Charlie Bassett has been overshadowed by his friends Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. But he made some pretty big imprints on his own.
Bassett opened Dodge City’s famed Long Branch Saloon in 1872, when he was just 25. The next year, he was elected the first sheriff of Ford County and was twice reelected. He became Dodge City marshal when Ed Masterson was killed in 1878. He later moved away, but

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus