SENIORS VISIT DODGE CITY, KANSAS



Dodge City “Queen of the Cowtowns”

Dodge City, Kansas is “The Cowboy Capital” where the action used to be filled with cattlemen and a few outlaws and desperadoes.  At the Boot Hill Museum senior visitors will be transported back to the dusty streets of the 1870’s and 1880’s on Front Street.  It’s a great place to learn about the famous cowboys who roamed the area.

Guns That Won the West” features firearms from the Frontiersman who used the flintlock muskets and pistols, to the collection of commemorative guns donated to the museum by recent citizens of Dodge City. The guns of choice for the gambler of the time were pocket pistols, derringers, and belly guns, but you probably already knew that.  Any season of the year, a visit to the Old West in Dodge City will transport seniors to an exciting and interesting era.

Senior citizens, you can stroll down the boardwalk on Front Street and peer through the windows into a time gone by. You can plant your feet atop the original Boot Hill Cemetery located in the heart of modern day Dodge City where 28,000 folks hang out and call it home.

An Overview of Dodge City

This wildest of Wild West cities had a heyday of only a decade, from 1875 until 1886. Established in 1872 along with the Santa Fe Railroad, by 1875 the town of traders, trappers, and hunters had to find a new economic base – the buffalo had been exterminated. The era of the great cattle drives was already under way, and Dodge City became a den of iniquity where gambling, drinking, and general lawlessness were the norm.

Trail of Fame Draws Senior Travelers

Seniors can follow the  Trail of Fame Walking Tour  as it winds its way through the Dodge City historic district from the newly restored Santa Fe Depot, sundial park, and railroad caboose to the Visitors Center and Boot Hill Museum. Famous and historic western figures memorialized include Wyatt Earp, “Bat” Masterson, “Doc” Holliday, General George A. Custer, “Big Nose” Kate Elder to name just a few. Many of the main cast members of “Gunsmoke” including James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis, and Buck Taylor are also installed. These are just a few of the famous and infamous denizens of historic Dodge City.

The current centerpiece of the Dodge City Trail of Fame is the larger than life nine foot bronze statue, “Wyatt Earp, Famous Dodge City Lawman.”  I’ll be back with more on Dodge City…  Adios vaqueros! jeb


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