DODGE CITY, THE COWBOY CAPITAL
FOR TEN YEARS THIS WAS THE LARGEST CATTLE MARKET
IN THE WORLD AND FOR FIFTEEN IT WAS THE WILDEST TOWN ON
THE AMERICAN FRONTIER. ESTABLISHED WITH THE COMING OF
THE SANTA FE IN 1872, DODGE CITY BECAME THE SHIPPING
CENTER OF THE SOUTHWEST. THE HUNTERS WHO EXTERMINATED
THE BUFFALO HERE MARKETED SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS WORTH
OF HIDES AND MEAT. HUNDREDS OF WAGON TRAINS CARRIED
SUPPLIES TO WESTERN TOWNS AND ARMY POSTS. BY 1875 MOST
CATTLE TRAILS LED TO DODGE; IN 1884 TEXAS DROVERS ALONE
BROUGHT 106 HERDS NUMBERING 300,000 HEAD. AS A RENDEZ-
VOUS FOR HUNTERS, TRAPPERS, COWBOYS, SOLDIERS, RAILROAD
BUILDERS, BULLWHACKERS, INDIANS, SALOON KEEPERS, DANCE
HALL GIRLS, THUGS AND GAMBLERS, THE TOWN BECAME NOTORIOUS
FOR VICE AND VIOLENCE. NUMEROUS VICTIMS WERE BURIED ON
BOOT HILL. EVENTUALLY LAW WAS ENFORCED BY SUCH "TWO-GUN
MARSHALS AS BAT MASTERSON. WYATT EARP AND BILL TILGHMAN.
NEAR DODGE CITY ARE THE SITES OF OLD FORT MANN
AND FORT ATKINSON. THE SANTA FE TRAIL WHICH THEY WERE
ESTABLISHED TO PROTECT MAY STILL BE TRACED ON THE NEARBY
PRAIRIE.
ERECTED BY
KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION
On the Ashes of my Comp
Greetings from the nation's No.1 City of History and Romance fires was this city built
