of the Cowboy, and Victorian Fashion. Children enjoy "Stan," the talking steer. Stan tells about the cattle drives from Texas. In this same building is an exhibit dedicated to Dodge City in the movies and on television.
o Beeson Gallery: Is a wide variety of displays about commercial businesses such as the Bank, Undertaker, Jail, Mueller's Boot Shop, Dr. McCarty's office and Drug Store, and Zimmerman's hardware. In this gallery there are dry goods and a print shop where you can have posters made the old fashioned way.
o Long Branch Saloon: The Long Branch Saloon was the most popular, refined meeting place of cattlemen. Walk through the doors of the Long Branch Saloon to experience an era of the past in Dodge City, Kansas.
o Guns That Won the West: Display of firearms used in the harsh reality of the brutal, lawless and expansive Wild West frontier.
o Hardesty House: Mayor A.B. Webster of Dodge City built this house in 1879 and later sold it to Richard and Margaret Hardesty after they married. This is a typical home of the 1880's with interior reflecting the middle-class lifestyle of Victorian Kansas.
o Boot Hill Cemetery: Is the final resting place of buffalo hunters, drifters and others who had no money and no family in Dodge City, Kansas area.
o Saratoga Saloon: This saloon offered billiards, keno, faro and other games for soldiers from Fort Dodge to drink and play without fear of attracting the brawling elements from other visitors in town. There were 16 saloons in Dodge City, however, the Saratoga and the Long Branch Saloons are two noted for being the most peaceful. I suppose you could say this is where the "good guys" gathered to drink, relax and play games.
o Santa Fe Trail Tracks: This site is certified by the National Parks Service and is located nine miles west of town on US Highway 50. The site preserves one of the finest remnants of wagon tracks in existence along the entire trail. An easily accessible walkway and interpretive signs allows visitors to experience the Trail first hand.
The Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, a project of Boot Hill Museum, was developed to preserve and honor the life of the Kansas cowboy. There are five inductees per year honored for their outstanding contributions to the western lifestyle.
In the old western days of Dodge City, Kansas, the Long Branch Saloon served milk, tea, lemonade, Sarsaparilla and all types of alcohol including champagne. Anheuser-Busch was the original beer served. They kept their drinks cold in the winter from ice that came from the river. In the summer, it was shipped out on the train from the mountains in Colorado. Today, you can enjoy drinks at the bar of the Long Branch Saloon and order ice cold Budweiser beer or a sarsaparilla bottled especially for the museum with their own label.
The old wild west was no place for the timid or the weak. The men who conquered the west were the outlaws, the lawman, the gambler, the buffalo hunter and the frontiersman. These were the men who earned reputations that inspired the era of legends that continues today for all to know and enjoy.
The firearms display in the Boot Hill Museum tells the story of the man who used the firearm in his quest for freedom, food, financial gain, protection and, of course, not always in the pursuit of something good. There are flint lock muskets and pistols, as well as a collection of commemorative guns donated to the museum by recent citizens of Dodge City, Kansas. Included also is a collection of Winchester firearms, and a rare Winchester advertisement board in mint condition.
Other exhibits about the Buffalo Hunter include many items he may have used such as Sharps Rifles and a rifle belonging to Prairie Dog Dave Morrow, a man known to have shot the white buffalo and later sold to Charles Rath for $1,000.00. You will find a case dedicated to the Gambler of the time that includes an authentic Keno goose from the Long Branch Saloon and many pocket pistols, derringers, and belly guns. Belly guns were the weapons of choice for the gambler.
You will fine on display numerous guns, authentic badges, and other times the Lawman used in Dodge City, Kansas. There is a gun on display believed to have belonged to Bill Tilghman and one that perhaps belonged to Bat Masterson.
The center of the firearms exhibit features real history, a firearm that belonged to Ben Thompson. His brother, Billy (not sure if this was Billy the Kid) used it to shoot the Sheriff of Ellsworth, Kansas. Just right around the corner of this display is a lawman and an outlaw in a 'Shoot-out' on Front Street. The diorama here depicts Dodge City in 1878 having train tracks in the background and looking as if they just stepped out of the Long Branch Saloon. There is a rifle here believed to have belonged to a member of the Dalton gang.
This article summarizes just a few of the Wild West attractions in Dodge City, Kansas. If you are fond of legends and real life stories of the Wild West era, Dodge City, Kansas is a fantastic place to add to your list of vacation ideas.
Source: Dodge City, Kansas Tourist Guide
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© 2007 Connie Limon All Rights Reserved
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