In his book The Gunfighters, Dale T. Schoenberger states that Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday and Luke Short were known as the “Dodge City Gang.” Why were they called that?
Bob Wood
Hugo, Minnesota
Maniac #451
The “Dodge City Gang” you mention wasn’t really a gang. These sporting men worked in various capacities for the Oriental Saloon in Tombstone, Arizona. All had previously spent time in Dodge City, Kansas, hence the name.
Bat Masterson had already left Tombstone by the time of the famous gunfight behind the O.K. Corral in 1881; Luke Short was out of town that day. But they came together in Kansas in 1883 as the so-called “Dodge City Peace Commission.”
The Dodge City War began when reformer Larry Deger became mayor and passed ordinances against prostitution. As house dealer at the Long Branch, technically a brothel, Short took umbrage when some of his shady ladies were arrested. Short and some other gamblers were escorted out of town.
Short rounded up his pals Wyatt Earp, Masterson and Charlie Bassett, and they took the train to Dodge. Mayor Deger asked the governor to send in the militia, but he got a mediator instead. The mayor backed off. The war was over. And Luke and the boys posed for the famous Dodge City Peace Commission photograph. Not long after, Short and his partner sold the Long Branch.
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