Before Dodge City became known as the "Queen of the Cowtowns", it was first known as the buffalo hunting capital of the world. The city was founded in 1872 but within just three years, the buffalo herds were all but gone. Cattle driving quickly took over as the city's primary source of income, as northern demand for meat was very high and railroad companies in Kansas also offered discount shipping rates. From here, the railroads shipped cattle to meat packing houses to the north and the east. At the height of the industry, 500,000 cattle passed through Dodge City in one year. Cattle driving only lasted for ten years. Texas longhorns carried a disease—called "tick fever," "Texas fever," or "splenic fever"—that decimated many local cattle herds. As a result, the Kansas Legislature established a quarantine line that limited where Texas cattle could go. Fortunately for Dodge City, the line did not prevent cattle from going there but other cowtowns, as they were known, were not so lucky. In 1885, under pressure to quarantine the whole state, the governor did just that, thereby ending the cattle trade in Dodge City. It was later discovered that ticks caused the disease and could have easily been dealt with. However, by that point many areas Kansas and Texas had been fenced off, making it difficult for the cattle trails to be reestablished.

The El Capitan sculpture was created in 1980 by Jasper D’Ambrosi.

Situated along Wyatt Earp Boulevard is this large sculpture that commemorates the Texas longhorns that led cattle north from Texas to Dodge City. The steer that guided the large herds was called El Capitan and it would often make multiple trips. Artist Jasper D'Ambrosi, who was from Tempe, Arizona, created the sculpture in 1980.

El Capitan Statue

This tour makes a short loop through the heart of Dodge City starting at the Boot Hill Museum and statue of Doc Holiday. The tour blends local landmarks like the Carnegie Art Center and Sacred Heart Cathedral with markers, monuments, and landmarks related to the history of the American West such as the city's statue of Wyatt Earp.

The museum tries to offer something for everyone, from popular "Old West" displays about guns and saloon culture to exhibits about family life, agriculture, business, religion, and life for women and children. There are also a handful of exhibits that detail the history of some Native American tribes and individuals. For those who truly wish to study history, the museum's research library is open to the public and includes over 60,000 objects, photographs, and documents, most of which come from the first settlers and residents of Dodge City.

A combination living history and local history museum, this complex features a number of historic and recreated buildings (including a Santa Fe Railroad Depot, a one-room schoolhouse, and a carriage/Blacksmith's shop), Old West tours and performances, tourist attractions, and museum exhibits. The museum thrills visitors with recreations of the sensationalized gunfights that were featured in the fictional accounts of the era's "dime novels," but also offers exhibits and events that offer a more authentic, if less dramatic, view of life for residents of the Kansas frontier. The museum was founded in 1964.See the Smithsonian traveling exhibition "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America" and local exhibit "Respectfully, WB Masterson" at the Boot Hill Museum March 25 through May 7, 2023. For exhibition and event details, contact the Boot Hill Museum directly. Visit humanitieskansas.org for overview of the Kansas tour.

Boot Hill Museum

Doc Holliday was born in Griffin, Georgia on August 14, 1851. His father, Henry, who fought in the Mexican-American and Civil Wars, taught Doc how to shoot. Sadly, Doc's mother died of tuberculosis in 1866, the same disease that would ultimately claim his life as well. He attended college in Philadelphia where he studied the classics and earned a degree in dental surgery in 1872. He started to work in a practice in Atlanta, but soon he began to show symptoms of tuberculosis. Eventually, his coughing attacks forced him to stop working as a dentist and his doctors recommended he move out West. Doc started to gamble to make a living and quickly became very good at it. Perhaps because he knew that he likely did not have very long life ahead of him, Doc had a no-nonsense temperament—a trait that sometimes got him into trouble. It is believed he got into a few confrontations here in Dodge City but there are no records of him killing anyone. Doc met Wyatt Earp in 1877. Earp was searching for outlaws who had robbed a railroad construction camp in Kansas. They happened to meet at a saloon in Dodge City and Doc told Earp that he heard the outlaws were going to back to Kansas. With this information, they were indeed captured, and the two men became friends. In 1881, Doc joined Earp and a few other lawmen as they were chasing another group of outlaws called the Cochise County Cowboys. The two groups fought each other in Tombstone, Arizona in a short but deadly 30-second gunfight. Three of the Cowboys were killed and Doc and Earp were wounded. The gunfight eventually came to symbolize the lawless period of the Wild West.As Doc got older, the tuberculosis became worse. He traveled to Colorado to try to get some relief from his illness, hoping that hot springs and sulfur vapors would help. He died in Glenwood Springs in his hotel room on November 8, 1887.

