https://youtu.be/2OC8VRjro1k

So we are going back to the Old West, with one iconic city of the west, that being Dodge City, Kansas, and it's still an active city today, so let's talk about its history tied to the old west, from the Westward Expansion Section in Story of America cards.

(What is Dodge City?)

Dodge City, is a City in Kansas United States, named after Fort Dodge, It's one of the Wickedest Cities in the Old west, famous for its American Culture and several TV shows and movies were filmed or set in the city, as of 2020 about 27,778 People live in Dodge City.

(The Wickedest City of America)

About 1872, a town called Dodge City was built along the tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad in southwestern Kansas.

Named for Colonel Henry I. Dodge, formerly the commanding officer at nearby Fort Dodge, the town at first served mainly as a trading post for buffalo hunters, But when it became a railhead on the Santa Fe for the trail herds of longhorn cattle that were driven north from Texas for Shipment to Kansas City, the town began earning its reputation as the "wickedest little city in America".

During the late 1870s and early 1880s, more than 250,000 cattle reached Dodge City's shipping pens each year, and these bawling, wild-eyed longhorns were no wilder than the cowboys who herded them north, (See Cowboys at Work for how it was done).

After months on the trail, riding as much as 18 hours a day, these men were ready for entertainment, and Dodge City saw that they got it, the town's front street was awash with saloons, bawdy houses, and gambling dens.

In an effort to keep streets safe for sober, law-abiding townspeople, the authorities hired several experienced peace officers, one of whom recalled the advice of an old cattleman named Andy Adams about Dodge City.

"Don't ever get the impression that you can ride your house into a saloon, or shoot out the lights in Dodge...You can wear your six-shooters into town, but you'd better leave them at the first place you stop...And when you leave town, call for your pistols, but don't ride out shooting...Most cowboys think it is an infringement of their rights to give up shooting in town...(but) your six-shooters are not match for Winchesters and buckshot, and Dodge's officers are as game a set as ever faced danger".

Among the well-known Dodge City officers were Bat Masterson, and his brothers Jim and Ed, Charles Bassett, Mayor A.B Webster, and William M. Tilghman, who later became famous as a deputy U.S. marshal in Oklahoma Territory.

Men who defied these officers usually died with their boots on and were buried in the town's "Boot Hill" cemetery.

The Wicked days of Dodge City were made famous to millions of 20th century television viewers in a series called Gunsmoke, featuring Sheriff Matt Dillion. The real Dodge City however became a sedate trading center for the region's wheat and livestock farmers, and today its modern city hall stands on the site of the Old Boot Hill Cemetery.

(Ending)

And that is the City of Dodge, coming from the Story of America Cards, I was gonna talk about Gunsmoke but the card beat me 40 years later too it, so I sadly won't talk about it, but if you can access to watching this classic, i recommend it, it's one of the real good western shows, and as Matt Dillon would have said it for the end of this: "Get Out of Dodge".