Where History Happens Vigilant stewards keep the Old West alive in these Top Ten Towns. Since the Manifest Destiny doctrine was expressed in the...
Top 10 True Western Towns of 2022
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Dodge City
The Dodge City Gang
A gang could mean a gang of outlaws or a group of men who ran together such as gamblers. Some people looked upon gamblers as unsavory characters and...
More Favorite Smoke Wagons
Reading the pulp westerns one would conclude that the Colt revolver was the only pistol used in the Old West. Remington built a fine six-shooter and...
Cowboys on the Long Trail
How many 'Cowboys' came though a town like Abilene or Dodge City each season? As you know numbers can be deceiving. For example the number of...
Bringing the Lord to Dodge
Pastor Wright brought a different peace to the Wickedest Town in the West. O.W. Wright decided to bring the Lord to Dodge City. He arrived there in...
The Top Dog
James H. Kelley was a force in Dodge City. James H. “Dog” Kelley was a key player in Dodge City, Kansas in the 1870s. The English-native came to...
Who Was the Dodge City Gang?
The Dodge City “Gang" wasn’t what we think of an outlaw gang like the James Younger Gang. They were euphemistically known as "Luke Short and his...
The Opening and Closing of the Santa Fe Trail 1821-1880, PART 1
The Mexican Revolution ended in 1821 and brought about many changes in foreign policy. Up to then Spain didn’t allow her colonies to trade with the...
Friends Turned Foes A woman came between Loving and Richardson.
Frank Loving and Levi Richardson were friends, often gambling together in Dodge City’s Long Branch Saloon in 1879. But then a woman came...
Trigger-Happy Billy Brooks brought the law and then some to Dodge.
Billy Brooks was a shootist and enforcer in Kansas in the 1870s. In early 1873, businessmen in Dodge City hired him as an unofficial...
Call In The Army The military brought law and order to Dodge.
Dodge City, Kansas was pretty much lawless in 1873. The vigilance committee had gone rogue. On June 3, two members of the group killed the...
Wyatt’s Stallion, the Apache Kid and the Code of the West
What became of Wyatt Earp’s horse, Dick Naylor? How did the term “Code of the West” originate? Did a youngster named Al Smith name Hole in the Wall?