Located next to the Boothill Museum is a statue depicting one of the most famous figures of the American West, John Henry "Doc" Holliday (1851-1887). The statue portrays Holiday sitting at table playing cards with three empty chairs that visitors can sit on. Trained as a dentist, which is how he got his nickname, Holliday was also a skilled gambler, gunfighter, and was a close friend of another famous westerner, U.S. Deputy Marshal Wyatt Earp. Holliday, who was ill-tempered, got into a number of fire fights and is known to have killed at least one or two men. The most famous of these confrontations was the gunfight at O.K. Corral (see below), which occurred on October 26, 1881 in the historic city of Tombstone, Arizona. 

Doc Holliday Statue

The city was the last stop of the railroad before (and after, if traveling east) large areas of undeveloped lands. Passengers and other would find food to eat, buy supplies, and rest here before continuing their journey. The present structure wasn't the first depot built by the AT&amp;SF. After the town was chartered in 1872, the AT&amp;SF helped lay out the town plat and a year later built a larger loading dock/depot structure. The town grew thanks to the thriving Buffalo trade. Once that declined, people turned to cattle raising&nbsp;and then, eventually, farming. The train station also grew to include a roundhouse, rail yards, shops, a hotel, and restaurant.

Originally built in 1896, the Dodge City Station is a striking Richardsonian Romanesque building that is undoubtedly one of the finer structures in the city. It was built by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF). Architect James C. Holland designed it. Today it serves as an Amtrak station for the Southwest Chief train as well as a theater. Cultural, recreational and social events are also held here. For its association with the railroad and architecture, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. 

Dodge City Station

Wyatt Earp was born on March 19, 1848 in Monmouth, Illinois. The fourth of eight children, he grew up in Illinois and Iowa before his family moved to San Bernadino, California in 1864. When he was 17, he started to work for Union Pacific Railroad laying down railroad tracks. He moved back with his family, most of whom had moved to Lamar, Missouri, in 1869. He became constable after his father retired from the position and got married in 1870. Tragically, his wife, who was pregnant at the time, contracted typhus and died.Earp left Lamar for good and never really settled down again. In the coming years, he had a number of run-ins with the law, including being arrested for stealing horses in Arkansas (he managed to escape his jail cell and was never punished). He also worked as a bouncer at various brothels and saloons around the frontier. In the mid-1870s, one of his brothers opened a brothel in Wichita, Kansas. Earp moved there and again worked as a bouncer (he was also arrested a number of times) but later became a part-time police officer. Working as a lawman appealed to him and he became City Marshal of Dodge City in 1876. It was during these years that Earp befriended two other famous western figures, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson.In 1879, Earp, along with Doc Holliday and his brothers Virgil and Morgan, moved to Tombstone, Arizona, where someone had found silver. Unfortunately, the brothers never made it rich and Earp once again became a lawman. In 1881, Earp, his brothers, and Holliday were searching for a band of outlaw cowboys who robbed a stagecoach. They finally met each other on October 26th near an enclosure at the edge of town called the O.K. Corral. During the 30-second gunfight, three of the outlaws were killed and Virgil, Morgan, and Holliday were wounded (Wyatt was uninjured). Later, one of the outlaws wounded Virgil and killing Morgan. In revenge, Earp and a group of others including Holliday chased after the outlaws and killed at least two of them. The stories of these incidents were heard around the country; some condemned Earp and his men but others applauded their efforts to seek justice.In his later years, Earp ran saloons in Nome, Alaska, and in a few places in California including Los Angeles where he and his female companion, Josephine Marcus, settled down. Still in search of recognition and concerned about his legacy, Earp helped author Stuart Lee with the book Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal. Earp passed away on January 13, 1929 before the book was published in 1931. The book, and the subsequent films made portraying his life, did finally bring Earp the recognition he wanted.

This statue depicts one of the most famous historical figures of American Western history, Wyatt Earp (1848-1929), who was a frontiersman, saloonkeeper, gambler, and lawman. He served as a lawman here in Dodge City in the late 1870s. Earp is perhaps best known for participating in what is probably the most famous gunfight in American history—the gunfight at O.K. Corral, which occurred on October 26, 1881 in the historic town of Tombstone, Arizona. The statue depicts Earp walking at a quick pace, looking to the right and holding his revolver in his right hand and holding his hat in his left hand. The political unrest of early Dodge City is the stuff legends are made of, and Wyatt Earp's contributions to frontier justice continues to entertain our collective imagination.

Wyatt Earp Statue

When the U.S. bought the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, the land on which Dodge City would be founded was part of the territory. The southern and western boundaries of the newly acquired territory were not clearly established, however. The issue was not settled until 1819 when Spain and the U.S. signed the Adams-Onis Treaty (1819). They agreed that one corner of the boundary was where the 100th meridian intersected with the Arkansas River, which is located 1.5 miles to the south of the marker. Later, the 100th Meridian was the western boundary of the Osage Indian Reservation. The 100th Meridian also roughly denotes where the boundary is between the dry western half of the country with the wetter, eastern half.

This historical marker commemorates the fact that the 100th Meridian line, the invisible longitude line that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, passes through Dodge City around one mile to the east. The line played an important in the history of the West and symbolizes the where the eastern part of the country ends and where the West begins. The marker is located near to the Wyatt Earp statue.

Historical Marker: The 100th Meridian, Where East Meets West

Sacred Heart Parish was established in 1883. The first Catholic church building, a wood-frame Gothic Revival building, was built a year earlier. Eventually, the growth of the city necessitated a larger Catholic church. Fundraising, led by Father John Handly, began in 1915 and the design process also took some time, with architects Cram and Ferguson spending 7 months on the final design plans since both the exterior and interior of the new building were planned to be detailed and ornate. Finally, the church building was completed in 1916 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Bishop John Hennessy of Wichita dedicated the new church in August 1916. The "impressive and beautiful" service was a major Dodge City event. Father Handly attended, as well as twenty other priests from across western Kansas. The newspaper reported that "a large crowd gathered, including all the Catholics and many non-Catholics of Dodge City; for the most influential citizens of Dodge City are hearty sympathizers with the efforts of the Catholics to build a church."Topeka artist George Melville Stone completed the paintings inside the church. He finished the painting of the crucifixion last. This was also the largest at 27 square feet and cost $1000, worth $27,000 today. This painting and the three smaller ones, depicting the Angels of the Resurrection, the Good Shepherd, and the Good Samaritan, took Stone two months to complete, with the crucifixion painting getting its finishing touches the day after the dedication. In 1951, the diocese of Dodge City was established and Sacred Heart was declared a cathedral. The building still serves as an active Catholic church today and has undergone minimal alterations, remaining in good shape despite its age.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Sacred Heart Cathedral is one of the more striking buildings in Dodge City. Built in 1916, it was designed by Ralph Adams Cram (of Cram and Ferguson, one of the leading architecture firms at the time) in the Mission Revival style, resembling the architecture of the missions that the Spanish established throughout the Southwest. The interior features murals painted by artist George Melville Stone depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Good Samaritan, the Good Sheppard, and the Angles at the Tomb. All of the murals include southwestern desert motifs, flora, and Native American figures. The church is now used as part of the Sacred Heart School; the parish merged with Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2001 to form the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Sacred Heart Cathedral

During the town's first fifteen years of existence, it earned a reputation of having a lawless atmosphere, attracting all sorts of unsavory characters. By 1900, this had changed as the town matured and stabilized. In 1905, a few prominent citizens, along with the local women's club, came together and decided to lead the effort to build a library. It was expanded in 1936 with the help of the Workers Progress Administration. The library operated here until 1970. After that, a restaurant and three private clubs were located here before the building became the art center.&nbsp;

This unique looking building was originally a library and named after philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who donated $7,500 for its construction. It was one of numerous libraries that Carnegie helped build throughout the country beginning in 1881. Built in 1907, its architecture can be characterized the "free eclectic" style, incorporating various classical elements. The two-story dome, with its second-story gallery, is another striking feature of the building. Today, it is now the Carnegie Art Center, which provides space for local artists to present and sell their work.

Carnegie Art Center

Boot Hill is a historic cemetery in Dodge City, known for its graves of those who “died with their boots on” – usually referring to those who died in gunfights or murders, and who had no means or friends to ensure a more respectable gravesite. Most of those buried at Boot Hill were buried without coffins, wearing the clothes which they had died in. The first murder in Dodge City, as recalled by both George M. Hoover and Richard M. Wright, occurred in front of Beatty &amp; Kelley’s Saloon, where a black man named Black Jack, or Tex, was shot by a gambler named Denver. While the exact number of those buried at Boot Hill is disputed, Robert Wright claimed in his memoirs that there were “about thirty persons buried there, all with their boots on and without coffins.” Those bodies were moved to Prairie Grove Cemetery in 1878, and were moved again to Maple Grove Cemetery in 1889, where they remain today.  Soon after the bodies were moved from Boot Hill, began construction there and was completed in 1880. Eager to put these "wicked” times behind them, newspapers such as the Dodge City Times treated this as symbolic of Dodge City’s quick development from lawless frontier to a more civilized community. This schoolhouse was replaced in 1890 by the much larger Third Ward School, which stood until 1927. This larger schoolhouse was replaced by a new municipal building, which still stands today, and is currently occupied by Boot Hill Distillery.

Boot Hill was a cemetery on the highest hill in Dodge City which contained the graves of those who “died with their boots on.” These graves were largely filled by those who died violently and in gunfights. This cemetery was fairly short-lived, and the bodies were moved to Prairie Grove Cemetery in 1878, and then subsequently to Maple Grove Cemetery in 1889. Numerous buildings have been built on Boot Hill since 1878, including two schoolhouses and a city administration building, constructed in 1928. This building still stands today, and currently houses the Boot Hill Distillery.

Dodge City Walking Tour

El Capitan Statue

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources